Gosnold, MA
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Gosnold
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Description of Gosnold, Massachusetts
The geography of Gosnold differs from that of other Massachusetts municipalities since the town consists of a chain of a dozen islands running westward from Woods Hole between Buzzard's Bay and Vineyard Sound. In 1602 Bartholomew Gosnold made landfall at Cuttyhunk, one of the larger islands, and gave the Elizabeth Islands group its name.
The history of Gosnold also differs from other cities and towns, since the clustered chunks of land were so small they were usually not named separately in the grants and sales of the properties of the New World, but changed owners attached to one or another vast holding. The islands were under the control of the Dutch in New York until 1691 when they passed by charter into the hands of the English of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In 1688 a permanent settler in Gosnold, Ralph Earle Jr., built his house, the first of a small, hardy island population, while Captain Kidd anchored in one of Gosnold's harbors in 1699 just before he was captured for piracy. Succeeding owners like Major General Wait Steel Winthrop and James Bowdoin of Boston developed their property as a country estate, stocking it with deer and turkeys. In 1759, one of the earliest lighthouses was built on Naushon at Tarpaulin Cove and six years later, a light was built on Cuttyhunk to warn of the disastrous reefs near the islands.
Residents of the islands fought for almost two centuries to become independent of the Town of Chilmark to which they were attached. In 1863,the 16 legal voters of Gosnold claimed they were not being fairly represented and finally succeeded in getting permission to establish an autonomous town. Many of the islands have had a relatively uneventful history, as Naushon Island shows. In all of its history, Naushon has only been owned by three families; the Winthrops were proprietors for 48 years,the Bowdoins for 115 years and the Forbes for 147 years have been Masters of Naushon.
A life saving station was established and commissioned in 1890 on Cuttyhunk to try to save those shipwrecked. Also on Cuttyhunk, a round tower built of stone with a set of circular steps and a look-out deck marks the 300 th anniversary of Gosnold's discovery. Still peaceful and windswept, Gosnold shelters yachtsmen cruising the waters of Vineyard Sound or Buzzard's Bay, provides summer homes to some and year-round homes to a handful as one of the smallest communities in the Commonwealth.
Narrative compiled by the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development (
DHCD
).
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