Okok

Charles II (1630-1685), who, after the end of the Protectorate, was restored as King of England, Scotland, and Ireland in 1660, granted a charter for Carolina to eight Lords Proprietors in 1663. The charter included all of the land between Virginia and Florida, and extended from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean.  

In 1672 John Olgiby (1600-1676) created the "First Lords Proprietor' Map" of the Carolina territory (from Virginia to Florida; and from the Atlantic to the Appalachians).

Olgilby Map, 1672

 













The detail above shows the Outer Banks (the map is oriented with North to the right). At the bottom is Cape Hatteras. About midway on the left side of the map one island is identified as Okok. This is Ocracoke. Interestingly, it is still common today, almost 350 years later, to hear native Ocracokers refer to their island as Okok (pronounced Ocock), and themselves as Okokers (Ocockers).

This month's Ocracoke Newsletter is a chapter from Philip Howard's book, Digging up Uncle Evans, about the 1837 wreck of the Steamboat Home, one of the most horrific wrecks ever on the North Carolina coast. You can read it here: https://www.villagecraftsmen.com/the-1837-wreck-of-the-steamboat-home/.