Another Isle of Wight
It is reasonably well known that
there is an Isle of Wight County in
Virginia, but there was also for a short time an Isle of Wight off the East
Coast of Long Island, New York state.
(This
picture is from the Newsday site, the Isle of Wight is at the east end of
Long Island, between the forks).
The
Island was originally called
Manchonat, or the Island of Death by the Montaukett Indians. An English settler,
Lion Gardiner visited the Island in around 1639 and was struck by its shape, he
thought it resembled the Isle of Wight, in England. When he walked over it, he
found it had “magnificent forests, saltwater ponds and freshwater streams that
he could dam and use for his livestock”.
Gardiner
sat down with the Algonquian Indians who lived near the island and
and bought all 3,000 acres. He
gave the Indians a quantity of cloth, a gun, gunpowder and "a large black
dog". Gardiner's purchase was later ratified when he received a grant from King
Charles I of England.
The Island
seems to have quickly been renamed Gardiners
Island, although there seem to be references to it for some time after (the map
above is dated 1690).
Most of the above have come from 'Newsday', a Long Island daily newspaper.