08/22/2026
Tangier Island is a wild, marshy landmass in Chesapeake Bay, Virginia on the east coast of America. The tiny population of around 500 people survives mainly on fishing, harvesting crabs and oysters and, in recent years, tourism.
It is a remote, isolated community, cut off from the mainland for centuries. The islanders have developed their own culture and way of living, yet bizarrely this unlikely place is also deeply connected to Cornwall.
The inhabitants of Tangier Island are said to talk with a strange American-Cornish accent and the St Piran’s cross even graces their island’s flag. So, how did this unusual connection come about?
It is all because the first permanent colonial settlement on the island was founded by Cornish farmers and fishermen back in the 17th century.
Separated from the mainland by a deep channel 12 miles wide Tangier Island is only accessible by seaplane or boat. Covering only 1.5 square miles it is truly tiny place that unfortunately it is shrinking by the day.
The people here hold fast to a very quiet and traditional way of living and up until fairly recently daily life was governed by strict Methodist beliefs. There are almost no cars, most people get about by bicycle, motorbike or boat; there is no alcohol, no mobile phone reception, no police and, the locals say, no reason to lock your doors.
For thousands of years, up until the early 17th century, Tangier had been used as retreat by the local Pokomoke Indians whose arrowheads can still be found in their hundreds across the island. Although the English explorer John Smith first visited here in 1608 but it took a further 78 years before there was a permanent settlement on Tangier Island.
In 1686 five (or seven or fourteen depending on what you read) Cornish families moved to Tangier Island and made it their home.
They were said to be farmers and fishermen, possibly from the Padstow area, well suited to the rigours of making a life for themselves and their families in the New World.
It is thought that John Crockett and his wife, with their four sons and four daughters, were amongst the first settlers, along with other families who names we aren’t quite so sure of. Together they built houses, married and had more children, they made a life for themselves far away from the Cornish shores they had left behind. Though, as you might expect, it was not always easy as this cutting from 1936 proves.
Today it is believed that by and large all of the islanders are descended from those few original families. The community nearly all have the same few surnames Crockett, Pruitt, Thomas, Marshall, Charnock, Dise, Shores and Parks.
Even today other Americans visiting the island say that it is like stepping back in time and perhaps one of the most distinctive things they notice is the strange accent of the islanders.
Some say that it is the remnants of “Elizabethan English” but most agree that the geographical isolation and strict adherence to tradition has created a truly unique speech pattern that is believed to have been passed down from the original Cornish settlers.
Sadly a combination of erosion and rising sea levels means that Tangier Island is literally sinking.
The New York Times recently reported that the island’s landmass has already shrunk by two-thirds since 1850 and with its highest point just 4ft above sea level some scientists fear that the islanders will need to find somewhere else to live by as early as 2037.
