years, it is in possession of its ninth owner, all having been of the name
and blood of its original patentee. This is great antiquity for America,
which, while it has produced many families of greater wealth, and renown,
and importance, than that of the Gardiners, has seldom produced any of
more permanent local respectability. This is a feature in society that we
so much love to see, and which is so much endangered by the uncertain and
migratory habits of the people, that we pause a moment to record this
instance of stability, so pleasing and so commendable, in an age and
country of changes.

The descendants of any family of two centuries standing, will, as a matter
of course, be numerous. There are exceptions, certainly; but such is the
rule. Thus is it with Lyon Gardiner, and his progeny, who are now to be
numbered in scores, including persons in all classes of life, though it
carries with it a stamp of caste to be known in Suffolk as having come
direct from the loins of old Lyon Gardiner. Roswell, of that name, if not
of that Ilk, the island then being the sole property of David Johnson
Gardiner, the predecessor and brother of its present proprietor, was
allowed to have this claim, though it would exceed our genealogical
knowledge to point out the precise line by which this descent was claimed.
Young Roswell was of respectable blood on both sides, without being very
brilliantly connected, or rich. On the contrary, early left an orphan,
fatherless and motherless, as was the case with Mary Pratt, he had been
taken from a country academy when only fifteen, and sent to sea, that he
might make his own way in the world. Hitherto, his success had not been of
a very flattering character. He had risen, notwithstanding, to be the
chief mate of a whaler, and bore an excellent reputation among the people
of Suffolk. Had it only been a year or two later, when speculation took
hold of the whaling business in a larger way, he would not have had the
least difficulty in obtaining a ship. As it was, however, great was his