1Thomas Williams Bicknell, The History of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Vol. 8, p. 259 (1920).
"(II) Richard Gardner, son of Thomas Gardner, of Salem, Mass., was born there at the home of his father and continued to reside there during his early life.
. . .
Richard Gardner was a man of very strong religious feelings, and he and his wife were excommunicated for attending a Quaker meeting, and it was this which caused his removal from Salem to Nantucket, where he spent the remainder of his life and died January 21, 1688. This move was made in 1666 and 1673 he and his brother, John, acted as messengers from the Governor of New York to the people of Nantucket, with instructions as to the form of government for the island. He was married, in 1652, to Sarah Shattuck, a native of Salem, where she was born in 1632, her death occurring at Nantucket in 1724. They were the parents of the following children: Richard, born in 1653; Joseph, Sarah, Deborah, Damaris, born in 1662; James, who is mentioned below; Miriam, born in 1665; Nathaniel, born in 1669; Hope, born in 1667; and Love, born in 1672.".