Historic Nantucket
e Henry Coffin Pump, in the side yard of the home of Mrs. Henry Carlisle.
April 1981 Published Quarterly by Nantucket Historical Association Nantucket, Massachusetts
NANTUCKET HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION Council 1880-1981
Walter Beinecke, Jr. Mrs. Bernard D. Grossman Leroy H. True Albert F. Egan, Jr. Mrs. Arthur Orleans Albert G. Brock Richard C. Austin
Vice Pres. Vice Pres. Vice Pres. Secretary
Donald E. Terry Miss Nancy Ayotte David D. Worth
Chairman vice Chairman President - Chief Executive Officer Alcon Chadwick George W. Jones John N. Welch Edouard A. Stackpole
Vice Pres. Vice Pres. Treasurer Historian
Miss Dorothy Gardner Robert D. Congdon H. Flint Ranney
Mrs. H. Crowell Freeman Renny A. Stackpole, Director of Museums Edouard A. Stackpole, Editor: "Historic Nantucket" Mrs. Merle T. Orleans, Assistant Editor STAFF Oldest House: Curator*Mrs. Kenneth's. Baird; Mrs. Margaret Crowell, Mrs. Abram Niles Hadwen House-Satler Memorial: Curator*Mrs. P. Prime Swain; Mrs. Richard A. Strong, Mrs. John Stackpole, Mrs. Bracebridge H. Young, Mrs. Everett B. Merrithew 1800 House: Mrs. Helen S. Soverino, Mrs. Donald MacGlashan Whaling Museum: Curator'Renny A. Stackpole; Rev. Frank J. Pattison, Manager; James A. Watts, Mrs. William A. Searle, Mrs. Folmer Stanshigh, Mrs. Arthur Collins, Mrs. Robert E. Campbell, Alfred N. Orpin Greater Light: Dr. Selina T. Johnson Peter Foulger Museum: Director*Edouard A. Stackpole; Peter MacGlashan, Asst. Director; Mrs. Reginald F. Hussey, Librarian; Everett F. Finlay, Mrs. Norman A. Barrett, Miss Helen Levins Macy-Christian House: Curator'Mrs. John A. Baldwin; Miss Dorothy Hiller, Mrs. Edouard A. Stackpole Old Goal: Curator'Albert G. Brock Old Mill: Curator'John Gilbert; John A. Stackpole, Miller; Edward G. Dougan, Mrs. Edward G. Dougan Fair Street Museum: Curator: *Albert F. Egan, Jr. Lightship "Nantucket": Curator'John Austin; Richard Swain, Chief Engineer Hose Cart House: Curator Francis W. Pease Archaeology Department: Chairman*Mrs Roger A. Young; Mrs. John D C. Little, Vice Chairman Building Survey Committee: Chairman Robert G. Metters Old Town Office: Curator 'Hugh R. Chace *Ex-officio members of Council
HISTORIC NANTUCKET Published quarterly and devoted to the preservation of Nantucket's antiquity, its famed heritage and its illustrious past as a whaling port.
Volume 28
April 1981
No. 4
Nantucket Historical Association Officers and Staff
2
Editorial - Nantucket - A Marine Sactuary
5
A. Morris Crosby - A Tribute
6
Art on Nantucket by Leroy H. True
7
Nantucket and Pitcairn Islands by Edouard A. Stackpole
9
by Walter Weston Folger
21
by Edwin M. Hall
24
The Gorham Family Nantucket's Natty The Background and Resolution of the Eunice Ross Con.roversy by Kristi Kraemer
27
Historic Nantucket is published and sent to members quarterly by the Nan tucket Historical Association. Extra copies are $1.00 each. Past copies when obtainable, $1.50. Membership dues are - Annual $7.50 payable June 1st; Sustaining $25.00; Life, individual one payment of $100.00, husband and wife $150.00. Second class postage paid in Nantucket, Massachusetts.
Old Chart of Nantucket Sound Now on display at the Peter Foulger Museum, this survey by an island pilot is thought to have been drawn, with notes, by Captain Paul Pinkham, whose chart of Nantucket and the surrounding waters, published in 1791, is the earliest known pilot chart for this area. Date unknown.
5
Nantucket — A Marine Sanctuary UNDER AN ACT of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for 1972, the State, in December 1980, has nominated the central portion of Nantucket Sound as a Marine Sanctuary. In addition this nomination is intended to be a part of the proposed settlement in the case of the United States vs. the Commonwealth, in which both parties claim jurisdiction over this central portion of Nantucket Sound. Under the terms of the Act, known as the Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act, the Secretary of Commerce for the United States, with Presidential Approval, may designate ocean waters as marine sanctuaries. Nantucket Sound has a direct importance to the State in the fishing industry-both commercial and sports fishing. It has a distinct value to the tourist and vacation business, with the regular passage of vessels to the islands of Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard from Hyannis, Woods Hole and other Cape Cod ports. It is an invaluable resource area in that it provides spawning and feeding grounds for fish and wild life in general. Quite aside from the economic and natural advantages, this water area has a definite value esthetically. The naturalist, the vacationist, and the sailing enthusiast may share in the opportunities it so handsomely provides. But the historical background of Nantucket Sound makes it an especially highly significant area for nomination as a marine sanctuary. Following the explorations of the early mariners, it became the major highway for trade along the entire coast, as well as the first waters in which the fishermen made their activities a part of the economic life of the surrounding land. Nantucketers shared in the development of such in dustry, and the very first steamboats in New England were originally a part of our larger maritime history. The American whaling industry found its development here, and the great fleet of Nantucket whaleships made Nantucket Sound its headquarters. Among the first lightships along this section of our New England coast were those, which with the lighthouses, guarded the sea lanes of the Sound. A Marine Sanctuary is a natural for Nantucket Sound.
