[1] He and his wife Mary left Woerden in the Netherlands and embarked for New England on the ship Batcheler on July 10, 1635.

Governor John Winthrop noted Gardiner's arrival in his Journal under the date November 28: Here arrived a small Norsey bark of twenty-five tons sent by Lords Say, etc, with one Gardiner, an expert engineer or work base, and provisions of all sorts, to begin a fort at the mouth of the Connecticut.

[2][3][4]Gardiner was a military engineer in service of the Prince of Orange in the Netherlands along with John Mason.

He finished and commanded the Saybrook Fort at the mouth of the Connecticut River during the Pequot War of 1636–37.

The original grant by which he acquired proprietary rights in the island made it an entirely separate and independent plantation.