What's In A Name?

PENNY'S SEDGE ISLAND

Joshua Penny, a Southold native who moved to East Hampton, led an adventurous life, traveling around the world as a seaman. He was impressed into service with the British Navy in the years preceding the War of 1812, and lived among the Hottentots in South Africa for a time.

But it was his derring-do in efforts to torpedo the British fleet anchored in Gardiner's Bay during the War of 1812 that made him famous here.

He wrote about his travels for future generations to enjoy in "The Life and Adventures of Joshua Penny: Interspersed With Many Curious Incidents and Hair Breadth Escapes." Written with the help of Jeremiah Osborn, a local lawyer, it was published in 1815.

Bitter over years of inhumane treatment on the British ships where he served against his will, the author, in his own words, "determined to avail myself of the first opportunity of doing mischief to those who had so long tortured me."

The British caught on to his attempts at sabotage - rumor has it a Tory spy betrayed him - and captured him one night at his house on Three Mile Harbor, East Hampton, with his wife and children looking on.

As Penny describes the incident, on Aug. 20, 1813, a Sunday, "a boat was discovered taking soundings near my house, in the creek. I hastened to my nearest neighbour, who lived at some distance, and both of us advanced to attack the boat. We were armed - the boat made off and went along side the Ramilies. I suspected their design, for I saw them viewing with a glass, and pointing to my house."

The target of the British suspicions fell asleep while waiting for a guard to arrive, and awoke to find "the house was surrounded by people who had lain in ambush among my corn, growing near it. My wife, three little boys, old Robert Gray and a female Indian, composed, with myself, the family."

He heard "three spiteful raps" on the door and went to get his gun, but when the British saw him going for the weapon, "they burst in the door, and surrounded me. I was seized with one hand on the gun, and expected no quarter."

He was taken to a dungeon in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he remained for nine months, fed only bread and water. He was saved by the intervention of none other than the President of the United States, James Madison, who secured his release in exchange for a British officer who had been captured on Gardiner's Island.

East Hampton Town records in April 1823 declared "that Joshua Penny be allowed the use and privilege of the sedge which he set out on the flat, near the mouth of Three Mile Harbor, during his residence in this town," a reference to what is known today as Penny's Sedge Island, or, more commonly, Sedge Island.

Sedge, a kind of grass, still grows on the marshy island, which lies between Outlook Avenue in East Hampton and the end of Sammy's Beach. Today, the town owns the island's northern 4.6 acres and Harbor Marina owns the southern 1.1 acres. Part of the island is used for the deposit of dredge spoils.

M.N.