1. Lion Gardiner was an English engineer and colonist who founded the first English settlement in New York, acquiring land on eastern Long Island.
11 Facts About Lion Gardiner
1. 2.
Lion Gardiner had been working in the Netherlands and was hired to construct fortifications on the Connecticut River, for the Connecticut Colony.
3.
Lion Gardiner's legacy includes Gardiners Island, which is held by his descendants.
4.
Lion Gardiner came through many great tempests; yet, through the Lord's great providence, her passengers, twelve men, two women, and all goods, all safe.
5.
Lion Gardiner was a military engineer in service of the Prince of Orange in the Netherlands along with John Mason.
6.
Lion Gardiner was hired by the Connecticut Company in 1635 to oversee construction of fortifications in Connecticut Colony.
7.
Lion Gardiner was empowered to draft laws for church and state.
8.
Lion Gardiner called it the Isle of Wight, but it is known as Gardiners Island after him.
9.
Lion Gardiner became patron to the sachem's younger brother Wyandanch and in 1659 was deeded Smithtown, NY as a gift of the sachem, for being a friend to all the indians of Paumanacke when the tribe was on the verge of being wiped out.
10.
In 1660, Lion Gardiner wrote the firsthand account Relation of the Pequot Warres.
11.
Lion Gardiner died in 1665 in East Hampton, New York.