Whose Vineyard?

In the Olden Days it was written about as both Martin's Vineyard and Martha's Vineyard, and no one seems to be able to explain what happened there.

Maybe it was because people took photos like this, which covered up a significant part of the name, and then everyone just had to guess which letters were behind the awning? Or they took photos like this:

There's definitely a pattern of missing information here.

The self-professed Governor Thomas Mayhew was my 11th Great Grandfather, who established the first English colony on Martha's (or Martin's) Vineyard, in what is now known as Edgartown (which may have been named for the Duke of York's first son, Edgar).  Ta-da!

I found three street signs named after "my people".


#1) Mayhew - Thomas, and his daughter Hannah (who was my 10th Great Grandmother).

#2) Norton - Nicholas Norton, my 10th Great Grandfather, his son Benjamin Norton, my 9th Great Grandfather, Benjamin's brother Isaac Norton (both my 9th Great Grand Uncle and my 10th Great Grandfather - when you can trace this far back, you find some weird stuff), and his daughter Hannah Norton (my 9th Great Grandmother).

#3) Daggett - John Daggett my 11th and 10th Great Grandfather (seriously - a lot of weird stuff), his son Thomas Daggett, my 10th Great Grandfather and my 9th Great Grand Uncle, who was married to Hannah Mayhew, and their son Joshua Daggett, my 9th Great Grandfather, who married Hannah Norton, and their daughter Martha Daggett, my 8th Great Grandmother who married Nicholas Norton. Who's dizzy?

This is Daggett House.

It used to be a B&B, and was rumored to be haunted by later-Daggetts. 

"Daggett House Inn, haunted by the ghost of two brothers and their dog Laddie, who was shut into a secret room by one brother and starved to death. The younger brother caught pneumonia while searching for the dog and his brother drowned himself in remorse." (From Haunted Cape Cod & The Islands, Mark Jasper, 2002)

Although, I had read other accounts of a mentally disabled boy locked up in the secret room, and also one story of a boy and a dog. Definitely not happy ghosts.

And this is the plot of land once occupied by Gov. Thomas Mayhew and family and followers. I feel certain Grampy Mayhew would have wanted me to have this.

While they finally agreed to call it Martha's Vineyard, there were a number of years when people were calling it Martin's Vineyard. I think we can apply the same theory with Governor Thomas Mayhew's will. I am pretty sure when Grampy left the land, in his will, to Hannah, he really meant Gretta. It's a simple oversight. I'll have my lawyers look into it.