The Starbuck Family and The Parliament House
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by Margaret S. Beale THE PRINCIPAL GOAL of this study is to determine if a correlation exists between 10 Pine Street and "Parliament House", a dwelling known as the home of Nathaniel and Mary (Coffin) Starbuck, which was located in the section of Old Sherborn known as Cambridge as ear ly as 1667. According to Nantucket lore, John Folger, a Quaker carpenter, told his grandson, Joseph Austin, that he had incorporated into the house on the corner of Pine and School Streets materials salvaged from "Parliament House".i Building materials have been recycled ever since the town of Sher born was relocated to the Wesco Acre Lots in the 1700's. Accompanying the name "Parliament House", however, is the important historical connection with the Starbuck family and the first Quaker meetings con ducted on the island. Nathaniel and Mary Starbuck's home "Parlia ment House", was an integral part of Nantucket's early history as the locus of governmental, business and religious activity. The first three Starbuck generations provided the early Nantucket settlers with community and spiritual leadership. Edward Starbuck, one of the first purchasers, conducted transactions between the settlers and the Indians. Of him it was written by a contemporary: "He was a man of great firmness and his influence among the Indians was so great that if at any time suspicion or alarm arose among the early settlers he was always in requisition to explain the apparent causes thereof and suggest a palliation for their rude and inexplicable action, which served to allay the fears of the more timid.2 Nathaniel Starbuck, Edward's oldest child, was also greatly respected. Nathaniel's reputation in the settlement, however, was over- shadowed by that of his wife, Mary Coffin Starbuck, a daughter of Tristram Coffin. In his Journal, the Quaker visitor, John Richardson, stated: "Nathaniel appeared to be not a man of Mean Parts, but she (Mary) so far exceeded him in sound ness of Judgement, clearness of Understanding, and elegant way of expressing herself ... that it tended to lessen the Qualifications of her Husband."3
