The Gardner family were a group of whalers operating out of Nantucket, Massachusetts, from the 17th to 19th centuries.
Some members of the family gained wider exposure due to their discovery of various islands in the Pacific Ocean.
The aged and eccentric farmer Giles Corey, charged with wizardry during the Salem witch trials in 1692, refused to plead to his indictment, and as a result was subjected to the terrible death by peine fort et dure, i.e. by being crushed to death under heavy rocks.
[2] Captain Edward W. Gardner was a commercial agent at Apia, Samoa, who had traveled from Sydney on the Martha and changed vessels at Fiji for the Anita, which sailed near the Polynesian Friendly Islands during three-day hurricane from January 10 to January 12, 1863.
Maria Island, not on the charts, abounds with fish and wood, but no water; is low and dangerous.
Reynolds also reported island discoveries by John Gardner, made while he was captaining the Atlantic a short time previously: The first island, in north latitude 8 degrees 48 minutes, longitude 144 degrees 35 minutes east.
[2]A 19th-century whaler, Joshua is often credited with the discovery of Gardner Island (Nikumaroro), in the Phoenix group in the Pacific Ocean.
During the United States Exploring Expedition of 1838-1842, Charles Wilkes identified Gardner's Island from the reported position, and confirmed its existence.