6
A. Morris Crosby — A Tribute
WITH THE DEATH OF A. Morris Crosby on January 27 1981, a devoted friend of Nantucket and this Association departed as peacefully and as quietly as he lived. A direct descendant of Matthew Crosby, one of the leading whale oil merchants of his time Morris Crosby, as he was known, retired to Nantucket after a successful career as a lawyer in Boston. Always interested in preserving the quality of the Island, he was a vigorous proponent of these values from the time he first came to the Island as a child, and when he decided to make this town his permanent home in 1952, his devotion was strengthened. He lived a long and useful life, the end coming in his ninety-first year, and his interest in local affairs continued until his death. He accepted the position of Editor of Historic Nantucket in July, 1962, and continued in that capacity through July, 1969, when he asked to be relieved of his duties. During these eight years he displayed a keen interest in the present as well as the past. The quarterly improved throughout his tenure. A. Morris Crosby was a kind and thoughtful man. His record as a citizen is a strong one, and his loyalty to Nantucket was never questioned. The Nantucket Historical Association was enriched by his participation in its affairs. To Mrs. Beatrice Crosby, his widow and only close survivor, the officers and friends of this Association extend their sincere sympathy. The high respect in which he was held will always serve as a full measure of condolence in her loss.
7
Art on Nantucket THE NEED FOR an in-depth study of the history of early art on the Island and the publication of an illustrated book was felt by the Historical Association and the problems were assayed. Several seemed in surmountable, yet the need persisted, as well as the need for preservation of paintings owned by the Association. The cost of preparing such a book was greater than the Association was in a position to spend but friends agreed to underwrite this, quite a sizable amount. Robert diCurcio was available and competent to do the photography, study, and to write the script. Other people needed to do certain phases of the preparation were found. It has proven to be a bigger and slower task than anticipated, principally because new material kept cropping up of sufficient importance to justify further delay. The third and most difficult problem was to raise the money for such a very expensive publication. Mr. Albert Egan, with enthusiasm, agreed to undertake the tremendous task. Two restrictions were placed on his effort to satisfy the more cautious of the committee. First, that the money collected would be held in escrow until the publication was assured and returned to the subscribers if it failed. Second, that no solicitation would be made of members of the Association unless it was thought that they would be interested in obtaining such a book; not that everyone's help was not wanted; it was and is, but we are determined that no member feel pressured into subscribing to this project. All has gone well so far. Three-quarters of the money has been raised and held for publication. Mr. diCurcio has completed all the photography and the script for two of the chapters. The publisher, reputed to be the best in this field, has been selected. He has a full schedule which will cause some delay but we feel he is so good we must wait our turn, rather than go elsewhere. Two things are needed at this time: patience by those who have already subscribed, and a few more subscribers. If you are interested and want to help, or know of someone who should be contacted, let us send you or them a prospectus. To have your name or a friend's name inscribed in the dedication page, one must do this soon. Leroy H. True
Nantucket and Pitcairn Islands
9
By Edouard A. Stackpole A RELATIVELY SHORT article in a magazine recently served to remind those interested in maritime history that two islands, widely separated, Nantucket in the Atlantic, and Pitcairn in the Pacific,have an unusually close connection. The article recalled that a shipwreck which had occurred one hundred years ago, at Ducie Island in the Pacific Ocean, found two survivors being taken to nearby Pitcairn Island, where they subsequently made their home. These men were Lincoln Clark and Philip Folger, the latter from Nantucket. Their lives became more closely connected when Clark's son, Roy F Clark, married Coffin's daughter, Hyacinth May Coffin. Last year Roy P. Clark died on Pitcairn, where he had first served as a school teacher but had become known to the outside world as the "Postmaster of Pitcairn," corresponding with stamp collectors. Pitcairn had issued its first stamp in 1940. The home in which Clark lived on the island was depicted on a 1968 issue. It was the oldest house on Pitcairn, o n c e t h e h o m e of T h u r s d a y O c t o b e r C h r i s t i a n , t h e s o n of t h e B o u n t y ' s chief mutineer, Fletcher Christian. The association of Nantucket and Pitcairn islands is an unusual one. Probably no other true story of the sea has commanded the continued interest of writers as that of the mutiny on the Bounty and the castaways of. Pitcairn. Nantucket has had several connections with the lives of the descendants of the mutineers, and one of the most significant of these is contained in the logbook record of the ship Topaz, of Boston, com manded by Captain Mayhew Folger, of Nantucket. The account was written by Captain Folger on February 8, 1808, nearly a year after the ship had sailed. Pitcairn Island was unlike its neighbors (those nearest to this remote outpost in the Pacific) in that it was not of coral formation, but of volcanic o r i g i n . I t h a d b e e n d i s c o v e r e d b y C a p t a i n C a r t e r e t , of H . M . S . S w a l l o w , and named for the young midshipman who had first sighted it. Being far removed from the travelled lanes of the ships, uninhabited, and difficult of approach for landing, it had been more or less ignored by navigators. The mutiny on the Bounty, led by Fletcher Christian, had taken place in April, 1789, while the ship was bound to the West Indies from Tahiti, with a cargo of young breadfruit trees. The ship's commander, Lieut.
