Goat Island (Rhode Island)
| Native name: Nante Sinunk | |
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Newport Harbor Light (1842) on northern tip of Goat Island as seen from Easton's Point. The Claiborne Pell Bridge can be seen in the background.
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| Coordinates | 41°29.112′N 71°19.681′W / 41.485200°N 71.328017°WCoordinates: 41°29.112′N 71°19.681′W / 41.485200°N 71.328017°W |
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United States
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| State | Rhode Island |
| City | Newport |
Goat Island is a small island in Narragansett Bay and is part of the city of Newport, Rhode Island, U.S. The island is connected to the Easton's Point neighborhood via a causeway bridge. It is home to the Newport Harbor Light (1842), The Marina Cafe & Pub, Belle Mer, the Hyatt Regency Newport hotel, and the Goat Island South Condominiums. It was also home to several military forts and to the U.S. Naval Torpedo Station, and was the site of the attacks on the HMS St John and HMS Liberty.
Narragansett Indians called the island "Nante Sinunk" and sold it in 1658. Early Newport colonists used the island as a goat pasture. An earthen fort was built on Goat Island in 1703 during the War of Spanish Succession, and it was named "Fort Anne" after the reigning Queen Anne.
On Friday, 19 July 1723, twenty-six pirates were buried on the north end of Goat Island, on the shore, between high and low water mark. They had been tried in Newport between 10 and 12 July and hanged at nearby Bull's Point (Gravelly Point). They were: Charles Harris, Thomas Linicar, Daniel Hyde, Stephen Mundon, Abraham Lacy, Edward Lawson, John Tomkins, Francis Laughton, John Fisgerald, William Studfield, Owen Rice, William Read, John Bright, Thomas Hazel, William Blades (Rhode Island), Thomas Hagget, Peter Cues, William Jones, Edward Eaton, John Brown, James Sprinkly, Joseph Sound, Charles Church, John Waters, Thomas Powell (Connecticut), and Joseph Libbey. "The pirates were all young men, most of them natives of England." The following is taken from The Salem Observer, November 11, 1843: "...this was the most extensive execution of pirates that ever took place at one time in the Colonies, it was attended by a vast multitude from every part of New England."
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