Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for SCILLY ISLANDS

SCILLY ISLANDS, a group of islands belonging to the county of Cornwall, and lying about 30 miles W of Lands-End. Five of them St. Mary, St. Martin, Trescoe, Bryher, and St. Agnesare inhabited; ten more Sampson, St. Helen, Annette, Team, Great Ganniley, Arthur, Ganniornic, Northwithial, Gweal, and Little Gannileyhave areas of from 80 to 5 acres; and about 35 more are rocks or skerries considerable enough to be called islets. The total area is about 3, 560 acres. The name Scilly is a corruption either of the Cornish word Silya, signifying "conger, " or of the ancient British word Sulleh, signifying "rocks consecrated to the sun." The islands were known to the Greeks as Cassiterides, signifying "tin islands; " they were made by the Romans a place of occasional banishment; they became annexed, in the early part of the 10th century, to the English crown; they were given by Athelstan to some monkswho settled on Trescoe, and were transferred by Henry I. to Tavistock abbey; they passed, before the time of Elizabeth, in some unrecorded manner, to a number of different proprietors; they were bought up for the Crown in the time of Elizabeth, and annexed to the duchy of Cornwall; they were held, under the duchy, from at least the time of James I. till 1830, by the family of Godolphin; they became a retreat of Prince Charles in 1645-6, after the defeat of the royal cause in the west; they were fortified in 1649, by Sir John Grenville, in the cause of Charles II., but were taken in 1651 by Blake and Ayscue; they are now held in lease from the duchy of Cornwall by Augustus Smith, Esq.; and they were visited, in 1865, by the Prince and Princess of Wales. Each of the principal islands, and their capital Hugh-Town on St. Mary, are separately noticed. Hugh-Town has a post-office, ‡ of the name of Scilly, under Penzance; and it communicates twice a-week by steamer with Penzance. The pop. of the entire group in 1851 was 2, 627; in 1861, 2, 431. Houses, 499. The inhabitants are chiefly fishermen, sailors, and pilots; but many cultivate crops of an early potato, which is shipped in large quantities to Bristol and London. The islands rank as a head port; and they have an excellent harbour at Hugh-Town, and a lighthouse with revolving light 138 feethigh on St. Agnes. The vessels belonging to the port, at the beginning of 1864, were 15 small sailing-vessels, of aggregately 446 tons; 34 large sailing-vessels, of aggregately 6, 143 tons; and 1 steam-vessel, of 67 tons. The vessels which entered in 1863 were 1 British sailing-vessel, of 363 tons, from British colonies; 3 British sailing-vessels, of aggregately 761 tons, from foreign countries; 78 sailing-vessels, of aggregately 3, 587 tons, coastwise; and 116 steam-vessels, of aggregately 7, 656 tons, coast-wise. The amount of customs in 1862 was £97. The islands form one parish, the ecclesiastical statistics of which are noted in the article Mary ( St.); and they alsoform a poor-law district. Poor-rates in 1863, £123. Marriages in 1863, 20; births, 57, of which 2 were illegitimate; deaths, 47, of which 14 were at ages under 5years, and 4 at ages above 85. Marriages in the ten years 1851-60, 168; births, 635; deaths, 466. The places of worship, in 1851, were 5 of the Church of England, with 1, 274 sittings; 3 of Wesleyans, with 734 s.; and 4 of Bible Christians, with 518 s. The schools were 4 public day schools, with 285 scholars; 6 private day schools, with 470 s.; and 6 Sunday schools, with 514 s.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a group of islands"   (ADL Feature Type: "archipelagos")
Administrative units: Cornwall AncC
Place: Isles of Scilly

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