10
HISTORIC NANTUCKET
William Bligh, had been set adrift in the long-boat, with eighteen of his faithful men, and Christian, in charge of the ship, sailed away. The mutineers sailed back to Tahiti, where some of them decided to remain, while Christian, with eight of his shipmates, six Tahitian men, and twelve native women, took the ship and sailed off into the unknown Pacific. The Bounty and her complement were never seen again by any vessel sailing the great South Seas. Whether Fletcher Christian had any knowledge of Pitcairn's location is not known, but of all the islands which would serve as a perfect hideaway at this time he found this spot in the South Pacific to be that place. Soon after sighting the island, the mutineers ran the ship ashore at a place afterwards called Bounty Bay, where she was set afire and destroyed. This was in the year 1790, and when the facts of the mutiny itself reached England the mutineers were already hidden away, having been for several months on Pitcairn. Although the Admiralty launched an extensive search for the Bounty nothing was ever learned of her mysterious disappearance. She had vanished - and with her the crew of mutineers. It was, therefore, some eighteen years later that the T o p a z arrived, dropped her boat over the side and Captain Mayhew Folger steered for the high cliffs o f Pitcairn, completely unaware of the fact that he was to be the man who would solve the mystery of what had happened to the Bounty and her mutinous crew. No more dramatic an account of that incident may be given than the words which Captain Folger wrote in his logbook. Now the prized possession of the Nantucket Historical Association, presented by the grandson of Captain Mayhew Folger, the entry reads:
Sat. Feb. 6, 1808.—First part light airs at East. Steering by S 'AS by compass. At Vz past 1 p.m., saw land bearing SW by W 'AW. Steered for the land with a light breeze at East, the said land being Pitcairn Island, discovered in 1767 by Captain Carteret. At 2 a.m., the Isle bore South 2 leagues dis. Lay off and looked for Seals. On approaching the shore saw a smoke on the land at which I was very much surprised, it being represented by Captain Carteret as destitute of Inhabitants. On approaching still nearer the land I discovered a Boat paddling toward me with 3 men in her. On approaching her they hailed in the english language, asked who was Captain of the ship, and offered me a couple of cocoanuts which they had
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Captain Mayhew Folger's logbook page describing the solving of the Bounty mystery, February 8, 1808.
HISTORIC NANTUCKET
brought off as a present, and requested I would land, there being as they said a white man on shore. I went on shore and found there an Englishman by the name of Alexander Smith, the only person remaining out of the nine that escaped on board the Ship Bounty, Captain Bligh, under the command of that arch mutineer Christian. Smith informed me that after putting Capt. Bligh in the long boat and sending her adrift their commander—Christian, proceeded to Otaheite,where all the mutineers chose to stop, except Christian himself and seven others. They all took wives at Otaheite and six men as servants, and proceeded to Pitcairn Island, where they landed all their goods and Chattels, ran the ship Bounty on shore, and Broke her up which took place as near as he could recollect in 1790, soon after which one of their party ran mad and drowned himself, another died with fever, and after they had remained about 4 years on the Island their men servants rose upon and killed Six of them, Leaving only Smith alive and he desperately wounded with a pistol Ball on the neck, however he and the widows of the deceased arose and put all the Servants to death which left him the only Surviving man on the Island, with 8 or 9 women and Several Small Children. He immediately went to work tilling the ground so that it now produced plenty for them all and he lives very comfortably as Commander in Chief of Pitcairn's Island, all the Children of the deceased mutineers speak tolerable English, some of them are grown to size of men and women and to do them Justice I think them a very human & hospitable people, and whatever may have been the crimes of Smith the Mutineer in times Back he is at present in my opinion a worthy man and may be useful to Navigators who Traverse this, immense ocean. Such is the history of Christian & his ancestors. Be it remembered that the Island is scantily Supplied with fresh Water so that it is impossible to a Ship to get a Supply. I place it in Lat 25 degrees 2' South, and 130 degrees West Log., from my last luna observation. Sunday, 7th of Feb.—Light airs from the Eastward and very hot the ship laying off and on. I tarried on shore with the Friendly Smith and his truly good people until 4 p.m., then left them and went on b'd and made sail Steering S E and S E by E Bound for Massafeura having received from the people on Shore some hogs, cocoanuts and plantains. At noon the Isle Bore NW by N by compass 24' do. Lat by do 25 degrees 31' S. Long, by 129 degrees 41'W.
