Gardiners Island

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Gardiners Island

Gardiners Island is a small island in eastern Suffolk County in the U.S. state of New York, located in Gardiners Bay between the two fluke-like peninsulas at the eastern end of Long Island. It is 6 miles long, 3 miles wide and has 27 miles of coastline. The island is the largest privately owned island in the United States, and has been owned by the same family for nearly 400 years.

1 Geography
2 History
3 See also
4 References
5 Further reading
6 External links

[edit] Geography

Gardiners Island from Springs, New York showing the famed white windmill and manor house.

The island is 3,318 acres in size,^[1] approximately 5 square miles (13 km²). It includes more than 1,000 acres (4 km²) of old growth forest and another 1,000 acres (4 km²) of meadows. Many of the buildings date back to the 17th century. In 1989, the island was said to be worth $125 million.^[2]

The island has the largest stand of white oak in the American Northeast. Other trees include swamp maple, wild cherry and birch. The island is home to New York state's largest colony of ospreys, and is one of the few locations in the world where they build their nests on the ground, as there are no natural predators to the osprey on the island.

Its structures include the oldest surviving wood-frame structure in New York state, a carpenter's shed built there in 1639.

[edit] History

[edit] First English Settlement in New York

In 1639, the island was settled by Lion Gardiner from a grant by Charles I as the first colonial English settlement in present-day New York state. The island was originally in its own jurisdiction affiliated with neither New York nor New England. The island has been privately owned for over three hundred years by his descendants, and is the only real estate still intact as part of an original royal grant from the English Crown.

Lion Gardiner reportedly purchased the island in 1639 from the Montaukett Indians for "a large black dog, some powder and shot, and a few Dutch blankets." The Indians called the island Manchonake, while the Gardiners initially called it Isle of Wight. The Montauketts gave Gardiner title at least in part because of his support for them in the Pequot War.

The original 1639 royal patent gave Gardiner the "right to possess the land forever" with the island being declared a proprietary colony with the Gardiners getting the title of Lord of the Manor and thus able to establish laws for the island.

After it was decided that the British rather than Dutch would rule Long Island and that it would be part of New York rather than Connecticut a new patent was issued to Gardiner's son David Gardiner on October 5 1665 by Governor Richard Nicolls.

In 1688 when Govenor Donegan granted the patent formally establishing the East Hampton government, there was an attempt to annex it to East Hampton. However the Gardiners resisted and the governor reaffirmed its special status.^[3]. The island's special status was to continue until after the American Revolution when it was formally annexed to East Hampton.

Gardiner established a plantation on the island for growing corn, wheat, fruit, and tobacco, as well for raising livestock.

[edit] Captain Kidd

The alleged pirate Captain Kidd buried treasure on the island in June 1699. Kidd stopped while sailing to Boston to attempt to clear his name. With the permission of the proprietor Mrs. Gardiner he buried $30,000 in treasure in a ravine between Bostwick's Point and the Manor House. For her troubles he gave her a piece of gold cloth (a piece of which is now at the East Hampton library) that was captured from a Moorish ship off Madagascar as well as a bag of sugar. Kidd warned that if it was not there when he returned he would kill the Gardiner. Kidd was to be tried in Boston and Gardiner was ordered by Governor Bellomont to deliver the treasure as evidence. The booty included gold dust, bars of silver, Spanish dollars, rubies, diamonds, candlesticks, porringers. Gardiner kept one of the diamonds which he gave his daughter. A plaque on the island marks the spot but it is on private property.^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7]

[edit] American Revolution

The current manor house was built in 1774. The Gardiners sided with the colonists during the American Revolution. However a fleet of 13 ships sailed into Cherry Harbor and began a process of foraging the island and its manor house at will and were to turn it into a private hunting preserve. Among the British guests were Henry Clinton and John André. At one point Major Andre and Gardiner son Nathaniel Gardiner, who was a surgeon for the New Hampshire Continental Infranty, exchanged toasts on the island. Gardiner would later be the American surgeon who attended to Andre when he was executed after being caught spying with Benedict Arnold.^[8]

Following the revolution, the island was formally brought under East Hampton town jurisdiction.

[edit] War of 1812

During the War of 1812 a British fleet of seven ships of the line and several smaller frigates anchored in Cherry Harbor and conducted raids on American shipping Long Island Sound. Crews would come ashore for provisions which were purchased at market prices. During one of the British excursions, Americans captured some of the crew. The British came to arrest then Lord of the Manor John Lyon Gardiner. Gardiner, who was a delicate man, adopted the "green room defense" where he stayed in a bed with green curtains surrounded by medicine to make him look feeble. The British not wanting a sick man onboard let him be.^[9]

The British were to bury several personnel on the island. Some of the British fleet that burned Washington assembled in the harbor in 1814.^[10]

Gardiner's supply boats were manned by slaves during the war and this made it easier for them to pass through British lines. Many of the Gardiner slaves were to live in the Freetown (East Hampton), just north of East Hampton (village), New York.^[11]

[edit] Birthplace of First Lady Julia Gardiner Tyler

Julia Gardiner who was to become President John Tyler's First Lady was born on the island in 1820.

[edit] Gardiners Point Lighthouse and Fort Tyler

Gardiners Island windmill

From 1854 to 1894, the island was the site of the Gardiners Island Lighthouse. Most proprietors lived in the island up until 1920, when it was leased and became a hunting preserve.

[edit] Challenges to Private Ownership

Owing to the high cost of upkeep, in 1937 the island was put up for sale but was bought at the last minute by a relative, Sarah Diodati Gardiner, for $400,000. Upon her death in 1953, the island passed in trust to her nephew Robert David Lion Gardiner, and his sister, Alexandra Gardiner Creel.^[2] Their aunt had also set aside a trust fund for upkeep of the island, but it was exhausted by the 1970s.

When Creel died, her rights passed to her daughter, Alexandra Creel Goelet.

The two were to have a highly publicized dispute over ownership and direction of the island.

Gardiner accused Alexandra of wanting to sell and develop the island. She accused him of not paying his share of the estimated $2 million/year upkeep and taxes of the island. Gardiner said he would not oppose ownership by the government or a private conservancy group.^[2]

The case went to court in 1980 and Gardiner was initially barred from visiting the island but in 1992 courts rule he could visit the island (although the Goelets and Gardiner were not on the island at the same time).

Gardiner, who claimed the title "16th Lord of the Manor of Gardiner's Island" and lived in East Hampton, married in 1961 but had no children, leaving him with no heir. In the 1990's, Mr. Gardiner attempted to adopt a middle aged Mississippi businessman, George Gardiner Green, as his "son" ^[2] Green was said to have been a descendent of Lion Gardiner.

Upon Gardiner's death in 2004 ownership totally passed to Alexandra.

The Goelets have offered to place a conservation easement on the island in exchange for a promise from the town of East Hampton to not up-zone the island, change its assessment, or attempt to acquire it by condemnation. East Hampton has granted the easement through 2025. Thereafter the new owners could develop the island. ^[12]

Shortly before Gardiner's death he said:

We have always married into wealth. We've covered all our bets. We were on both sides of the Revolution, and both sides of the Civil War. The Gardiner family always came out on top.^[2]