I’ve loved and studied Herman Melville’s novel Moby-Dick for years, and I vaguely knew that the 1820 shipwreck of The Essex was Melville’s primary inspiration, but I never paid much attention to that story for some reason. I’ll admit that when I saw there was a movie called In the Heart of the Sea (2015) after Nathan Philbrick’s historical recounting of The Essex wreck (2000), I scorned it as a “Moby-Dick knockoff.” That shows my ignorance and “contempt prior to investigation.” At the Nantucket Whaling Museum in 2021, a skilled storyteller brought the Essex history to life with anecdotes, images, and historical facts. As I listened and began to appreciate the real story, I heard her emphasizing the 14-year-old cabin boy who was one of the eight who survived the second lifeboat journey after they had to leave the island they’d found. When she said his name was Thomas Gibson Nickerson, I felt that jolt of recognition. The Nickerson name is all over our family tree during that era! Suddenly I was very interested (self-interested?) in the story of the Essex.
Thomas Gibson Nickerson, who was the cabin boy on The Essex
I’ll leave you to discover the details of The Essex on your own—I’ll just say that it was smashed by an angry sperm whale as the crew was hunting his whale family, the Essex sank, twenty men took to three lifeboats, found their way to a deserted island, discovered that it couldn’t sustain them, left three behind (who were later rescued) and took to the lifeboats again for such a long time that they had to resort to cannibalizing their dead in the boats in order to survive. It was such a dramatic tragedy that both Thomas Gibson Nickerson and Owen Chase the first mate wrote about it later, providing primary source accounts that are published and easily found.
Graves of Thomas and Rebecca Nickerson, parents of Thomas Gibson Nickerson, at Old North Cemetery, Nantucket, MA
As for my genealogy journey, it took some researching to locate Thomas Gibson Nickerson (1805-1883) on our family tree, but I did find and place him. Even though we have Nickersons in other parts of the tree, here the connection is also through the Bangs family who connect with the Atwoods (Mary Bangs 1671-unknown m. Thomas Nickerson 1670-1735 in 1696.) But our strongest connection is through a direct line back to the immigrants William (1604-1690) and Anne (Busby) (1607-1686) Nickerson who founded Chatham, MA. They had multiple children, hence multiple branches: the cabin boy Thomas Gibson Nickerson (1805-1883) descends from their son William, Jr. (1646-1719) and our line comes from their son Joseph (1647-1730). So it splits off pretty early, but it’s still fascinating to be related, even distantly, to such a drama! While in Nantucket, we took a little pilgrimage to the Old North Cemetery in Nantucket and located Thomas Gibson Nickerson’s parents’ graves (Thomas Nickerson 1773-1806 and Rebecca Gibson Nickerson 1778-1806), who both died when he was only one year old, leaving him to grow up with his grandfather Captain Robert Gibson (1752-unknown) who introduced him to the maritime world. We couldn’t find his grave marker, however, even with all our wandering and squinting at eroded grave inscriptions.
On a more technical genealogical note, I encountered a typical annoyance with errors in our tree concerning our direct connection to the immigrants William and Anne. Originally, I had that our ancestor Dorcas Nickerson (1790-1815), who married Joseph Tupper Archer (1782-1863), was descended from their son John’s (1640-1715) line. When I found the Nickerson Family Association and used their database, I learned that Dorcas had mistakenly been associated with John’s line for a long time, but a researcher named Richard Nickerson discovered in the 1960’s that Dorcas was actually descended from the son Joseph. The only documentation we have to prove that correction is a will from Dorcas’ father John Nickerson (1730-1819). He wrote the will in 1818, after Dorcas’ death in 1815, so she is not mentioned, but he lists his grandsons Joseph Allen (1814-1889) and Eliakim Freeman (1812-1885) Archer, who are Dorcas’ children. Eliakim is my great-great-great grandfather. A good piece of evidence, even if our only one. Thus, I had to go back and completely change all of Dorcas’ ancestors back to William and Anne (not my first time to perform that tedious task for an entry!).
Plaque at site of William and Anne Nickerson’s homestead, founders of Chatham, MA
In preparation for our East Coast genealogy research trip (Sept. 2022), I discovered the Nickerson Family Association online, locally based in Chatham, MA, near our first stop on the trip. Mom (Linda-Jane Irwin) and I drove out to the house on Cape Cod. One of the member volunteers, Nancy Nickerson Corey, was very kind and opened the Caleb Nickerson historical house for us outside of business hours. We met and talked with her, and she gave us a little tour, including the recent archaeological excavation of William and Anne’s original homestead from 1656 in what became known as Chatham, when William “made his fateful purchase of 1000 acres, or four square miles of Monomoit, from the sachem Mattaquason. For this William paid a shallop, ten coats, six kettles, twelve axes, twelve hoes, twelve knives, forty shillings in wampum, a hat, and twelve shillings in coins. But William failed to gain the consent of the colonial authorities in Plimoth Colony for his real estate transaction and so entered into sixteen years of wrangling with the Crown, finally settling the matter in 1672 for ninety pounds” (https://nickersonassoc.com/2013/03/29/william-and-anne-busby-nickerson-come-to-town/#more-1718). These little anecdotes are part of the hidden gems of genealogy work.
Inside the historical Nickerson House at Chatham, MA
Ironically, the Nickerson Family Association was preparing for a massive family reunion gathering, the 125th anniversary of their reunions in fact, scheduled for the very next weekend after we met Nancy. We would be close by in Martha’s Vineyard but unable to attend. Later during the trip, while researching at the New England Genealogical Society library in Boston, I found several other Nickerson connections, since the area was small and intermarriage between families (and often among families) was common. Upon returning home and further researching, I learned that Caleb Nickerson (1735-1804), the one who had lived in the house Mom and I toured, had been married to Elizabeth Mayo (1735-1806)—I was determined to find Elizabeth Mayo’s previous connections on our tree, as the Mayo name is everywhere (early New England was a “small town”). I discovered her to be the granddaughter of Thomas Mayo (1650-1729), whose grandfather Rev. John Mayo, Jr. (1597-1676) had immigrated to Barnstable, MA from England in 1638—they were already on our tree, how convenient. Dorcas Nickerson, of course, remains our “anchor” ancestor to the Irwins.