Gardiner, Sir Christopher
Gardiner, Sir Christopher( fl.1630–32),arrived in Massachusetts (1630), bringing with him, according to Bradford, “a comly yonge woman, whom he caled his cousin, but it was suspected, she (after ye Italian maner) was his concubine.” He was a mysterious figure, and was left undisturbed until it was discovered that he had deserted two wives, was a Papist, and was an agent of Ferdinando Gorges. Gardiner and his mistress, Mary Grove, were apprehended but released. For a time thereafter, he lived in Brunswick, Me., where his “known harlot” married one Thomas Purchase. In 1632 he turned up in Bristol, England, as the star witness before the Privy Council in Gorges's attempt to break the Massachusetts charter. He has figured in fiction and poetry, as in The Tales of a Wayside Inn, Motley's Merry Mount, and Maria Sedgwick's Hope Leslie.
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