Person:George Gardiner (7)

Father may be Sir Knight Thomas Gardner, born in England about 1575. However, there is considerable controversy and a degree of doubt with respect to the 1599 birth of George Gardiner. The renowned genealogist discussed the issues in an article in The American Genealogist, 17:50. Moriarty's conclusion was that George Gardiner was born between 1608 and 1615, with the latter date being more likely. Some of the facts on which Moriarty based his conclusion was that Geroge Gardiner's youngest son, Peregrine was born about 1674; and George Gardiner had five children born between 1666 and 1674. George Gardiner was of age in 1638, so he had to be born 1617 or earlier. There is no link between the George Gardiner in Rhode Island in 1638 and the George Gardiner baptized in Middlesex, England in 1599 and married in 1630 to Sarah Slaughter, except that they both bore the name George Gardiner. If the George Gardiner in Rhode Island in 1638 was not the George Gardiner baptized in England in 1599, then his parents are unknown. See

From The Gardiners of Narragansett by Caroline Elizabeth Robinson, p. 1:^S1

"George Gardiner was evidently an educated man and took an active part in the affairs of the Colony. He was admitted an inhabitant of Newport in 1638. In 1640 he was present 'att the Generall Courte of election,' and from that time until his death, about 1677, his name often appears in the State records." (p.1)

1.   Robinson, Caroline E. The Gardiners of Narragansett: being a genealogy of the descendants of George Gardiner the colonist, 1638. (Providence: Printed for the editor, 1919)
   p 1-3, p. 201.

   p. 201 (footnotes): George Gardiner was fifth in a list of fifty-nine men admitted on the first of the 8th month, 1638, "to
   be Inhabytants of the Island now called -Aqueedneck."
   "At the Generall Quarter Court" held at "Niewport," 17th of loth mo. 1639, he was one of six "admitted
   and embraced as Freemen into this Body Politike."—R. I. Col. Ree. I, p. 95.

2.   William E. Wright, in Wright, William E. Ancestors and descendants of William Browning Greene and Mary Hoxsie Lewis: with allied families. (Baltimore [Maryland]: Gateway Press, c1993)
   pp 108-110, 1993.
3. ↑ Moriarty, G. Andrews. The Parentage of George Gardiner of Newport, R. I. American Genealogist (D.L. Jacobus). (1944)
   21:194.

   'The rest of his long life was passed in Newport, where he died about 1677 and certainly before 14 June 1678, when his widow Lydia remarried (Austin's Gen. Dic. of R. I., p. 81).'

4. ↑ Moriarty, G. Andrews. The Parentage of George Gardiner of Newport, R. I. American Genealogist (D.L. Jacobus). (1944)
   21:199-200.

   '... it is far more likely that he was born between 1608 or 1609 and 1615, and the latter date seems the more probable.'