SKIPPERS ISLAND PAPERS
57
Manor of Birch Hall, otherwisse Birchey Hoe in Kirby
Rent Roll and Quit Rents payable yearly to Mrs. Edwards,
Lady of the said Manor in the year 1758 (interalia)
(Owner) Charles Cook of Maldon in right of his wife
(Occupier) John Hibbs, now John Skipper
(Lands) For an Island called Holmes Island in Kirby,
formerly Cook's freehold in the occupation of John
Hibbs.
Rent 6/- Rent one year £22.
Date 29 May 1759. J. A. Cecil, Steward.
If John Skipper had recently succeeded John Hibbs as occupier
it would seem that he it was whose name stuck to the island and
caused the change of name from Holmes Island to Skippers
Island. The island is called Holmes Island in the maps of John
Oliver (1696), and of Chapman & Hall in 1777. This question of
name is therefore worth pursuing, and J. H. Round (1923) in an
article entitled Norse Place-names in Essex has the following to
say on the subject:
"From Pembrokeshire to Essex is a far cry; Milford Haven
and Hamford Water might not at first suggest a similar
Norse origin. I have long thought that in the latter name
we might detect a Norse fiord; for there is nothing in its
situation to suggest an English ford, one of those fords
which are so familiar to students of Essex place-names. I
should, however, hardly venture to hazard this suggestion,
were it not that—at the head of the large inlet of the sea
known as Hamford Water and behind Holmes island—
there starts the parish boundary between Kirby and
Thorpe (in the old Soke of Eadwulfsness), both of which,
I shall show, have distinctive Scandinavian names. As for
the name of Holmes island, it is found in Morant's work,
where it is mentioned under Mose, and in the maps of
Chapman and Andre and of Greenwood (1825). It now
figures, however, on the Ordnance map as "Skippers
island"—I know not why. The name 'Holmes' has no
meaning, but if the original name was 'Holm', which is one
of the Scandinavian survivals in Mr. Freeman's list above,
it would correctly indicate "a holme or island". The
pleonasm of Holme island would be parallel to that of
'Mersea island'."
The Rent Roll seems to suggest that a change of name from
Holmes Island occurred some time after 1759. But is this
evidence conclusive in that sense? John Skipper may be no more
than "John of Skippers Island", and that name possibly older
than this particular John. Another theory therefore occurs to
me, especially in view of the history of separate ownership of
the two main parts of high ground. Is it possible that the south-
western part bore a different name from the remainder and that
one part was called Skippers Island and the other Holmes Island
until the map-makers came along and, on incomplete local in-