232 THE ISLAND OF NANTUCKET. 



regarding the early history of the island, its buildings, 

 etc. He had made these matters a study from his 

 youth, and had consulted early records and many an- 

 cient people on these subjects. He told me the oldest 

 house on the island then standing, some years before 

 his death, was the Jethro Coffin house on North Shore 

 Hill, which was built in 1686. This house was pur- 

 chased by the first Nathaniel Paddack from the Coffin 

 family in 1707, and it was in the possession of the 

 Paddack family long after I was born. This is the 

 house that Tristram Coffin, Esq., and his brother 

 bought and repaired in 1881. He told me also that 

 the next oldest one was the Meader house in Polpis, 

 near the Quaise line, a part of which was nearly as old 

 as the Jethro Coffin house. 



The house on North Street owned by Edward Bur- 

 dett and wife is an old one. It was originally a single 

 house, and was built in Squam in 1702, by Nathan 

 Folger, Sr., who lived in it until 1716, when he had it 

 taken down and erected on its present site, adding an- 

 other part, and making it, as at present, a double 

 house. 



I believe the next oldest dwelling standing on the 

 island is the George Swain house in Polpis, recently 

 owned and occupied by his daughter, Love Smith. 

 This old house was built in 1704 by John Swain, Sr., 

 for his daughter Elizabeth, who married Joshua Se- 

 volle, a tailor by trade. Elizabeth was born May 17, 

 1676, and died May 24, 1760, and her husband in 1735 

 or 1736. George Swain, Sr., showed me, about forty 

 years ago, the spots where John Swain, Sr.'s, and John 

 Swain, Jr.'s, houses stood, one on the Capt. Eule farm, 



