Notes
Note for: Jethro Starbuck, 14 DEC 1671 - 12 AUG 1770
Jethro Starbuck is said to have attained the greatest age of anyone
living on Nantucket Island.
Notes
Note for: William Gayer, - 23 JUL 1710
From "The Coffin Saga" (1949) by William Gardner, pg 2.
(Referring to Benjamin Coffin, son of Damaris (Gayer) Coffin): " William
Gayer, his mother's father, was the best educated man on the island of
Nantucket. He was a direct descendent of a king, Edward the first."
Notes
Note for: Nathaniel Starbuck, 1635 - 6 JUN 1719
From "Starbucks All," by James Carlton Starbuck; pg 376.
Nathanial's marriage was the first one on Nantucket and his daughter,
Mary, was the first white child born there. He ran a trading post, where
Indians swapped codfish and feathers (used in mattresses) for cloth,
hooks, buttons, etc. When Ichabod Paddack of Cape Cod introduced whaling
to Nantucket, it was Nathanial who financed the venture. Due to
Nathanial's whaling interests, land holdings, and store profits, he
became one of the wealthiest men--if not THE wealthiest man on the
island. So much public business was conducted at his home that it became
known as "Parliament House." It was also there that Quakerism took root
on Nantucket thanks mostly to the leadership of his wife, whose
importance and fame quite outshone his own not inconsiderable
accomplishments.
Notes
Note for: Nathaniel Starbuck, 8 SEP 1668 - 29 JAN 1753
From "Starbucks All" by James Carlton Starbuck , 1984, pg 376.
This Nathanial(3) was probably the island's first "millionaire' according
to a lengthy serialized-article about him by Robert Leach in the November
1966 issues of the Nantucket "Inquirer and Mirror." Nathanial started
his career as an apprentice blacksmith in Peter Folger's workshop. When
Nathanial (2) provided financing of the whale fishery, Nathanial (3)
supplied the harpoons and other hardware. The son had been named the
clerk of the island's proprietary and Clerk of the Town in 1705
(retaining that office until 1726). He had converted to Quakerism in
1698 and was named in 1708 the first clerk of that religious society's
monthly meeting, a position he continued to hold until 1741. Nathanial
was able to develop the merchantile and whaling interests he inherited
from his father into very profitable enterprises.
Notes
Note for: Edward Starbuck, 16 FEB 1603/04 - 4 DEC 1690
From "Starbucks All," by James Carlton Starbuck, 1984.
Edward was the first Starbuck to settle in what is now the U.S. He came
from Leicestershire, England in 1635, (fifteen years after the Pilgrims
landed at Plymouth Rock). He, his wife, and possibly one or two of their
children (birthdates undetermined) settled in the area now known as
Dover, New Hampshire. There is apparently no information available on
the family's first four years there, but from 1640 on, Edward's name
appears in several official documents. The first is a petition by 25 New
Hampshire residents to the governor of Massachusetts begging him not to
take over control of their colony, but Massachusetts did so anyway in
1641 and kept jurisdiction until 1680. In 1641, Edward sued Hansard
Knollys for slander but the details and outcome have been lost or never
recorded. Twice he was elected deputy (representative) to the
Massachusetts General Court (legislature)--1643 and 1646 (he was fined
for being absent for 3 weeks during the first session). Edward and 2
others were appointed "wearesmen" or official river fishermen for Dover
for life and were required to supply the town and its church from their
catches. In 1647 he was given permission to erect a sawmill and went
into the lumber business with Richard Waldron. For the "great
misdemeanor of professing Anabaptism," Edward was heavily fined. There
was no separation of church and state then, and the Puritans who ran the
colony were intolerant of people like the Anabaptists who refused to
baptize children and insisted on the baptism of adults instead. In 1653,
Edward sold half his timber and water rights to his son-in-law, Peter
Coffin. Edward served on a six-man committee to settle a boundary
dispute between Dover and Kittery (now part of Maine) in 1654. He was
evidently quite argumentative about his religious beliefs for the
Congregational minister swore out a peace bond against him in 1658.
Edward's last official duty in Dover was serving on a coroner's jury that
investigated the accidental death of a man on November 11, 1659. Soon
after that, Edward at the age of 55 went on an exploring trip and met
Thomas Macy, James Coffin, and Isaac Coleman. Together they set off in
an open boat for Nantucket (Indian for "far-away-land"), an island which
lies 18 miles south of Cape Cod, Massachusetts and takes several hours to
reach by motor-powered ferry today. Their remarkable journey has been
immortalized by John Greenleaf Whittier in his narrative poem, "The
Exiles," (which mentions Macy but not Starbuck). They spent the winter
there, and in the spring Edward went back to Dover to fetch his and ten
other families. His two married daughters, Abigail (Starbuck) Coffin and
Sarah (Starbuck) Austin remained in New Hampshire at least for the time
being. Thus began the two-and-a-half centuries long residence of
Starbucks on the island that became after Edward's demise a leading
whaling base until kerosene lamps replaced whale-oil ones in the 1850's.
Edward built a house at the head of Hummock Pond. A deed of land to him
from the Indians is the oldest original Nantucket document in existence.
In 1669, he and Peter Coffin were appointed by the two meeting "to manage
the government among the Indians." Four years later Edward was chosen
one of the town's five selectmen (overseers). He died Apr. 12, 1690
(sic, really December 4) (as recorded in vol. V of Vital Records of
Nantucket Massachusetts to the year 1850).