A whale ship hove to and lowering a boat for a visit.
NANTUCKET and PITCAIRN ISLANDS 17 inhabitants sixty-six, an increase of fifteen since Captain Arthur's visit. In February, 1851, Matthew McCoy, on Pitcairn, wrote that the population of Pitcairn numbered 160, of which 82 were females and 78 were males. His letter included the fact that his brother William had died, "and so did the old Bounty woman Susannah." This marked the end of the original settlers from the Bounty. He also mentioned that the wife of Captain George Palmer, of Nantucket, who had embarked with ther husband on the Navigator, had been brought ashore at Pitcairn, where she died in September, 1850. He also wrote: "Mrs. Grant is still among us and the little boy which was born on the 24th of December..." The boy was the son of Captain and Mrs. Charles Grant, of the whaleship Potomac, of Nantucket. Captain Grant had sent his wife ashore to await the birth of the child while he continued his voyage, and then returned for them. The McCoy letter also mentioned that a vessel from New Zealand, bound for California, had stopped to allow five passengers to go ashore for a visit. But a storm had driven the ship out to sea, temporarily aban doning the visitors. While awaiting the vessel's return, the passengers offered to teach the islanders music, but the time of the stay was too short, "and how far they succeeded in teaching us music we leave our listeners to judge."
One of the most informative accounts of a visit to Pitcairn is con tained in the logbook of the Nantucket whaleship Three Brothers on August 20, 1847, and was written by Captain Joseph Mitchell, 2nd. This was Captain Mitchell's second voyage on this ship, owned by Joseph Starbuck and named for his three sons, then occupying the three brick houses he had built for them on Main Street. It was an important sum mary of a visit by a keen observer, and it is preserved in the ship's log, just as it was originally written. Having hove to for a few hours, Captain Mitchell left his ship in a boat manned by the islanders, who brought him safely to shore, displaying the skill in boat-handling which characterized them. At this landing he met George Adams, son of John Adams, the last surviving mutineer (whose true name was Alexander Smith), and was escorted by Adams. During the day, Captain Mitchell listened carefully to the story of the mutineers on Pitcairn as related by Adams. It was a highly significant account, and it is fully recorded by Captain Mitchell in his logbook, as follows:
18
HISTORIC NANTUCKET
"After taking possession of the ship the mutineers put all those they did not want in the long boat but Capt. Bligh, who was kept until last. Then Christian, the head mutineer, says: 'Come, Capt. Bligh, your officers and men are now in the boat, and you must go with them. If you attempt to make the least resistance, you will instantly be put to death.' "It appears, from what I can learn, that Captain Bligh was a proud, haughty, tyrannical man, abused his officers very shamefully. One morning, missing a cocoanut, he abused his officers, called them thieves, especially Christian, who took it to heart so much he was about to destroy himself, but was advised to the contrary by one of his companions, and finally took possession of the ship.
'It appears that Christian thought that they (in the boat) would land on an island that was nearby when he put them in the boat. They did so or undertook to, and had one of their number stoned to death, and left, and proceeded to Timor, a distance of 3,618 miles. The island that they stopped at, where they had one killed, was Tofoa, one of the Friendly Islands. I shouldn't call them friendly. "After setting the boat adrift, the Bounty proceeded to the Society Islands at Tobouai, and undertook to settle, but the natives opposed it spiritedly. Then Christian, for it all seemed to be headed by him, went to Otaheite with the Bounty and left those who wanted to stay. Those who went in the ship all took wives with them, calculating to go to some island and settle. They also had some of the natives of Otaheite and they had wives also. They took yams, potatoes, cocoanuts and hogs. "Christian, Young and Mills were the officers; John Adams, Matthew Quintal, William McCoy, John Williams and Isaac Martin, seamen, with some of the natives. They set sail from Otaheite, no one but Christian knowing where, but they soon landed on Pitcairn's Island. The ship was set afire by Matthew Quintal, a desperate character. I suppose he felt guilty and was afraid of being discovered. "A short time from that, Williams lost his wife and wanted one of the Tahitian men's wives, but he, of course, would not consent to that. The others wanted Williams to wait and have
NANTUCKET and PITCAIRN ISLANDS McCoy's daughter, when she was old enough, but Williams would not consent to that. So, to prevent quarrels, they agreed to destroy the husband of the woman called Nancy, but he suspecting it secreted himself on the west side of the Island. They found his hiding place, and his wife carried him food with poison in it (a bad woman), but he would not eat unless she would. Of course, she would not. She next went with a Tahitian armed with a pistol but he missed fire. A scuffle ensued, and the husband of Nancy fell. She took a stick to beat him with, and, on seeing this, he said, 'I shall contend no longer since you are against me.' They killed the unfortunate man, and Nancy became the wife of Williams.
