Martha!  Martin!  New York!  Massachusetts!  How many aliases and states have claimed this 100 sq mile island?  The Wampanoags named it Noepe and that stuck until Bartholomew Gosnold came along in 1602. 

No one seems to know who the Martin was whose name was once attached to the Vineyard… so let’s move ahead to Martha whose identity is still shrouded in myth.  Was she one of Gosnold’s daughters, or his mother, or the name of an English royal.  Whoever she was her name stuck and in my opinion has a nicer ring to it then Martin’s Vineyard.  

According to the book “The History of Martha’s Vineyard” by Arthur R. Railton, in 1664 Charles II gave NY, NJ and the islands to the east to his brother, the Duke of York.  In 1670 Thomas Mayhew, Jr and his grandson Matthew of Massachusetts traveled to NY to ask Gov Lovelace which colony his Island was under… New York or Massachusetts.  Gov Lovelace made Thomas Mayhew “Governor for Life” of Martha’s Vineyard  and gave him the authority to collect rents from all who lived within its bounds.  Voila, Martha’s Vineyard Massachusetts.  History lesson over.