Papers Relating To The Island Of Nantucket

Before Nantucket became a byword for sea air and whaling, it was paper: grants, orders, oaths, and land bargains. Ink, evidence, and island beginnings. Franklin Benjamin Hough gathers a historical documents collection drawn from the official files of the Secretary of State at Albany, preserving a colonial records anthology that traces the original settlement and early administration of Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard, and the neighbouring islands later known as Dukes County. His selections bring together town orders, court notes, and transactions that otherwise sit scattered across ledgers, creating a clear archival trail for these Dukes County records.Read it as a primary source reader of colonial New York governance at the edge of 17th century New England, where jurisdictions shifted and communities negotiated rights, boundaries, and belonging. Watch New York and Massachusetts authority collide in the margins. Here are Nantucket settlement documents alongside petitions, correspondence, and New England land deeds that illuminate everyday pressures behind town-making: who held authority, how property changed hands, and how island life was recorded in law. For family historians it remains a dependable genealogy research resource; for travellers and armchair readers it is a vivid local history reference; for collectors it is a cornerstone of Martha’s Vineyard history and wider Massachusetts colonial history, revealing how these islands were once administered and understood.Republished by Alpha Editions in a careful modern edition, this volume preserves the spirit of the original while making it effortless to enjoy today - a heritage title prepared for readers and collectors alike.