"But the work of death had now commenced, and it very soon terminated in the death of all but one of the mutineers. They were very cruel and treated the Tahitians as slaves. The Tahitians meditated, and having the use of their masters' firearms to shoot hogs, they practiced shooting at marks, and were soon tolerably good marksmen. They commenced the work of death, and Christian was the first to fall a victim to their revenge. Mills was next to be killed. They asked him if he would like to see how they killed hogs. He told them 'Yes.' They fired twice at him and killed him. They wounded John Adams, who fled from them. They told him that if he would come back they would not hurt him nor trouble him. "Young, it appears, knew about the plot. He was sick with asthma at the time. McCoy and Quintal fled and secreted themselves in the woods. The Tahitians soon became jealous of each other and began fighting among themselves, and all but two were killed. They were friends of McCoy and Quintal and went to persuade them to leave their hiding places, but they would not come out until they had seen the arm of one of their greatest enemies. When the Tahitians carried this to them, McCoy and Quintal came out of hiding. "There now remained on the island, Young, Adams, McCoy and Quintal, of the mutineers, two Tahitian men, and seven women. The whites were determined to kill the Tahitian men. The first of the two native men, while sleeping with his favorite woman, was killed by another female with an axe at a signal agreed upon. At the same time, Young shot the other. Thus were all the Tahitian men destroyed.
20
HISTORIC NANTUCKET
"Now the remaining mutineers only had themselves and the women remaining on the island. They made rum out of a root by distilling it, and met at each other's house to drink. They soon began quarreling among themselves. Quintal threatened to kill the others and their children. They killed him while he was drunk. McCoy took things so much to heart that he tied a stone to his neck and drowned himself. Young died of con sumption, which left only John Adams and the women, with about nineteen children. "So we see, after they had gotten to where they could live comfortably they would not, but fought, until nearly all were destroyed. But they were more like devils than men. "As near as I could learn, when John Adams was left alone, to reflect upon his past conduct, he began to mend, and looked forward to the time when he should be brought to an account for his conduct. I believe he repented, and lived a different life, and brought the children up in a good way." One of the finest models of H.M.S. B o u n t y is on display at the Peter Foulger Museum. It was the work of Gordon A. Meader, and was presented to the Nantucket Historical Association four years ago by Mrs. Meader, who remarked at the time that her husband had spent three years carefully building the model. The original plans were obtained from the National Maritime Museum, at Greenwich, England. The Bounty was not a Royal Navy vessel originally, but a collier, but had been selected for the voyage under Captain Bligh because of the durable character of her construction. Close by is a photograph of a portrait of Captain Mayhew Folger, and a print of Pitcairn Island. Admiral William Mayhew Folger, whose gift made possible the erection of the Peter Foulger Museum, was a grandson of Captain Mayhew Folger. The story of remote Pitcairn and the Nantucket whalemen is a distinct part of the history of both ships and men of these two seafaring places, linked together by the adventuresome v o y a g e of H . M . S . B o u n t y .
21
The Gorham Family By Walter Weston Folger IT IS SAID THAT the De Gorram family originated at la Tanniere in Maine, an old province of France, and that the emigrant, Geoffrey, Abbot of St. Albans, son of Ralph, settled in Hertfordshire in 1100 and about 1130 granted land at Westwick, afterwards called Gorhambury, near St. Albans, to a member of the family. A branch of the family settled at Stapleford, Leicestershire, before 1199, and another in co. Norfolk by 1471. Capt. John Gorham's branch of the family established itself in Northamptonshire and had property at Flore and Cranesley in 1202. * Geoffrey de Gorham had two brothers, William and Henry. William was the father of Robert, Abbot of St. Albans in 1151 to 1166, Jahel, Ralph, and Geoffrey. Geoffrey's son, Sir Henry, was lord of Westwick and the father of Sir William I, who died about 1230. Sir William had by his wife, Cecelia de Sandford, governess of Joanna, sister of King Henry III (1216-1272), a son, William II. He was the father of Sir Hugh, born about 1250 and died in 1325.2 Sir Hugh de Gorham did homage to the Abbot of Peterborough for lands in Churchfield, Oundle, Stokes, and Warmington, in 1289, which he had acquired by marriage to an heiress, Margery, daughter of William Angevin who incurred forfeiture in the Barons' War by supporting Simon de Montford, Earl of Leicester. In 1312, Sir Hugh and his wife had given the reversion of their estate to their son, William III and his wife, Isabel, who sold the manor of Churchfield in 1332.3 They had two other