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John Winthrop, Jr., was commissioned as "first governor of the river
Connecticut" in 1635. Winthrop hired Lt. Lion Gardiner for a period of 4
years to build a fort and lay out a town. Winthrop learned that the
Dutch were planning to occupy the English post. On November 25, 1635, he
dispatched a vessel from the Massachusetts Bay Colony under the command
of Lt. Gibbons and Sgt. Willard to seize control of the Point.

Thus was established Fort Saybrook, one of Connecticut’s oldest
settlements and its first military fortification. In later years, it was
also referred to as "Fort Fenwick." Lion Gardiner arrived in March,
1636, to build a strong palisade fort. In April of the same year,
Gardiner’s son David was born -- the first English child born in
Connecticut. When Gardiner left Saybrook, he settled at what we know
today as Gardiner’s Island, New York, having purchased it from the local
Indians.

[Internet source: http://oldsaybrook.com/History/]

Lion Gardiner, Lt. (1599-1663) - Lt. Lion Gardiner was the valiant
commander of Fort Saybrook, CT, and patentee, and First Proprietor &
First Lord of the Manor of Gardiner's Island.

Lion Gardiner was stationed in Holland as "Engineer and Master of Works
and Fortifications," for the Prince of Orange. In 1635 he was
commissioned by the Earl of Warwick, Lord Say and Sele, Lord Brooke and
other noblemen, to build a fort at the mouth of the Connecticut River and
form
a settlement there. He sailed from London in July, 1635 on the North Sea
bark "Bachelor," of twenty-five tons' burden, with his wife who brought a
maid, Eliza Colet, the only other woman on the ship. They arrived in
Boston November 28, 1635, after "enduring many great tempests." There
were twelve male passengers.

Their son David was born April 29, 1636 in Saybrook, CT, the first white
child born in that place, or in the State of Connecticut. On August 30,
1638 a daughter Mary was born there; and on September 14, 1641 Elizabeth
was born on Gardiners Island (then known as Isle of Wight), she is said
to be the first English child born in the colony of New York.

Lion Gardiner bought Gardiners Island on May 3, 1639. John Winthrop, in
his journal of that date, called it an "Island Paradise" which it must
have been after four years of building the Saybrook fort and coping with
the Pequot War.

[Internet source:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~nozell/CONKLIN/archives/1997/07/0034.html]

Lieutenant Lion Gardiner, I, First Lord of the Manor of Gardiner's
Island, New York, and the founder of the American branch of the family,
was b. in England circa 1599; d. 1663 at East Hampton, Long Island. He
was an officer in the English Army in Flanders under Lord de Vere, and an
Engineer and Master of Fortifications of the Prince of Orange in the Low
Countries. Assisted as Engineer in the construction of fortifications on
Fort Hill, Boston, Massachusetts, in 1636. He erected in 1636 Fort
Saybrook at mouth of Connecticut River and commanded the said Fort
throughout the Pequot Indian War. Lieut. Lion Gardiner's command of Fort
Saybrook continued for four years, his wife sharing the dangers and
privations of frontier life with him. Two of their children, David and
Mary, were born during that time, David being the first child of English
parents to be born in Connecticut. Gardiner then bought of the Indians,
the Isle of Wight afterwards, and now, called Gardiner's Island, which
purchase was later confirmed [p.223] by Royal grant, thus becoming its
first English proprietor. Here he lived fourteen years and then joined
the colony of settlers at East Hampton, Long Island, where he often
performed valuable services in quieting Indian uprisings; m. Mary
Wilemsen, of Woerden, Holland, dau. of Derike Wilemsen Duercant, and his
wife Hachim Bastlans.

[Colonial Families of the United States of America: Volume 7, p 223]

When Lyon Gardiner came from Saybrooke Fort, to L. I., in 1638, he was
the first settler within the present bounds of Easthampton, and his
settlement of Gardiner's Island in 1639 was the first English settlement
in what is since the State of New York, being one year anterior to the
settlements, at Southold and Southampton.

Lyon Gardiner wrote in his Bible:

"In the year 1635, July 10, came I, Lion Gardiner, and my wife, Mary,
from Worden, a town in Holland, where my wife was born, being the
daughter of one, Derike Willemson, Deurant, her mothers name was Hackin,
and her aunt, sister of her mother, was the wife of Wouter Leonardson,
old burgomaster. We came from Worden, to London, and from there to New
England, and dwelt at Saybrooke Fort, 4 years, it is at the mouth of the
Connecticut river, of which I was Commander; and there was born to me a
son named David, 1636, the 29th of April, the first born in that place,
and in 1638, a daughter was born to me, called Mary, the 30th, of August;
and then I went to an Island of mine own, which I bought of the Indians,
called by them Mannehonake, by us, the Isle of Wight, and there was born
another daughter, named Elisabeth, the 14th of September, 1641, she being
the first child of English parents, that was born there."

[Long Island Genealogies, p 336]