George Gardiner (c1650-1724) (52 Ancestors 2020 Week 47) Theme: "Good Deeds"

"Deed" can have a couple of distinct meanings: first, as an act or gesture illustrative of one's character, and secondly, as a legal document signed and delivered regarding ownership of property. Those two meanings intersect in George Gardiner's story.

But for the bold enterprising nature of his mother, my 8X great grandfather George might never have been born. And he certainly would never have shared in the ownership of substantial lands acquired through the good deeds of his mother's generous third partner. 

General area of the Good Deeds - South Kingstown, R.I.
Google Earth

To understand how these good deeds came about, it is necessary to explain a bit of the history of his parents. George was born about 1650 in Newport, Rhode Island to George Gardiner senior and Herodias Long. Both George senior and Herodias had had prior marriages and never officially married each other, instead following the Quaker custom of standing before witnesses and swearing to live together as husband and wife. From all appearances, they lived together happily as husband and wife for a couple of decades and had seven children, the third of whom was the George of our story. 

George's mother Herodias was a fanatic Quaker, at one time willingly walking some 70 miles from Newport to Boston with a young child in her arms to receive a whipping at the post for her religious beliefs.

When their relationship eventually soured, Herodias claimed that George was no longer supporting her and the children. She also claimed to regret having lived with George without going through a proper form of marriage. Thus on 3 May 1665 we find George Gardiner senior brought before the General Assembly court upon the petition of "Hored Long alias Gardner, his reputed wife."

According to Herodias, she had been forced to move in with Gardiner for the support he could provide following her divorce from her first husband, John Hicks. She said she had repeatedly begged  Gardiner to set her up in a separate house and "not to meddle with mee." This must be greeted with a healthy dose of skepticism since she appears to have been a strong-willed woman quite capable of standing up for herself.

The General Assembly found themselves unable to grant her divorce since there was no actual marriage to terminate! They decreed that Gardiner cease to trouble her and that the couple pay a fine for having lived together without being married.  

HOWEVER, the true cause of her wish to free herself from Gardiner can be found in another petition to the same General Assembly. Margaret Porter, wife of John Porter, a wealthy Rhode Island landowner, complained to the court that her husband had deserted her and gone to Pettaquamscut leaving her without means of supporting herself. In her petition, Margaret said that her husband "is destitute of all congugall love towards her, and suitable care for her". She requested that Porter be required to support her from his large estate. Porter was a well-respected member of the community and was expected to behave accordingly. The General Assembly sided with Margaret and ordered Porter to support her, which he arranged to do within the month. 

By this time, Herodias had already moved in with John Porter at Pettaquamscutt. Porter was one of the original purchasers of a huge tract of land called Pettaquamscutt from the Indian sachems of an area around what is now South Kingston, R.I. At first, the pretense was that she was working for him as his housekeeper, but no one really believed this. They were brought to court for living together without being married, but no mention can be found of any penalty or reprimand. 

Porter conveyed large tracts of his lands to her children, supposedly to fulfill a promise he had made to Herodias at the outset of their relationship. No record of a marriage between this couple has been found.

 

 

1724 Map of the 1657 Pettaquamscutt Purchase - Public Domain Image
John Porter's Pettaquamscut lands showing transfers to Herodias's sons

Divorce was almost unheard of at the time. One can only imagine how this scandal would have affected the children of the two divorcing couples. George junior would have been in his mid-teens at the time. 

About five years after all this turmoil, George Gardiner junior at about age 23 married Tabitha Bethiah Tefft. This couple would not cause any scandal during their lengthy marriage, during which they had a large family of at least 9 children (the 6th of whom was my 7X great grandmother Hannah Gardiner). 

It was during the early years of George and Tabitha's marriage that his stepfather John Porter performed his own good deed by transferring good title deeds to lands to George and his siblings.

Historical Marker regarding John Porter's acquisition of the lands
subsequently transferred to stepchildren including George
Photo used with permission of trashpaddler.com

George junior appears in the records only for such matters as having taken the oath of allegiance on 19 May 1671. On 16 November 1678 he and wife Tabitha sold Nicholas Gardiner 60 acres. Then on 29 January 1700, he and his wife for the love of their son Nicholas deeded him 60 acres of land.

On 17 November 1705, George and brothers Benoni, Henry, William and Nicholas, along with wives Tabitha, Mary, Joan, Elizabeth and Hannah Gardiner and Rebecca Watson, all of Kingstown, sold 410 acres on Point Judith Pond to John Potter for 150 pounds to be paid to Thomas Hicks of Flushing, Long Island.  (Thomas was a half brother of George, being a son of Herodias and John Hicks.) The good deeds continued.

George lived to about age 74, dying and being buried at Kingston, Rhode Island. Although there is no marker for his grave, he is believed to be buried in the Nathan Gardner Lot at South Kingston, Rhode Island.

Some Resources:

• Archer, Richard, "Fissures in the Rock: New England in the Seventeenth Century", University of New Hampshire, 2001, pages 73-77
• "Genealogies of Rhode Island, Volume 2", page 523
• Moriarty, G Andrews, "Herodias (Long) Hicks-Gardiner-Porter, A Tale of Old Newport" from "Genealogies of Rhode Island, Volume 1", pages 599-607
• "Some Notes on 18th Century Block Island", NEHGR Register, Volume 105, page 258
• Wikipedia article for Horodias Long and John Porter accessed online 8 November 2020
• Robinson, Caroline E, "The Gardiners of Narragansett, Being a Genealogy of the Descendants of George Gardiner the Colonist 1638", Providence Rhode Island 1919