sons, Nicholas and Thomas?2 The family next appears in the latter part of the sixteenth century in the neighboring villages of Benefield, Glapthorne and King's Cliff and dispersed into Huntingdonshire.! The John Gorham whose birth was registered at Glapthorne 30 August 1635 was believed to have been the one who migrated to St. Neot's, Huntingdonshire. He first appears there at the birth of his son John in 1671. The former was a son of John Gorham and Jane and greatgrandson of John Gorham of Glapthorne, whose will, dated 11 May 1588, mentions his wife, Elner, (Eleanor) and sons Francis, William, Matthewe, and John.4 This is the branch of the family whose coat-of-arms is in James Fairbairn's Book of Crests (Volume 1, page 185) and may well be the one to which reference is made in Col. John Gorham's "Wast Book". 5
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HISTORIC NANTUCKET
The will of Richard Gorham of Glapthorne, dated 16 September 1513, the first of record in Northamptonshire, mentions wife Margery and sons John the younger, John the older and Richard. Humphrey Gorram of Glapthorne, husbandman, in his will, dated 31 May 1569, mentions wife Agnes and sons James, Matthewe, John, Ralfe (shall have my said house with all the appurtenances thereto belonging...accordinge to the will and mynd of his grandfather). It may be significant, therefore, that the Precepts to the Sheriff contain the following entry: "Humpridum Gorram de Benefield date iiij Carolie Regis" (1627-28). Still another will, that of John Gorhame of Glapthori\e, dated in October 1617, mentions sons John (under 14) and James, also a brother, ffrancis.4 One account has it that "He (William III) appears again with Gorhams of Glassthorne (sic) and of Benefield both within a mile of Churchland." This account, without saying so specifically, indicates that James, son of John and Elner, was the father of Ralph of Benefield. 2 Following are the entries in the Benefield Parish registers recently ob tained from the present rector, Rev. W.G.D. Watts, concerning Capt. John Gorham.5 (174) 1. JAMES GORHAM 'Mariages 1572 James Gorham & Agnes Bennyngton were maryed the xxvth. daye of November in the same yere.' 'Buryalls 1575 'Jacobus Gorham sepultus xix die February eodem anno.' There is no record of his baptism, the first entries in the register being for 1570 2. RALPH GORHAM. I can find no entry of this name but I have found the following entry which may be of interest to you:'Christeninges 1575 'Audulphus Gorham baptizata erat xxx die Septembyr eodem Anno.' The writing in these early registers is very ornate and sometimes difficult to read. So far as I can make out, 'Audulphus' is the correct reading of the entry.* 3. JOHN GORHAM. 'Christenings 1620 John Gorram sonne of Ralph Gorram baptd Jan: 28.'
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Nantucket's Natty By Edwin M. Hall IF, IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, a literate person were asked who Nantucket's best-known fictional whaleman was, he would obviously name Melville's Captain Ahab. In the preceding century, however, the choice would have required more thought. In those days James Fenimore Cooper's fame rode high and Herman Melville's fairly low; our literate friend might well have named Long Tom Coffin of Cooper's The Pilot. Admittedly, Long Tom is in the Revolutionary navy throughout the book, or at least until his death. But he is a whaleman nevertheless. He has served in whalers; he carries a harpoon with him; and, during the story, he actually harpoons and kills a whale from one of his ship's boats. (In case Melville addicts are wondering. Long Tom didn't need a lance on this occasion, but he had rigged one, using a bayonet.) 1 Long Tom had been born at sea, as his mother's ship was crossing Nantucket Shoals.2 He stood almost six feet six 3 and was about fifty years old.4 He "often prayed,....standing, and in silence."5 When he was amused, there was a "paroxysm of his low, spiritless laughter," 6 a quiet sort of laugh which he shared with Cooper's more famous hero, Natty Bumppo or Leather-Stocking. It is the purpose of this paper to suggest that this Nantucketer, who has a larger-than-life aura about him, was, to a considerable extent, the original of Natty Bumppo (also known as Leather-Stocking, Hawkeye, the Trapper, the Pathfinder, and Deerslayer). Chronologically, I must admit, Natty appeared first. He is in Cooper's third novel, The Pioneers. Long Tom is in Cooper's fourth novel. Nevertheless, I submit two pieces of evidence. The first is in James Russell Lowell's "Fable for Critics." After making fun of Cooper's characters, Lowell concedes; He has drawn you one character, though, that is new, One wildflower he's plucked that is wet with the dew Of this fresh Western world, and, the thing not to mince, He's done naught but copy it ill ever since.
NANTUCKET'S NATTY His Indians, with proper respect be it said, Are just Natty Bumppo daubed over with red, And his very Long Toms are the same useful Nat Rigged up in duck pants and a sou'wester hat (Though once in a Coffin, a good chance was found To have slipped the old fellow away underground).
