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Hog Island, one of the Barrier Islands off the coast of the Eastern Shore of Virginia, has had several different names over the centuries. The original patent identifies the island as “Hogg Island alias “Shooting Beach”. Hog Island has been known by that name since at least the 1680’s. In the seventeenth century, Eastern Shoremen valued the barrier islands for pasturing their livestock.
There are several old wives tales on how the island got its present name. The most popular speculation was that a ship carrying a cargo of hogs wrecked on the shoals of the island and the shipwrecked hogs swam ashore. Some say that the island was named for the hogfish, which were found in abundance in the island waters. Still another guess is that Hog is an abbreviation for Quahog, the hard shell clam, which was plentiful in the bay.
The earliest record of settlement on the island is 1672 when twenty-five colonists were granted a patent from Sir Henry Chincley to the island known as Machipongo. After living on the island for an undetermined time, this first colony on Hog Island disappeared. Men, women, and children just vanished… no clue as to their fate, and no records or descendents to solve the mystery. The next record of human habitation on Hog Island came when Labin Phillips settled there in the late 1700’s.
In the next installment…more on the history of Hog Island and the town of Broadwater.
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Piece Description
Hog Island, one of the Barrier Islands off the coast of the Eastern Shore of Virginia, has had several different names over the centuries. The original patent identifies the island as “Hogg Island alias “Shooting Beach”. Hog Island has been known by that name since at least the 1680’s. In the seventeenth century, Eastern Shoremen valued the barrier islands for pasturing their livestock.
There are several old wives tales on how the island got its present name. The most popular speculation was that a ship carrying a cargo of hogs wrecked on the shoals of the island and the shipwrecked hogs swam ashore. Some say that the island was named for the hogfish, which were found in abundance in the island waters. Still another guess is that Hog is an abbreviation for Quahog, the hard shell clam, which was plentiful in the bay.
The earliest record of settlement on the island is 1672 when twenty-five colonists were granted a patent from Sir Henry Chincley to the island known as Machipongo. After living on the island for an undetermined time, this first colony on Hog Island disappeared. Men, women, and children just vanished… no clue as to their fate, and no records or descendents to solve the mystery. The next record of human habitation on Hog Island came when Labin Phillips settled there in the late 1700’s.
In the next installment…more on the history of Hog Island and the town of Broadwater.
Broadcast History
airs twice a week on WHRO and WHRV FM
Additional Credits
Barrier Islands Center
Virginia Foundation for the Humanities
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