Naushon Island has been a Forbes family retreat for some time, where the China trade merchant John Murray Forbes and his family have summered for more than a century. Sen. John Forbes Kerry and his first cousin Brice Lalonde summered there, and at another Forbes family estate in France, at Saint-Briac when he was growing up. The island is owned and managed by the Naushon Island Trust, Inc. Naushon island is seven miles long, just off (SW of) Cape Cod in the Elizabeth Islands, and four miles NW of Martha's Vineyard. The island is owned by the family and is included in the town of Gosnold, Massachusetts.

Naushon and the smaller islands that surround it are private property, and closed to the public, with the exception of three beaches; (Kettle Cove, West Beach and Tarpaulin Cove). Hadley Harbor, on the East end of the island, is well protected with moorings. There are no paved roads but many miles of trails through the mostly beech woods. A lighthouse sits above Tarpaulin cove.