Larry's Musings

​ I was recently asked why Isle of Hope was called Isle of Hope, and since I was there here's what I found

 Isle of Hope (L' Isle Desperance)

It is stated people have found refuge at L' Isle Desperance (Isle of Hope), which was an island at high tide and easily defended due to swamps, gators, snakes, bugs and other crawly, biting, stinging things.  Prior to1720’s the French are credited with some of the first colonization of this Isle. French Hugenauts who came here to escape religious persecution in predominately Catholic nations/states, mainly Europe at the time (the version I found).  

Supposedly many pirates buried their loot here, as well as took refuge from the Navies of the time. Whose Navy is your choice, as the Colonials and British early on referred to them as Privateers, but not the Spanish?  Must be lots of loot still out there as I can find no reference to it ever being found.

The English Occupation - In 1733, when General James Edward Ogelthorpe founded the Georgia colony a surveyor named Noble Jones was granted a tract on the island that was eventually named Wormsloe.  This was possibly after an English estate but more probably due to the mulberry trees that were grown there, the worms of which, it was hoped, would form the basis for a silk industry.  The Isle was defended from Indians, Pirates, Spanish, and I guess all other comers, up through the revolutionary war period. 

I never could find out what became of French Hugenauts escaping religious persecution.

So now you know all about early founding of Isle of Hope.  For us it was a nice laid back restful stop although it still has some crawly biting things.

Larry