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The second piece of evidence is from Carl Van Doren's article on Cooper in the Dictionary of American Biography: The Pioneers (1823) owes more of its continued fame to its connection with the Leather-Stocking series than to its individual merits. Cooper had not yet imagined Natty Bumppo and Chingachgook to the plane of romantic elevation on which they were subsequently to move. He regarded them as picturesque figures rather than as universal symbols...The Leather-Stocking Tales... re veal the unfolding character of Natty Bumppo without serious discrepancies, though The Pioneers remains the weakest link in the chain...The later novels in the series did more than transcribe; they transmuted. Now, if we accept the statements of both Lowell and Van Doren, the implication is clear: that Long Tom is the first successful "transmutation" of the character that later became Natty Bumppo. Therefore Natty had Nantucket origins. Q.E.D. The fact is rather ironic because Cooper tended to dislike New England, probably because of his expulsion from Yale. For a forceful and effective ending, this is where the article should stop. But one embarrassing question demands an answer. How much did Cooper know about Nantucket? The answer is probably very little. He did know something about Nantucketfamily names. When one of the girls in the story is startled at Long Tom's last name, he says, "Ay, Coffin....'tis a solemn word, but it's a word that passes over the shoals, among the islands, and along the cape, oftener than any other. My father was a Coffin, and my mother was a Joy; and the two names can count more flukes than all the rest in the island together; though the Worths, and the Gar'ners, and the Swaines, dart better harpoons, and set truer lances, than any men who come from the weatherside of the Atlantic."7 That's about all the local knowledge that Cooper displays, however.
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HISTORIC NANTUCKET
Did he ever set foot on the island? Probably not* although he and his close friend, the future Rear Admiral William Branford Shubrick, talked about making such a trip in 1823 before the book was published. (It actually came out in January, 1824).8 At some time late in 1823 Cooper visited Shubrick in Charlestown, Massachusetts.9 Just possibly they went to Nantucket at that time. Nevertheless, Nantucket can be proud of Long Tom. A critic wrote of Cooper, "He knows the sea and he knows the men... .Long Tom Coffin is a monumental seaman with the individuality of life and the significance of a type."10 That critic, a former sea-captain,was named Joseph Conrad. *But neither had Melville when he wrote Moby-Dick.
Footnotes 1. James Fenimore Cooper, The Pilot'. A Tale of the Sea (New York: Hurd and Houghton, 1865), p. 214. 2.Ibid., p. 209 3. Ibid., p. 19 4.Ibid., p. 272 5.Ibid., p. 330. 6. Ibid., p. 309 7. Ibid., p. 298 8.James F. Beard, ed., The Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper, 6 v. (Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1960-1968) I, 104-105, footnotes 1 and 7 9.Beard, Cooper to Shubrick, c. 30 January 1824,1, 109-112 10. Joseph Conrad, "Tales of the Sea," in Notes on Life and Letters (London and Toronto! Dent, 1949), pp. 55-56
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The Background and Resolution of the Eunice Ross Controversy by Kristi Kraemer NANTUCKET, LONG KNOWN for its anti-slavery attitudes and acceptance of blacks as part of the community, was under stress during the mid-1840's that controversey raged over whether or not to allow Eunice Ross, a black girl, to enter the only high school on the island, which had, theretofore, been attended only by whites. The Quakers were the majority in Nantucket, and, while they had a history of fighting against the establishment and expansion of public schools, they had also been the first religious group in America to publicly decry slavery and had endeavored not only to help free slaves, but to accept blacks into their community, according them full rights as citizens. There had been an established Black community in Nantucket, which included people from all walks of life and a variety of origins. It was a "separate but accepted" community, sharing its people and skills freely with the whites and en joying rights accorded blacks few places in the United States. An equilibrium had been reached. At the time of the Eunice Ross controversey, however, the Quakers and Nantucket itself were facing attacks from without and within on basic religious and economic issues, and were splintered and fragmented in their attitudes and approaches to the problem. Unlike the Puritans, who believed that all men were sinners and could be saved by strict adherence to acomplex mixture of Biblical law and clerical rule, the Quakers believed that each individual had a divine communication with God and, through individual meditation and prayer, could ascertain for himself the proper modes of behavior, speech, and life. The Puritans believed in hard work, a strong clergy and the Bible. The Quakers agreed only with the concept of hard work, feeling that by having an established clergy, there was an implication that some men were more in favor with God than others, which did not fit with their belief that all men were equal and at one with the Divine. Because of this belief, they also used the Bible only as a last resort in solving problems, preferring instead to trust the Inner Light that burns in all men. Thus was the Quaker tradition established on Nantucket, and a
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HISTORIC NANTUCKET
society flourished which accepted all men as equally Divine. There was no established clergy on the island for many years, and social distinctions were shunned, replaced by simplicity of dress and behavior and an ac ceptance of all men as part of the community. The Quakers believed strongly in education as a way of enhancing the Inner Light, and moved early on to find teachers for their children. Because they recognized the corruptive influence of materialism and other systems of more prescriptive religion, however, they preferred to have their children taught by members of their own faith and protected from "the World's people" until such time as they learned to trust their own consciences. The schools that were established, therefore, were of a private nature, where teachers were sought and hired for the students that were in need of education. The first recorded schoolmaster on the island was one Eleazer Folger, who was hired in 1716, but only stayed in that position for one year. This is not to say that there was no education going on. Indeed, there was. It was going on in homes, where, in many cases, each student paid a penny per day to a teacher to learn lessons. There was also, around 1725, a school established by Timothy White, the minister of the Congregational church. There were even some "Fragment Schools," charity schools established and maintained by the Quakers for those who could not otherwise afford an education. One man, Benjamin Coffin, a Quaker, was a teacher from 1740 until his death, and is recorded to have taught over 1,500 students, both from paying and non-paying families, both black and white. The people of the island, therefore, felt that education was being adequately provided by existant means and felt justified in ignoring the 1647 Massachusetts law which required that, for every town of fifty households, money must be put aside for the establishment of a public schoolhouse and teacher. Between the private schools and charity schools education was, it was felt, going on in Nantucket, and the Quakers were able to maintain the desired control over the education of their own children. This was the situation until 1818, when, under pressure from some new immigrants from the mainland who were used to having public schools available, a Committee of Inquiry was established to see if, in deed, education was as available to all students as the Quakers main tained. It was found that it was not. There were found to be over three hundred destitute, illiterate children on the island and, after the threat of a legal suit to be made in the Massachusetts courts against the town
EUNICE ROSS CONTROVERSY fathers of Nantucket, public schools were established in 1827.
