The volume begins with biographical sketches of the First Purchasers, in which the author explains to what extent each man figured in Nantucket's British beginnings and gives an account of that pioneer's immediate family and the circumstances of his death. The First Purchasers included: Thomas Macy, Benjamin Coffin, Tristram Coffin, Edward Starbuck, Richard Swain, William Bunker, John Swain, Thomas Barnard, Robert Barnard, Christopher Hussey, Thomas Mayhew, Peter Coffin, Stephen Greenleaf, William Pile, Robert Pike, Tristram Coffin, Jr., James Coffin, Thomas Coleman, Nathaniel Starbuck, Thomas Look, and John Smith. Many of these founders were well acquainted with one another and, in a number of instances, were connected through intermarriage as well. These relationships are clearly established by Mr. Starbuck's genealogies, which trace the founders from their origins in England through four or five generations to the eve of the American Revolution and beyond.