History
The Native American name for the island was "Chibachuweset" (or "Chibachuwese"), and the Narragansetts originally offered it for sale to John Oldham if he would settle there and set up a trading post. Oldham failed to meet the condition, so in 1637 the Narragansetts sold the island to Roger Williams and John Winthrop with each man retaining a one-half interest. Williams and Winthrop hoped to farm pigs on the island. Williams named the island "Prudence" and shortly afterwards purchased and named nearby Patience Island and Hope Island. Williams sold his half interest in Prudence Island while in England on behalf of the colony, and Winthrop willed his land to his son Stephen.
In colonial times, the island was used mainly for farming. During the American Revolution, the British forces under Captain James Wallace raided Prudence Island for livestock and engaged in a skirmish with American forces, losing approximately a dozen soldiers. In the 20th century, farming began to decline and the island began to attract summer residences. In World War II, the U.S. Navy established an ammunition depot on the 400 acres (1.6 km2) southernmost of the island. In 1972, the Navy turned the base over to the State of Rhode Island, leaving bunkers, roads, and a large deep-water pier.
Along with nearby Hope Island and Patience Island, the former Naval Base is now home to the Narragansett Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, as well as the former Garland Estate on the northernmost part of the island. The Farnham Farm is a national historic site. The island is served by ferry service to Bristol, Rhode Island. Parts of the 2012 film, Moonrise Kingdom, were filmed on the island and nearby Jamestown, Rhode Island.
Read more about this topic: Prudence Island
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“Let us not underrate the value of a fact; it will one day flower in a truth. It is astonishing how few facts of importance are added in a century to the natural history of any animal. The natural history of man himself is still being gradually written.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“What is most interesting and valuable in it, however, is not the materials for the history of Pontiac, or Braddock, or the Northwest, which it furnishes; not the annals of the country, but the natural facts, or perennials, which are ever without date. When out of history the truth shall be extracted, it will have shed its dates like withered leaves.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“When the coherence of the parts of a stone, or even that composition of parts which renders it extended; when these familiar objects, I say, are so inexplicable, and contain circumstances so repugnant and contradictory; with what assurance can we decide concerning the origin of worlds, or trace their history from eternity to eternity?”
—David Hume (1711–1776)