Lion Gardiner

Military engineer and colonist, born in England, UK. He emigrated to Connecticut in 1636. He ably defended the Saybrook settlement during the Pequot War (1637) and purchased the Isle of Wight (now called Gardiner's Island) in Long Island Bay from the Indians. He received a grant for this land from the Earl of Stirling, and in 1686 the island became a manor with full manorial rights. The property has remained in the hands of the Gardiner family.

Lion Gardiner in East Hampton
The tomb of Lion Gardiner in East Hampton (village), New York was built in 1886 depicts him in recumbent effigy pose.

Lion Gardiner (1599-1663) founded the first English settlement in the state of New York and his legacy includes Gardiners Island which remains in the family and is the largest privately owned island in the United States. In 1639 he purchased from the Montaukett tribe an island called by them Manchonat, which he renamed the Isle of Wight, but which has since been known as Gardiners Island which is located between the North Fork, Suffolk County, New York and South Fork, Suffolk County, New York. His daughter at Gardiners Island was the first white woman born in New York. The original grant by which Gardiner acquired proprietary rights in the Island made it an entirely separate and independent " plantation," in no way connected either with New England or New York.