Gardiner, Thomas

The ancestry of Thomas Gardiner Sr., of Warminster, County of Wilts, England, can be traced for three generations in that county. Thomas Gardiner purchased a share in the West Province of New Jersey in 1678, in which year he removed to that Province, settling at Burlington, where his house, the first dwelling to be erected, became the principal building in the new town, and in it for some time were held the public meetings, and the meetings of the Society of Friends, of which he was an active member. "It was from the house of Thomas Gardiner that the horn was blown which convened the town meetings." In 1681 he was elected a member of the Assembly, and of the Governor's Council, serving in those capacities and as one of the judges of courts of Burlington County until his death in 1694. He was succeeded by his son, Thomas Gardiner the younger, who was one of the judges of the courts of Gloucester County, Recorder, and afterwards Burgess of the town of Burlington. In 1703 he resigned the latter office, when, as one of the Representatives of his county in the first General Assembly of the United Provinces of East and West New Jersey, he was elected Speaker of that body. He was the steadfast friend of the people, thereby incurring the displeasure of the Royal Governor, who deprived him of the Speakership, and made an unsuccessful effort to have him ejected from his seat in the Assembly. As an interesting event in the history of New Jersey, not generally known, it may not be out of place to give a brief account of Mr. Gardiner's subsequent contentions with the Governor and his party, as described in the words of one of his descendants, the late John Stockton Littell, Esquire, of Elton House, Germantown, Pennsylvania:

"Matters in the Council progressed smoothly for a while and the conduct of the Governor justified the compliments contained in the Speaker's address. But his disposition could not long be concealed from those with whom he was immediately connected in the government. The character of Lord Cornbury, a near relative of the Queen, is well known to the readers of our early history to have been vicious in the extreme. There was, moreover, no bounds to his extravagance. Soon after he took possession of the Government he became unsupportably tyrannical and arbitrary. Parties existed even at that early period and the Governor had his adherents. It is, however, a source of satisfaction to the writer that the Speaker was not of the number; but that he was possessed of courage, energy and ability sufficient to oppose and check the encroachment of Lord Cornbury upon the privileges of the Assembly and country; and, as an inevitable consequence, we find him obnoxious to his high displeasure. Thwarted in some of his lawless measures by the position and influence of the Speaker, and as the only way of gaining the object he desired, he abruptly dismissed the Assembly, and issued the writs for a new election. He dismissed the Assembly with many more encomiums than many of them received on their return to their homes. The character and ability of Mr. Gardiner secured his re-election, notwithstanding the opposition of the Governor and his adherents; but the majority of the delegates were of a different stamp, and tamely suffered the intrigues and arbitrary practices of Cornbury to deprive them of the services of three of their most influential members--Thomas Gardiner, Thomas Lambert and Joseph Wright, --under the pretence of not owning enough land to qualify them to sit there, though they were known to be men of large and sufficient estate, and the same Assembly at their next meeting at Amboy, in 1705, themselves declared, that the members had heretofore fully satisfied the house of their being duly qualified to sit in the same, and they were then admitted to their seats, the purpose of their exclusion having been answered. This sitting was in October and November. These purposes were the ejection of Gardiner from the Speakership and the election of a more pliant instrument in the hands of the Governor."

Mr. Gardiner was also one of the members of the Council of Proprietors, and was active in procuring the recall of the obnoxious Governor and the appointment of Lord Lovelace in his place. He died in 1712 and his death is thus recorded in the minutes of the Council of Proprietors, 1712:
"This year died Thomas Gardiner of Burlington; many times mentioned before, he was well acquainted with public business, a good surveyor, and useful member of society, several years one of Council, Treasurer of the Western Division, and the first Speaker of the Assembly after the union of East and West Jersey."

Page: 178
Name: Thomas Gardiner
Date: 12 Sep 1712
Location: Burlington
Treasurer of West Jersey. Inventory of the personal estate of, £930.17.2 1/2, incl. 137 1/2 oz. of wrought silver at 9s. per oz. £61.17.6, Cook's Institutes, Josephus and other old books £17.-, six Turky work chairs £2.8-, four negroes £60., paper money, bills and bonds £195.-, bills of credit, supposed to belong to the Treasury of the Province £249.10.-; made by Peter Frettwell, Abram Bickley and Thomas Raper.
15 Sep 1712 Estate, real and personal, sequestrated and placed in charge of Robert Wheler and Isack de Que (Cow) of Burlington.
25 Sep 1712 Isaac Pierson, husband of Hannah, eldest daughter of Treasurer Thomas Gardiner, made administrator of the estate.
Lib. 1, p. 378
06 Jul 1721 Account of the estate of, by the administrator, Isaac Pearson, beginning in May 1712, and endorsed "not allowed in the office ye 02 Aug 1723."
01 Oct 1712 Mathew, the only son of Thomas Gardiner, 14 years old, elects as his guardians Abraham Bickley and John Wills, to whom letters of guardianship are issued.
Lib. 1, p. 380
13 --- 1712 Bond of John Wills of Northampton, Burlington Co., yeoman, and Abra'm Bickley of Philadelphia, merchant, as guardians of Mathew, son and heir of Thomas Gardiner.