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Within a few years, along with other schools on the island, the African school which had previously been established by the black community in 1827 was receiving public funds. By 1854, there were twelve public schools on the island, serving approximately twelve hun dred students, with one high school. There was also a number of private and parochial schools flourishing, including the Coffin school, established in 1827 by Sir Isaac Coffin for-the descendants of Tristram Coffin, an Academy on Academy Hill which had been established in 1800 and various church-sponsored schools, many of which were Quaker, still trying to retain control over their children's education as well as protection from the corruptive influences of the world's children. Although the Quakers fought the establishment of the public schools, they had long believed in the availability of education for everyone, without regard to color and had tried, in their private way, to provide it. This was in keeping with their belief in the equality of all men. As early as 1716, the Nantucket Quakers, spurred by the horror stories of the slave trade by deep water mariners, had publicly condemned slavery as an institution and preferred, instead, to see slaves as indentured servants, to be freed and paid after a number of years of service and training. This was echoed in the "Testament Against That Anti-Christian Practice of Making Slaves of Men," written by Elihu Coleman in 1729-30 and published and distributed by the Society of Friends in 1733. Coleman, a Nantucketer, cited George Fox and Robert Barclay in his diatribe against slavery, declaring it to be against all the basic tenets of the Quaker faith. It was violent, said Coleman, stating that only oppressors enslave their fellow man and violence in any form was to be condemned as contrary to the respect for all men. It was also contrary to the idea of equality, so basic to the Quaker faith, and it denied the excercise of the free will given all men by their creator.
Like earlier men taking this position, Coleman recommended that slaves be freed after a number of years, when they had repaid their debts of immigration and transportation of their owners and were trained in such skills as to be able to function as free people in a free society. At such time, Coleman recommended that they be paid some for their services and accepted as part of the community. In 1770, all the slaves in Nantucket were freed after William Rotch, who owned the whaling ship, "Friendship," paid a salary to a black whaleman named "Boston," just as he would to any other crew member
Captain Absalom Boston, of Nantucket, first black shipmaster.
EUNICE ROSS CONTROVERSY
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who had been a hand on the voyage. The difference was thai Boston was a slave, and Boston's owner, John Swain, sued for the recovery of the money belonging to him as the man's owner and for the return of Boston to him as a slave. The case was taken to the Court of Common Pleas, where the jury granted manumission to Boston and, soon after, most of the slaves on the island were freed. Evidence through wills suggests that there had been blacks on Nantucket during the 1600's, at least as slaves, and that there had been a small community of free blacks as early as 1710 1 By 1800, itwas a community which included approximately 10 percent of the population of Nantucket and, by 1820, there were at least two stores, two churches, a meeting house/dance hall, a school, a cemetery and 274 residents in the black section of town.2 "New Guinea," as it was more commonly called, was located at the south end of Pleasant Street, and was, at one time, divided into two areas: the older area, "Guinea," which was bordered by Orange Street, Silver Street and Pleasant Street, and "New Guinea," where the blacks remained through the nineteenth century, which was centered around the now five corner intersection of York, Pleasant, Atlantic, and West York Streets.3 Originally, this latter area had been a .sheep grazing area. The residents of New Guinea were from a variety of origins; besides the manumitted former slaves of Nantucket, some were escaped slaves from the mainland United States who had found Quaker attitudes and protection afforded them the opportunity to live as free people. Others were freemen from the mainland who found that, on Nantucket, they had rights, such as voting and land ownership, not commonly accorded them elsewhere. Still others were new immigrants to the U.S., whalemen who had signed aboard the whaleships traveling along the Guinea coast and the Azores and Cape deVerde Islands. Like their origins, the population was as diverse as any group to be found in any small community. While a diverse community, like that of the whites, it was, basically, a separate and parallel community, having its own institutions. It was not, however, an isolated community. After the "Boston incident," where William Rotch had paid a black the same as a white crewman aboard a whaleship, it was quite common that racially mixed crews shipped together. Many were the black crewmen who advanced to the positions of boatsteerers and mates and one, Absolom Boston, grandson of the original Boston, even became captain of a whaleship which had an allblack crew.
(To be continued)
Old House on Quince Street
