CHILDREN: no known children
William Bradford in his journal Of Plymouth Plantation wrote in 1650: "Richard Gardinar, became a seaman, and dyed in England, or at sea."
He was most likely the son of John Gardiner and Lucy Russell. Lucy Russell was the step-aunt of Christopher Jones, captain of the Mayflower, and was likely related by marriage to John Alden, the Mayflower's cooper. This relationship places Richard in a sea-faring family, which would be expected if he "became a seaman" as Bradford states.
He is probably the same person as the Richard Gardiner who is named in the 23 May 1609 Second Virginia Charter, having invested £12 10s in the Virginia Company of London. His father John Gardiner is probably the John Gardiner, merchant, listed on the same Charter, having invested £75 in the Virginia Company of London. This large investment in the Virginia Company might give some insight into the following excerpt from a letter written by Emmanuel Altham to James Sherley in May 1624 from New England:
And he hath sent me word that he will provide me a sufficient man for master, notwithstanding Richard Gardinar hath earnestly requested it, claiming it as his due by place, but some say not by sufficiency. I will say no more concerning him because I know you shall understand it by others.
William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation, ed. Samuel Morison (New York: Random House, 1952).
Sydney V. James, ed., Three Visitors to Early Plymouth (Plymouth: Plimoth Plantation, 1963).
Charles Edward Banks, English Ancestry and Homes of the Pilgrim Fathers (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1929).
Winifred Cooper, Harwich, The Mayflower and Christopher Jones (Phillimore: London 1970).
Parish registers of Harwich, Essex, England