I had the chance to spend a summer in Nantucket in 1997. I had visited the island two times before that and found it enchanting. I believe that the best way to arrive is by steamship and the best way to get around is by foot. You can't really enjoy the island until you have walked her historical streets and sat on the docks at sunset.
Nantucket. If you have ever been there, you know what it means. It was named by the indians who occupied the island before ten faounding families purchased it in 1659. The name Nantucket means "Land Far Out to Sea" and the whalers use to call if the "Grey Little Lady". There were two tribes on the island, Sachem Autopscot and Sachem Wanackmamack, when Thomas Mayhew sold Nantucket for 10 pounds and 2 Beaver hats. The nine original purchasers were:
Before Thomas Macy and the other settlers moved to Nantucket, they lived in Rowley and Salisbury, Massachusetts where the Quakers were often persecuted. Thomas Macy, gave them shelter and protection until they found their permanent settlement on Nantucket. When they finally moved to the island, each was given a plot of land near Sherbourne, the first town on Nantucket island. Unfortunately, the land that they originally settled was in the swamps of Madaket, an indian term for "bad lands", and was unsuitable for farming. They tried other trades such as sheep raising and fishing, but were unsuccessful in both.
Eventually, the town of Sherbourne was deserted because of its poor harbor. Their access to the ocean was blocked by soil settlements and salt deposits. The town was moved to a more central area on the Northern coast of the island and renamed "Nantucket". This is the current location of the town today, and there remains the small village of Madaket where Sherbourne once was.
After the first settlers had survived a Nantucket winter, they each invited one other family to the island, including the Folgers and Starbucks, which doubled the population. From these 20 families, the island developed through the years to become the number one whaling port in the world in the mid-1800s. Today, it is a popular summer destination for the wealthy.
The land near sherbourne on the Western half of the island was divided up among the first twenty families. Richard Swain and John Swain had the southern most area of the land. Others that are noteable to my famliy line are Tristam Coffin, Thomas Macy, Peter Folger, and N. Wyer; of whom I am a direct descendent. I have direct relations to Tristam Coffin, however, not to his son Peter. He had another son, John Coffin who is in my famliy line. There may be another line that incorporates Peter Coffin that has yet to be discovered. I have many ties also the the Original Thomas Macy (you will find many in the island's history), who was an ancestor to R.H. Macy, founder of Macy's department store. The original Macy's store began on lower Main Street next to Murray's Toggery shop which is still in operation. Benjamin Franklin was a descendant of Peter Folger who was also a founder. John Swain Junior, the first white make child born on the island, married Experience Folger, sister of Abigail Folger, Benjamin Franklin's mother. Abigail stayed at the Swain home in Polpis until three months before Benjamin Franklin's birth in Boston, 1706.
John Swain moved his family from the swampy lands in Madaket to Polpis harbor. There he owned a great deal of land as well as many homes (which may have been built after his death). The John Swain house was the oldest standing home on the island until it burnt from a lightning strike in 1902. A recreation has been built elsewhere on the island, and the John Swain property in now personally owned.
There are many landmarks on the island named after the Swain Family. One of the wharfs, the one farthest South, is named Swain's Wharf after a great Swain seaman of the mid-1800s. There is also Swain's neck, a small peninsula that stretches into Polpis harbor near the John Swain property. There is a Swain Street and two Swain house within the city limits that were built in c. 1795. Both are personally owned today and not open to visitors.
