July 16, 2024
Introduction: In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry continues her series about the founders of Nantucket, Massachusetts, and their descendants, showing photos of the Coffin-Carlisle family and including an oral history. Melissa is a genealogist who has a website, americana-archives.com, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History.
Today I continue with stories of the Coffin-Carlisle and allied families of Nantucket, including one of the oral histories recorded by Henry Coffin Carlisle (1886-1964) as well as other relics in the collection of the Nantucket Historical Association (NHA).
To recap: George Lister Carlisle (1852-1930) of England married Mary Swift Coffin (1851-1935) of Nantucket, daughter of Quaker merchant Henry and Elizabeth “Eliza” (Starbuck) Coffin. They had three children including Henry, who spent the last few years of his life recording interviews with the Nantucket islanders in his family house located at 75 Main Street. (See Part 1.)
Here is a tintype of George Lister Carlisle with friends taken on a fishing trip in Nantucket in the summer of 1876 (left to right): Richard Brown, son of Thomas Williams and Mary Bunker (Crosby) Brown; Francis “Frank” Howland Macy and his brother Cromwell Gardner Macy, both born to Alexander and Lydia Starbuck (Gardner) Macy; Captain William Chase Dunham, son of George F. and Dinah (Denson) Dunham; and George Lister Carlisle.
Henry Coffin Carlisle, a 7th generational descendant of the Tristram and Dionis Coffin line, preserved some of the most significant and endearing oral histories of Nantucket island via audio recordings.
Nantucket Oral Histories
Just before his passing, Marcus Litchfield Ramsdell (1889–1962) was interviewed by Henry. Marcus served as Welfare Dispenser for the Town of Nantucket, then worked as Court Officer of the Nantucket District Court until his retirement in 1959.
In his interview, Marcus tells stories of rowboat feats, whale sightings, fishing communities, and farming. He was the commodore of the Wharf Rat Club and discusses some of its history, including mentioning the logo design by Tony Sarg.
The Wharf Rat Club, whose motto is “No Reserved Seats for the Mighty,” is a place where people from all walks of life can meet with no regard to social status. In this photo taken in the 1970s we see: (seated left to right) Bunt MacKay and Dick Deutsch (playing cribbage); Louis Davidson; Flint Ranney; Pete Grant; and Harry Gordon; (standing left to right) Hugh “Bud” Sanford; and Charlie Sayle.
Marcus also mentions an island story about traveling over a sandbar, through the ocean, to Tuckernuck by way of horse and cart.
More importantly, Marcus discusses the family legend of Charles Ramsdell (also spelled Ramsdale), a crewman and one of the eight surviving members on the whaleship Essex, which was rammed and sunk by a sperm whale on 20 November 1820, a story that Nathaniel Philbrick published; his book was made into the film In the Heart of the Sea.
Click on this link to listen: Oral History CT-28A.
Another survivor of the Essex ordeal was First Mate Owen Chase (1797-1869), who later became captain of his own whaleship. He is the son of Judah and Phebe (Meader) Chase. He married Margaret “Peggy” Gardner, daughter of George and Judith Gardner, and left descendants.
Here is an obituary for Captain Chase from 18 March 1869.
This obituary reports:
Capt. Owen Chase, who died in Nantucket on the 7th, aged about 74 years, was first mate of the ship Essex, which was capsized and sunk in the Pacific Ocean in 1820, in consequence of being stove by a whale. Capt. C. with others took the boats, and his sufferings then was the remote cause of his death. The whale, which was 85 feet long, at first struck the ship on the bow, causing her to reel and shake like a reed in the wind. He then went to windward, and soon came furiously to the ship, striking her bow near the cathead, crushing plank and timber, and causing her to sink.
When Chase returned home from the long Essex ordeal he published Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex, which inspired Herman Melville’s Moby Dick novel.
Captain Chase had a brother, Joseph Chase (1800-1855), who was a successful whaler. He married Winifred Beaucott/Bocott, daughter of James and Elizabeth (Brown) Bocott of Nantucket. They had six children and left many descendants.
Here is a portrait of Captain Joseph Chase. The donor of this portrait is a direct descendent of Joseph and Winifred Chase; through their eldest son, Howard Chase (see image below); to his eldest son, James Howard Chase, who married Grace Marie Crispell; to his daughter, Isabell L. Chase, who married Donald Decker Burnett Sr.
Captain Joseph Chase eventually left Nantucket with his family and moved to New York.
Here is an ambrotype of three of their sons, all born in Nantucket: (left to right) James Beaucott Chase (1847-1895), married Mary Cook, daughter of Nathan and Ann Holden (Binns) Cook, and left descendants; Howard Chase (1842-1906), married Mary McKeel and 2nd Anna Elizabeth Gifford, daughter of Sanford and Statira Johnson (White) Gifford, and left descendants; Joseph Chase Jr. (1845-1872), married Emily Simpkin and left descendants.
Stay tuned for more oral histories.
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Note on the header image: flag of Nantucket, Massachusetts. Credit: NuclearVacuum; Wikimedia Commons.
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