Winnacunnet is a word derived from one of the
Algonquian languages and may mean "beautiful place in the
pines".
[The Drama of Winnacunnet]
The supposed translation of the name comes from "The Drama of Winnacunnet", a 1938 production. Note however that translations of Native American words from this period are often regarded as fanciful. Other sources suggest a meaning of "place of pines" or "beautiful long place."
The word has been
transliterated in a variety of ways.
Massachusetts Bay Colony
The Massachusetts Bay Colony (1630–1691), more formally the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, was an English settlement on the east coast of North America around the Massachusetts Bay, the northernmost of the several colonies later reorganized as the ...
Governor John Winthrop used the spelling "Winicowettas". A ''
Hampton Union'' article from circa 1959 mentions "Winnacunnet", "Winnicunnet", "Wenicunnett", "Winnicummet", and "Winicumet" among the variations.
In 1638, the "Plantation of Winnicunnet" was founded by Reverend
Stephen Bachiler and others from Massachusetts. The following spring, the town was renamed
Hampton.
See also
*
Winnecunnet Pond :''See also Winnacunnet (disambiguation).''
Winnecunnet Pond or Winneconnet Pond or Winnecunnett Pond, very often called Lake Winnecunnet or Lake Winneconnet or Lake Winnecunnett although it is a pond rather than a lake, is a body of water in No ...
, also known as Lake Winnecunnet,
Norton, Massachusetts.
*
Winnacunnet High School, a school in
Hampton, New Hampshire (a town originally known as the "Plantation of Winnacunnet").
The Drama of Winnacunnet
Regarding its usage in New Hampshire, the name was supposedly used by the Algonquians
The Algonquian are one of the most populous and widespread North American native language groups. Historically, the peoples were prominent along the Atlantic Coast and into the interior along the Saint Lawrence River and around the Great Lakes. T ...
"to designate the river, afterward called Hampton river
The Hampton River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 tidal estuary which empties into Hampton Roads near its mouth. Hampton Roads in turn empties into th ...
, flowing into the Atlantic, a few miles north of the Merrimac, and a tract of land in the vicinity of the river, whose limits are not well defined, but which appears to have been extensive enough to embrace the Indian population, accustomed to resort to the river for shell-fish and game, and to make it, for their canoes, a thoroughfare to the ocean.
References
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Names of places in the United States