Father: Lionel
GARDINER
Mother: Elizabeth
WOODHOUSE
Family 1: Mary DIRKSDOCHTER
DEURCANT
_Stephen GARDINER _
_George GARDINER __|_Margaret GREY ____
_George GARDINER ___|
| | ___________________
| |_Margaret NEVILLE _|___________________
_Lionel GARDINER _____|
| | ___________________
| | ___________________|___________________
| |_Dorothy CONSTABLE _|
| | ___________________
| |___________________|___________________
|
|--Lion GARDINER
|
| ___________________
| ___________________|___________________
| ____________________|
| | | ___________________
| | |___________________|___________________
|_Elizabeth WOODHOUSE _|
| ___________________
| ___________________|___________________
|____________________|
| ___________________
|___________________|___________________
Sources:
Gedcom G968 from www.ancestry.com.
There are many sources and whole books written about Lion. We have info
in the Conkling Family book, and East Hampton as well as a few pages
from
"Lion Gardiner and his Descendents" by Curtiss C. Gardiner, 1890 which
is
in the St. Louis Public Library. Here we will give highlights from
"Famous Families of New York" by Margherita Arlina Hamm.
Lion was born in England and received a more than ordinary education.
In
his early youth he was a dissenter and friend of the Puritans. He was
brave and ambitious. Shortly after coming of age, he volunteered and
joined the English army in Holland. This body of men garrisoned several
towns and were called upon to perform all kinds of military duties.
Here Lion is called "An Engineer and Master of Works of Fortification in
the Leaguers of the Prince of Orange in the Low Countries." This was a
position of high importance which necessitated professional skill and
technical knowledge on the part of the occupant. While in Holland he
was
waited on by "certain eminent Puritans acting for a company of Lords and
gentlemen in England, who approached him with an offer to go to New
England and construct works of fortification and command them.
Eventually he was persuaded by Rev. Hugh Peters, Rev. John Davenport,
and
some other "well affected Englishmen of Rotterdam." He was to have a
salary of one hundred pounds per annum for a term of four years, and
himself and family were to receive transportation and subsistence to the
place of destination. His work was to consist "only in the drawing,
ordering, and making of a city, town and forts of defence under
direction
of John Winthrop, the younger.
He and Mary arrived at Boston in November, 1635. The ship needed
repairs
before proceeding to the Connecticut River, where a fort was to be
constructed. While waiting, he completed a fort on Fort Hill and was
asked to do one in Salem. He visited Salem and returned to Boston to
tell the elders that the people of Salem were in far greater danger of
Starvation than of any "foreign, potent enemy," and recommended that
they
defer fortifications for the present and help the town make a livlihood.
In the spring he went to the mouth of the Connecticut River and built
the
first fort in that part of the country. It was erected on a steep hill
by the riverside and was flanked by salt marshes so only accessible by a
sandy beach from the mainland. The walls were made of square hewn
timber, with palisade and ditch, and the narrow isthmus was protected by
a second palisade. The stonghold was called Saybrooke for Lord Say and
Lord Brooke.
The Pequot, Narragansett, and Mohegan indians were close to the fort.
The indians attacked and Lion was struck by more than twenty arrows.
However, his buff coat preserved him, he had only one injury. The
indians thought he must be dead. Three days later they attacked again.
He promptly appeared at the head of the defenders and fired two great
guns which caused a "great hubbub among them."
When Governor Vane wrote to ask the best way to quell the Pequots,
Gardiner sent an Indian arrow which had killed one of his men with the
head stuck through the man's rib bone. By return ship the Governor sent
twenty more men to reinforce the garrison. Gardiner presented a plan to
attack the Pequots in their stronghold in Mystic. It was approved and
Gardiner, Mason and Underhill led a force of soldiers, Mohegans, and
Narragansetts against them. In one brief hour the Pequots were almost
exterminated. The Narragansetts then demanded tribute of all tribes in
Rhode Island, Connecticut and Long Island. The Montauks of Long Island
declined. Wyandanch, their sachem, made friends with Lion and asked for
his trade and protection. This led to the securing of Gardiner Island.
Lion paid one black dog, one gun, a quantity of powder and shot, some
rum, and a few Dutch blankets. Lion also received a grant from the
royal
government creating a manor and lordship.