Lion Gardiner

Lion Gardiner in East Hampton
The tomb of Lion Gardiner in East Hampton, New York was built in 1886 and designed by James Renwick, Jr. depicts him in recumbent effigy pose (Photo, April 2006).
Background information

Lion Gardiner (1599–1663), an early English settler and soldier in the New World, founded the first English settlement in what became the state of New York on Long Island. His legacy includes Gardiners Island, which is held by his descendants.

Lion Gardiner was born in England in 1599 and died in East Hampton, New York, in 1663. He and his wife Mary left Woerden, the Netherlands, and embarked, probably at Rotterdam, the Netherlands, in the ship Batcheler. It was bound for New England by way of London and departed on July 10, 1635. The ship arrived at Boston at the end of November in 1635.

Governor John Winthrop, the elder, noted Gardiner's arrival in his Journal under the date November 28: "Here arrived a small Norsey bark of twenty-five tons sent by Lords Say, etc, with one Gardiner, an expert engineer or work base, and provisions of all sorts, to begin a fort at the mouth of the Connecticut. She came through many great tempests; yet, through the Lord's great providence, her passengers, twelve men, two women, and all goods, all safe."

Shortly before departing from the Netherlands, he married Mary Willemsen Deurcant, the daughter of Dericke Willemsen Deurcant and Hachin Bastiens, who was born at Woerden about 1601. She died in 1665 in East Hampton, New York. She was buried next to her husband. They were the parents of three children: David, Mary and Elizabeth.

Their only son, David Gardiner, was born on April 29, 1636, at Saybrook. He married on June 4, 1657, Mary Leringman, a widow, at St. Margaret's Parish in the City of Westminster, England.

Mary Gardiner was born on August 30, 1638, at Saybrook, Connecticut. She married in 1658, Jeremiah Conkling, the son of Ananias Conkling, who was from Nottinghamshire, England.