Cape Ann
Cape Ann is a rocky cape in northeastern Massachusetts on the Atlantic Ocean. The cape is located approximately 30 miles northeast of Boston and forms the northern edge of Massachusetts Bay. Cape Ann includes the city of Gloucester, and the towns of Essex, Manchester-by-the-Sea, and Rockport.
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[edit] Etymology
Cape Ann was first mapped by the explorer John Smith. He had given it the name "Cape Tragabigzanda", after his owner in Constantinople when he was enslaved as a prisoner of war by the Ottoman Empire. She had fallen in love with him. He later escaped in Russia. When Smith presented his map to Charles I he suggested that Charles should feel free to change any of the "barbarous names" (meaning the many Native American names) for "English" ones. The king made many such changes, but only four survive today, one of which is Cape Ann, which Charles named in honor of his mother, Anne of Denmark.[1]
[edit] Colony history
The English colony at Cape Ann was first founded in 1623. It was the fourth colonizing effort in New England after Popham Colony, Plymouth Colony and Nantasket Beach. Two ships of the Dorchester Company brought 32 in number with John Tylly and Thomas Gardner as overseers of a fishing operation and the plantation, respectively. This colony predated Massachusetts Bay charter and colony. For that reason, members of the colony were referred to as "old planters".
By 1634 the name of Cape Ann was already established, as it is mentioned and depicted on maps in William Wood's New England's Prospect first published in that year.
[edit] Local culture
At the end of Cape Ann, and splitting Gloucester into two parts (East and West Gloucester) is the Annisquam River. Many locals who live in East Gloucester and Rockport refer to the land east of the Annisquam as "The Island".[2] There is a waning but still persistent sense of independence that exists amongst some of those living there who are from old families that they rarely, or never, "cross over the bridge" since everything they need is on the island. The island has its own schools, water supply (by quarries), and even its own hospital, the Addison Gilbert Hospital. Cape Ann is also featured as the setting for the Harry Chapin song 'Dogtown'.
[edit] Popular culture
Cape Ann is the location of the fictional town of Sea Harbor, the setting of the Seaside Knitters mysteries by author Sally Goldenbaum (author's site) Sea Harbor is on the coast, with Gloucester as its nearest neighbor town.
[edit] References
- ^ Stewart, George R. (1967) [1945]. Names on the Land: A Historical Account of Place-Naming in the United States (Sentry edition (3rd) ed.). Houghton Mifflin. p. 38.
- ^ Martin, Roger (1997). Rockport Remembered: An Oral History. The Curious Traveler Press.
