History of Swansea, Massachusetts, 1667-1917; - citizen hylbom blog

Family Records 159
Cranston's son Thomas married Patience Gardner. He went to sea and
was never heard from. Elizabeth Gardner married Edward Thurston;
Martha married Hezekiah Luther; and Sarah married Samuel Lee, a shipbuilder
at Lee's River in Swansea. I mention these marriages of the first
Gardners of Gardner's Neck, only as showing that from the very first the
family became allied with families widely known in the annals of our early
history.
Samuel Gardner, only son of the purchaser of Gardner's Neck and his
wife Hannah Smith, (b. Dec. 20, 1688 D. Nov. 16, 1768.) daughter of
Philip and Mary Smith, had ten children; six daughters and four sons.
The oldest boy Samuel died young, and his brother born five years later,
was given the name of his deceased brother. This Samuel married Content
Brayton, and they had thirteen children; but it was the third son Peleg,
born Feb. 22, 1719 (1718?) from whom most of the later Gardners who
have lived on Gardner's Neck, take their descent. He became a Lieutenant-Colonel
under the Crown, and was a man of means as his will, a copy of
which I have in my possession, testifies.
This Peleg Gardner married Hannah Sweet of Prudence Island, who
bore him sixteen children:
1. Sarah, b. Mar, 7, 1741, m. Charles Slade.
2. Mary, b. Oct. 11, 1742, m. Job Anthony.
3. Peleg, b. Apr. 2, 1744, m. Lydia Simons.
4. Martha, b. Sept. 20, 1745, m. Elisha Burr.
5. Edward, b. Feb. 19, 1747, m. Elizabeth Brown.
6. James, b. Aug. 27, 1748, m. Prudence Chase.
7. Alexander, b. Mar. 10, 1750, m. Anne Luther.
8. Joseph, b. Aug. 1, 1752, d. June 1, 1753.
9. Joseph, b. Jan. 7, 1754, m. Hannah Slade.
10. John, b. Apr. 24, 1755, m. Betsey Slade.
11. Phebe, b. May 18, 1756, d. Oct. 31, 1792.1
12. Hannah, b. Jan. 11, 1759, m. Philip Luther.
13. Samuel, b. June 15, 1760, m. Avis Sherman.
14. Caleb, b. Sept. 27, 1762, m. Sahary McKoon.
15. Job, b. July 8, 1764, d. Nov. 10, 1787.
16. Parthenia, b. Mar. 16, 1767, m. Job. Luther.
Col. Peleg is said to have been born in the old homestead here on the
Neck; and there these sixteen children grew to man and womanhood. In
1787, the house was enlarged, and the date is to be seen on a brick in the
south side of the west chimney. Two years later, on Aug. 10, 1789, Col.
Peleg died; and his will is so fine an illustration of the way in which, in a
time of little ready money, a man could leave a large estate and give every
heir a proper share, that I read a few extracts from it. It also shows the
disposition made of the homestead to Alexander Gardner, the fourth son,
who was made executor of the estate. Col. Peleg gives to his wife "my
negro boy Pero," showing by this will dated 1789, that when our first
president was inaugurated, slavery still existed in Massachusetts.
It was impossible in the time given for writing this paper, to trace out
the immediate descendants of Col. Peleg Gardner who Uved on the Neck in
the years that followed his death; and I therefore follow only the fines of
which I know, because of my Own descent from them. This Col. Peleg
was my great, great grandfather, and his son Samuel, b. June 15, 1760, who
married Avis Sherman, was my great grandfather. How long he lived in
the old homestead, I do not know; and I found no one who could tell me
when he built the house— which in my childhood was the last one on the
Neck—the second house below the homestead, now occupied by Mr.