Opening from On This Site - Native Long Island

Hassockey / Jamaica Meadows

Hassockey is a name preserved in early Jamaica records for marshy meadow localities. Because the records describe more than one tract, the marker is intentionally approximate. Hassockey keeps early Jamaica wetland geography visible in a landscape heavily altered by drainage and development. Its plural documentary use also shows why a historical place name may need a broad marker rather than a false single-site precision. Hassockey appears in Jamaica-area records connected with marshy tracts of land. Recorded forms include Hassokie meadows, Hassokey swamp, and Hassokey Meadow. Tooker compared Hassockey with marsh-place vocabulary including Narragansett hassucki and Delaware assisku. The resemblance should be read as a historical linguistic interpretation rather than a settled modern translation.