Thomas Mayhew - Colonizing Dukes County

Colonizing Dukes County

In 1641, while engaged in business ventures in the vicinity of Boston, Mayhew succeeded in acquiring the rights to the islands that now constitute Dukes County: (Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, and the Elizabeth Islands). He bought the County for 40 pounds and two beaverskin hats from William Alexander, the 2nd Earl of Sterling. To resolve a conflicting ownership claim, he also paid off Sir Ferdinando Gorges, thereby acquiring a clear title.

Mayhew established himself as governor of Martha's Vineyard in 1642 and sent his son, Thomas the Younger, with about forty English families to settle there. He himself followed four years later. Together he and the younger Thomas established Martha’s Vineyard’s first settlement and called it Great Harbor, now Edgartown.