David Hedley has vacationed on Martha's Vineyard his whole life and now owns property there, continuing a family tradition. While local legend says Vikings discovered the island in 1000 AD, it is more likely Europeans like Giovanni da Verrazzano in 1524 were the first, with Verrazzano naming it Louisa. It was Bartholomew Gosnold in 1602 who first reached Cape Cod from England and then sailed further south, naming the island Martha's Vineyard after his daughter and due to the abundant grape vines he observed.

1. Bartholomew Gosnold
and the Naming of
Martha’s Vineyard

2. Bartholomew
Gosnold and
the Naming of
Martha’s
Vineyard
 David Hedley, a senior managing director and group head at Ernst
& Young Capital Advisors, LLC, in San Francisco, spends his
vacation time on Martha’s Vineyard, an island of about 100 square
miles located four miles south of where Cape Cod joins mainland
Massachusetts. Throughout his youth and undergraduate years,
and then as a young investment banker working in New York City,
he took time off every year to spend vacations with family
members in their vacation home in Edgartown. Today, David
Hedley owns his own place in Edgartown and continues to honor
the family tradition by vacationing on Martha’s Vineyard.

3. Bartholomew
Gosnold and
the Naming of
Martha’s
Vineyard
 Local legend has it that Martha’s Vineyard was first discovered
about A.D. 1,000 by Norsemen exploring the eastern cost of North
America, using as substantiation a Viking description of the land
that could only be Martha’s Vineyard. However, it’s pretty clear
that the island is not the Vineland of Norse sagas.

4. Bartholomew
Gosnold and
the Naming of
Martha’s
Vineyard
 The next Europeans to set eyes on Martha’s Vineyard were
Giovanni da Verrazzano and his crew, who sailed past the island in
1524. Verrazzano named the island Louisa. Apparently, other
Europeans also sighted the island and assigned it different names.

5. Bartholomew
Gosnold and
the Naming of
Martha’s
Vineyard
 In 1602, though, English lawyer, businessman, and explorer
Bartholomew Gosnold sailed west from Englandand reached land
at what is now Cape Cod, which he named because of the
abundance of codfish to be found in the waters. He then sailed
south to the modern-day Noman’s Land and named it Martha’s
Vineyard for the abundant grape vines and in honor of his
daughter Martha.