The Eliabeth Islands are a chain of a dozen islands running westward from the mainland of Cape Cod at Woods Hole, between Buzzards Bay and Vineyard Sound.The entire chain of islands comprise the town of Gosnold, in Dukes County. The islands, varying in size from a few acres to several thousand, now bear the following names, beginning at Woods Hole and going westward in sequence: Nonamesset, Uncatena, Monohansett, Naushon, Weepecket, Pasque, Nashawena, Penekese, Gull and Cuttyhunk.The islands have been, since the first purchase by Thomas Mayhew in1641, a part of the political life of Martha's Vineyard and Duke's County, at first forming one of the outlying portions of the Manor of Tisbury, later of Chilmark and for the past quarter of a century as an independent township.