Nantucket History

The island's beginnings in western history can be traced to its reported sighting by Norsemen in the 11th century. But, it was not until 1602 that Captain Bartholomew Gosnold of Falmouth, England sailed his bark Concord past the bluffs of Siasconset and really put Nantucket on the map. The island's original inhabitants, the Wampanoag Indians, lived undisturbed until 1641 when the island was deeded by the English (the authorities in control of the land from the coast of Maine to New York) to Thomas Mayhew and his son, merchants of Watertown and Martha's Vineyard.

As Europeans began to settle in the area around Cape Cod, the island became a place of refuge for regional Indians, as Nantucket was not yet discovered by white men. The growing population of Native Americans welcomed seasonal groups of Indians who traveled to the island to fish and later harvest whales that washed up on shore.

The history of Nantucket's settlement by the English, did not begin in earnest until 1659 when Thomas Mayhew sold his interest to the "nine original purchasers": Tristram Coffin, Thomas Macy, Christopher Hussey, Richard Swayne, Thomas Bernard, Peter Coffin, Stephen Greenleafe, John Swayne and William Pike - "For the sum of thirty Pounds...and also two beaver hats, one for myself, and one for my wife."

At this time, the true demise of the island's Indian population began. The English presence drastically changed the healthy Indian population and over the next century, the Wampanoag would be weakened by disease, alcohol and servitude.

Before ultimately settling on the shores of the Great Harbor, the new English settlers moved to the land surrounding the small sheltered harbor of Capaum Pond, on the north shore, where the first white settlement - Sherburne - was established. In 1795, the town (now nestled on the Great Harbor) was named Nantucket (Wampanoag for "faraway land") and became unique in the country as an island, a county and a town all with the same name.

Shortly after 1700, Quakerism began to take root and, by the end of the eighteenth century, the Society of Friends was the major denomination on the island, a refuge for Quakers being persecuted in other areas of the Bay Colony. The Nantucket Quakers also became extremely influential in business and government matters. The simple, sturdy dwellings have been continuously occupied and stand today in pristine ranks along cobblestone Main Street and other lanes and byways. Later, with the influence generated by the whaling industry, merchants and master mariners built their homes with an eye to impress their neighbors.

For nearly 100 years - from the mid-1700s to the late 1830s - the island was the whaling capital of the world, with as many as 150 ships making port in Nantucket during its peak. Within decades, however, the new wealth from whale oil drastically took a turn upon the advent of petroleum in 1838 when it began to replace whale oil as an illuminant, and the sperm whale itself had been harder to find. In 1846, a "Great Fire" roared through Nantucket Town under the cover of night, leaving hundreds homeless and impoverished. When gold was discovered in California, shiploads of Nantucketers left to seek new fortunes. In the thirty years 1840 and 1870, census figures document the loss of 60 percent of the island's population, which plunged from an estimated 10,000 to 4,000. The death knell for whaling had been sounded. The last ship outbound from Nantucket in search of the giant sperm whale left in 1869, never to return to her home port.

Nantucket was a port-of-call for transatlantic packets and coastal vessels from the early 1800s and, indeed, ranked third only after New York and Boston as a major port. When the whaling era ended, commercial shipping gave way to recreational boating. Daily excursions from the mainland on the graceful old steamers brought a new breed to Nantucket - the summer visitors. The first generation of "developers" on Nantucket sang the praises of pure air and saltwater bathing for health and pleasure. They built cottages and summer houses, advertising them in the Boston and New York newspapers. Island housewives took in summer boarders and great hotels were built in town, as well as on the seashore at Brant Point, Surfside, and Siasconset.

It was not until around 1880 that the American tradition of summer vacations was firmly established, and it was then that Nantucket was discovered to be just about the ideal spot for vacationing. Once entrenched, tourism became the principle source of income for island residents. It still is, and in the last two decades Nantucket's tourist season has extended from before Memorial Day to after Columbus Day. Increasingly, visitors are also attracted by the quiet beauty of the off-season, and can be assured of finding comfortable accommodations no matter what time of year.