Gardner's mother, Catherine Endicott Peabody (1808–1883), of
Brookline, Massachusetts, was the daughter of the Salem shipowner,
Joseph Peabody (1757–1844), who made a fortune importing pepper from
Sumatra and was one of the wealthiest men in the United States at the time of his death in 1844. Gardner's paternal grandfather, Samuel Pickering Gardner (1768–1843), descended from
Thomas Gardner and from the father of
Timothy Pickering. Through his paternal grandmother, Rebecca Russell Lowell, he descended from
Percival Lowell who had arrived at
Cape Ann in 1639. After spending time at
Harvard, Gardner joined his father's
East Indies trading business. The Gardners entered into partnership with Peabody, and their ships sailed many seas. Some of those ships were as follows (
clipper ships are not linked):
Arabia,
Bunker Hill,
California,
Democrat,
Duxbury,
Eclipse,
Gentleman,
Grotius,
Lenore,
Lepanto,
Lotos, ,
Mars,
Monterey,
Nabob,
Napke,
Naples,
Pallas,
Pioneer,
Plant,
Plato,
Ruble,
Sappho,
Shawmut,
St Paul, ,
Sumatra,
Thetis, and
Unicorn. The younger Gardner had financial interests besides shipping, such as railroads (
Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad) and mining (
Calumet and Hecla Mining Company). He supported the America's Cup defender,
Puritan. == Marriage and death==