One of the original owners of Nantucket Island Thomas Barnard "Barnett" was of Salisbury and Amesbury, Mass. He was a planter or husbandman. Received land in the "first division" 1640 and 1643. He was one of the first settlers in Amesbury, received land there at various times and a "township" for one of his sons in 1660. He was killed by Indians about 1677.

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One of the original owners of Nantucket Island Mass.

Thomas is shown on an old map as being a landholder in Salisbury, Massachusetts in 1639. Later the family also bought land a few miles away in neighboring Amesbury, Massachusetts.

Thomas seems to have had lands in both Salisbury and Amesbury. The children were all born in Salisbury, but he appears in early Amesbury records by 1660 and then in the records of both towns. Perhaps all the lands lay on the border and spilled over into both towns.

Thomas was one of the original purchasers of Nantucket Island in 1659. He gave a half interest to his brother Robert. It does not appear that he ever went to the island, but Robert did in 1663.

English settlement and the history of whaling in Nantucket

Great Point Lighthouse

The history of Nantucket's settlement by the English did not began in earnest until 1659, when Thomas Mayhew sold his interest to the "nine original porchasers," Tristram Coffin, Thomas Macy, Christopher Hussey, Richard Swayne, Thomas Barnard, Peter Coffin, Stephen Greenleafe, John Swayne and William Pike, "for the sum of thirty Pounds...and also two beaver hats, one for myself, and one for my wife." Seamen and tradesmen began to populate Nantucket, such as Richard Gardner son of Thomas Gardner (planter) who moved there from Salem in 1667

Thomas was killed by Indians in Amesbury in October of 1677. His estate was settled in 1679. Eleanor Barnard remained in the area and on July 19, 1681 she married George Little of Newbury. She died on November 27, 1694.

The following is what I have on the children of Thomas and Eleanor Barnard. All the children were born in Salisbury, Massachusetts.

Walter G. Ashworth 8th Great Grandson

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Thomas was a plantar or husbandman. He was killed by indians in 1677. He was buried at the Golgotha Burial Ground in Amesbury, Essex, Massachusetts.

Source: Noyes Family Tree -------------------- According to the Genealogical and Family History of Western New York, compiled under the editorial supervision of William Richard Cutter A. M., Vol 1, published in 1912, pg. 263:

(Thomas Barnard), one of the first settlers of Amesbury (MA), was killed by the Indians in 1677.