Naushon Island, part of the Elizabeth Islands

Elizabeth Islands

The Elizabeth Islands are a chain of small islands extending southwest from the southern coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts in the United States. They are located at the outer edge of Buzzards Bay, north of Martha's Vineyard from which they are separated by Vineyard Sound, and constitute the town of...

, is seven miles (11 km) long, just off (SW of) Cape Cod

Cape Cod

Cape Cod, often referred to locally as simply the Cape, is a cape in the easternmost portion of the state of Massachusetts, in the Northeastern United States...

, and four statute miles (6 km) NW of Martha's Vineyard

Martha's Vineyard

Martha's Vineyard is an island located south of Cape Cod in Massachusetts, known for being an affluent summer colony....

. The island is owned by the Forbes family and is included in the town

Town

A town is a human settlement larger than a village but smaller than a city. The size a settlement must be in order to be called a "town" varies considerably in different parts of the world, so that, for example, many American "small towns" seem to British people to be no more than villages, while...

 of Gosnold, Massachusetts

Gosnold, Massachusetts

Gosnold is a town that encompasses the Elizabeth Islands in Dukes County, Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2010 census, the town population was 75, making it the least populous town in Massachusetts...

. It is the largest of the Elizabeth Islands in land area at 19.18 km² (7.4 sq mi) and had a permanent population of 30 persons as of the 2000 census

United States Census, 2000

The Twenty-second United States Census, known as Census 2000 and conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States on April 1, 2000, to be 281,421,906, an increase of 13.2% over the 248,709,873 persons enumerated during the 1990 Census...

.

Naushon Island has been a Forbes family

Forbes family

The Forbes family is a wealthy extended American family originating in Boston. The family's fortune originates from trading between North America and China in the 19th century plus other investments in the same period. The name descends from Scottish immigrants, and can be traced back to Sir John...

 retreat for more than a century and a half, since its purchase by John Murray Forbes

John Murray Forbes

John Murray Forbes was an American railroad magnate, merchant, philanthropist and abolitionist. He was president of both the Michigan Central railroad and the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad in the 1850s....

. Forbes was a businessman who began his career in his family's China trade business (trade which included opium, among other things) and made much of his fortune by investing in the early development of railroads. Naushon Island was purchased by Forbes and a business associate, William W. Swain, in 1842, and Forbes purchased Swain's share soon after to become the sole owner. Upon his death in 1898, Forbes left Naushon in a trust administered by his 5 surviving children and it is now owned by Naushon Island Trust, Inc. Pasque Island

Pasque Island

Pasque Island is one of the Elizabeth Islands of Dukes County, Massachusetts, USA. It lies between Nashawena Island to the west and Naushon Island to the east. The island has a land area of 3.45 km² and had a population of 2 persons as of the 2000 census. The island is part of the town of...

, and Nashawena Island

Nashawena Island

Nashawena Island is the second largest of the Elizabeth Islands of Dukes County, Massachusetts, USA. It lies between Cuttyhunk Island to the west and Pasque Island to the east. The island has a land area of 7.076 km² and an official permanent population of 2 persons as of the 2000 census. ...

, the next two islands in the Elizabeth Island chain, were purchased at different times by J. M. Forbes descendants and remain privately owned. There are approximately 35 houses on Naushon, most near the east end.

Naushon and the smaller islands that surround it, Uncatena, Nonamesset, Monohanset, Weepeckit, and some smaller ones, are private property and closed to the public, with the exception of three beaches, Kettle Cove, West Beach, and Tarpaulin Cove, and Weepeckit Island, off the north shore of Naushon, in Buzzards Bay

Buzzards Bay (bay)

Buzzards Bay is a bay of the Atlantic Ocean adjacent to the U.S. state of Massachusetts. It is approximately 28 miles long by 8 miles wide. It is a popular destination for fishing, boating, and tourism. Since 1914, Buzzards Bay has been connected to Cape Cod Bay by the Cape Cod Canal...

. Opening to the east northeast, Hadley Harbor, on the east end of Naushon, is relatively deep and is well protected from storms. At the mouth of Hadley Harbor, Bull Island is open to picnickers. On Naushon, there are no paved roads but many miles of trails through the mostly beech

Beech

Beech is a genus of ten species of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia and North America.-Habit:...

 woods. A lighthouse sits above Tarpaulin Cove.

When he was growing up, Sen. John Forbes Kerry

John Kerry

John Forbes Kerry is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts, the 10th most senior U.S. Senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party in the 2004 presidential election, but lost to former President George W...

 and his first cousin Brice Lalonde

Brice Lalonde

Brice Lalonde is a former green party leader in France, who ran for President of France in the Presidential elections, 1981. In 1988 he was named Minister of the Environment, and in 1990 founded the green party Ecology Generation...

 summered on Naushon and at Saint-Briac, in France.
Naushon Island was at one time the property of James Bowdoin III

James Bowdoin III

James Bowdoin III was an American philanthropist and statesman from Boston, Massachusetts. He has born to James Bowdoin in Boston, and graduated from Harvard University in 1771. James then studied law at Oxford and traveled widely in Europe until 1775. When he got the news of the Battle of...

 (1752–1811), son of Massachusetts' governor James Bowdoin II

James Bowdoin

James Bowdoin II was an American political and intellectual leader from Boston, Massachusetts during the American Revolution. He served in both branches of the Massachusetts General Court in the colonial era and was president of the state's constitutional convention...

(1726–1790) and appointed by President Thomas Jefferson to serve as the U.S. plenipotentiary to Spain. James III owned a beautiful estate at "Nashaun Island," according to Thomas Bridgman who in 1856 published The Pilgrims of Massachusetts and Their Descendants. Bridgman also notes that Bowdoin was "among the very earliest as well as largest importers of the pure Merino stock and took great pains in improving his own flocks and inculcating the importance of doing so upon others". This interest may have led to the wool sample found among Thomas Jefferson's papers. Jefferson's note reads "Specimen of Mr. Bowdoin's wool, from American sheep raised on his Island of "Nanshaw". The note has been digitized and is available for viewing in the Library of Congress American Memories Collection http://www.memory.loc.gov, indexed as "Hackley and Bowdoin, no date, wool samples".

External links

• Cuttyhunk Historical Society, the Museum of the Elizabeth Islands The purpose of the Cuttyhunk Historical Society is to preserve the traditions, records and history of the Elizabeth Islands for the benefit of present and future generations.