Isles of Scilly, Cornwall : Historical writing

Descriptive gazetteer entries

These other entries in our collection of descriptive gazetteers are also about Isles of Scilly. You may be able to find further references to Isles of Scilly in the descriptive gazetteers by doing a full-text search here.

Place Type of entry Source
Scilly Islands island Bartholomew
SCILLY ISLANDS a group of islands Imperial

Travel writing

This website includes the complete texts of books describing journeys around Britain, written between the twelfth and nineteenth centuries. Selecting one of the links below will take you to the first reference to Isles of Scilly within the selected text. This will not always be a description of a visit: travellers often mention places other than where they are, for example as a basis for comparison.

Traveller Section No. of Refs.
William Camden Smaller Islands in the British Ocean 13
Daniel Defoe Appendix to letter 3 6
John Wesley 1737-8: Troubles in Georgia; Return to England 2
Daniel Defoe Letter 3, Part 3: From Exeter to Land's End 1
Daniel Defoe Letter 4, Part 1: North Cornwall and Devon 1
John Wesley 1743: Wesley Refused Sacraments at Epworth; Cornwall and the Scilly Isles 1
John Wesley 1751-3: Wesley's Marriage; Cornwall Smugglers; Illness and Recovery 1

This website includes two large libraries, of historical travel writing and of entries from nineteenth century gazetteers describing places. We have text from these sources available for these places near your location:

Place Mentioned in Travel Writing Mentioned in Historical Gazetteer
Sampson 0 2
Hugh Town 0 2
St Marys 2 2
Tresco 2 2
Bryher 1 2
St Agnes Island 0 2
St Martins 1 1
Wolfe Rock Lighthouse 0 2
Lands End 0 2
Maen 0 2
Sennen 3 2
Porthgwarra 0 2
St Levan 0 2
St Just 26 2
Trewellard 3 0
Pendeen 0 2
St Buryan 3 2
Sancreed 1 2
Morvah 12 2
Paul 0 2

Names from historical writing

The following appear as names for Isles of Scilly. Follow the links for what the author actually said:

Name Author Source
CASSITERIDES OF TINN William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
HESPERIDES William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
ILANDS OF SYLLY William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
ILES OF SILLY William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
ISLANDS OF SCILLY Daniel Defoe A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain, divided into circuits or journies (London: JM Dent and Co, 1927).
SCILLY John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
Daniel Defoe A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain, divided into circuits or journies (London: JM Dent and Co, 1927).
John Wesley The Journal of John Wesley (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Christian Classics Ethereal Library, 2000).
SCILLY ISLANDS John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
John Marius Wilson Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (Edinburgh: A Fullarton & Co., 1870-72).
SIGNDELLES William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
SILLINAE William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
SILLY William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
SILURES William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
SORLINGS William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
SYRIA INSULA William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).

NB: These variant names come from our collections of historical travel writing and descriptive gazetteers:

  • The above links take you to the first reference to this particular version of the name within a book of travel writing, or to the relevant gazetteer entry.
  • Some names may derive from research by antiquarian writers such as William Camden and Thomas Pennant into the Roman, Saxon and medieval names of places. Their claims are not always supported by modern place-name researchers.
  • References by travel writers to the place using its "normal" name are not included. Descriptive gazetteer entries are included only if the name does not appear anywhere else.