Mary Coffin Starbuck

Mary Coffin Starbuck (February 20, 1645 – late 1717) was a Quaker leader from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

She and her husband, Nathaniel Starbuck, were the first English couple to marry on Nantucket and were parents to the first white child born on the island.

[6] Her father, called the "patriarch of Nantucket", was one of the original English proprietors of the settlement,[7] and he was the island's first chief magistrate.

[1][11] Their children were: Mary, Elizabeth, Nathaniel, Jethro, Barnabas, Eunice, Priscilla, Hepzibah, Ann, and Paul.

[1] They lived by Hummock Pond at Parliament House,[12] so named for its large main room that was used for town and religious meetings[7]: 56 [b] and because a lot of public business was performed there.

[14] Nathaniel operated a trading post, bartering goods with the Wampanoag, and Mary performed the bookkeeping.

The mercantile business expanded with the advent of the whaling industry and supplied residents with items such as candles, clothing, fabric, notions, molasses, and knives.

[1][8] He [Nathaniel] appeared not a Man of mean Parts, but she [Mary] so far exceeded him in soundness of Judgment, clearness of Understanding, and an elegant way of expressing herself, and that not in an affected Strain, but very natural to her, that it tended to lessen the Qualifications of her Husband.Known as "the great woman" or the "great Mary Starbuck",[6] she was unique among women of her time[11]: 56–57  and was a model to Nantucket of a stalwart person who embraced the Quaker religion, while also achieving success in business.

[7]: 58–61 According to Thomas Story, a noted Quaker, she was "in great reputation throughout the island for her knowledge in matters of religion, and an oracle among them on that account.