Editing Isle of Dogs (section)

==Etymology and heraldry==
The first known written mention of the Isle of Dogs is in the ''[[Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII]]''. In Volume 3, entry 1009 "Shipping" dated 2 October 1520, there is a list of purchases, which includes "A hose for the Mary George, in dock at the Isle of Dogs, 10[[Penny (English coin)|d]]."<ref>[https://www.british-history.ac.uk/letters-papers-hen8/vol3/pp369-381 "Henry VIII: October 1520"], in ''[https://www.british-history.ac.uk/letters-papers-hen8/vol3 Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 3, 1519&ndash;1523]'', ed.  J. S. Brewer (London, 1867), ''[[British History Online]]''. pp.&nbsp;372. Accessed 11 December 2024.</ref>

The 1898 edition of ''[[Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable]]'' attributes the name: "So called from being the receptacle of the [[greyhound]]s of [[Edward III]]. Some say it is a corruption of the Isle of Ducks, and that it is so called in ancient records from the number of wild fowl inhabiting the marshes."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bartleby.com/81/8997.html |title=E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. (1898) |publisher=Bartleby.com |access-date=27 June 2013}}</ref> Other sources<ref name=BritHist/><ref>[http://www.towerhamlets.gov.uk/data/discover/data/canary-wharf/index.cfm Tower Hamlets website] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090729200024/http://www.towerhamlets.gov.uk/data/discover/data/canary-wharf/index.cfm |date=29 July 2009 }}</ref> discount this, believing these stories to all derive from the antiquarian [[John Strype]], and believe it might come from one of the following:
*a nickname of contempt: [[Ben Jonson]] and [[Thomas Nashe]] wrote a satirical play in 1597, which was a mocking attack on the island of Great Britain, titled ''[[The Isle of Dogs (play)|The Isle of Dogs]]'', which offended some in the nobility. Jonson was imprisoned for a year; Nashe avoided arrest by fleeing the area. [[Samuel Pepys]] referred to the "unlucky Isle of Doggs."<ref>{{Citation |last=Pepys |first=Samuel |editor-first1=Robert |editor-first2=William |editor-last1=Latham |editor-last2=Matthews |title=The Diary |date=1971-01-01 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oseo/instance.00174762 |work=The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Vol. 1: 1660 |publisher=Harper Collins (UK); University of California Press (US) |doi=10.1093/oseo/instance.00174762 |isbn=9780004990217 |access-date=2023-02-22}}</ref>
*the presence of Dutch engineers reclaiming the land from a disastrous flood.<ref name=BritHist/>
*the presence of [[gibbet]]s on the foreshore facing Greenwich.<ref name=BritHist/>
*a [[yeoman]] farmer called ''Brache'', this being an old word for a type of hunting dog.<ref name=BritHist/>
*the dogs of a later king, [[Henry VIII]], who also kept deer in [[Greenwich Park]]. Again it is thought that his hunting dogs might have been kept in derelict farm buildings on the island. Now known as the area [[Westferry Circus|West Ferry Circus]].<ref name=BritHist/><ref>{{cite web|title=An Account of the Hamlet of Poplar, in Middlesex|url=http://www.mernick.org.uk/thhol/accohaml.html|work=The Universal magazine|publisher=East London History Society|access-date=19 September 2011|date=June 1795|quote=It is opposite Greenwich in Kent; and when our sovereigns had a palace near the site of the present magnificent hospital, they used it as a hunting-seat, and, it is said, kept the kennels of their hounds in this marsh. These hounds frequently making a great noise, the seamen called the place the Isle of Dogs.}}</ref>
* Isle of [[Levee|Dykes]], which then got corrupted over the years.<ref name="barryoneoff1">[http://barryoneoff.co.uk/html/the_island.html The Isle of Dogs and Docklands]. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120831010041/http://barryoneoff.co.uk/html/the_island.html|date=31 August 2012}}.</ref>

[[File:Thamesis Descriptio IoD.png|thumb|"Isle of Dogges", 1588, then a small [[eyot]] alongside present-day peninsula]]
Laura Wright in a 2015 essay showed that in the Elizabethan era the term "Isle of Dogges" was applied to a small [[eyot]] (mud island)<ref>The eyot may have formed a pair of islands at high tide.</ref> lying offshore the present-day Isle of Dogs.  It was across the river from the royal [[Deptford dockyard]], whose vessels being outfitted were moored at the eyot; the first record of the name appears about the time the dockyard was established.  The peninsula itself at that time was always known as Stepney Marsh.  A government map, prepared in connection with the Thames defences at the time of the Spanish Armada, suggests the eyot was a recognised navigational landmark alongside an otherwise featureless marsh.  Later, the name was extended to a farm on the peninsula, and then to the peninsula itself.  That the name referred to the site of royal kennels, she argued, was unsupported speculation 200 years after the first attested usage.<ref name="Wright">{{cite book|last=Wright|first=Laura|year=2005|chapter=On the Place-Name ''Isle of Dogs''|title=From Clerks to Corpora: Essays on the English Language Yesterday and Today|editor1-first=Philip|editor1-last=Shaw|editor2-first=Britt|editor2-last=Erman|editor3-first=Gunnel|editor3-last=Melchers|editor4-first=Peter|editor4=Sundkvistsher|publisher=Stockholm University Press|
isbn=978-91-7635-006-5|doi=10.16993/sup.bab|url=https://www.stockholmuniversitypress.se/site/books/10.16993/sup.bab/read/?loc=Text%2FSUP_002_erman_book_Chapter-06.xhtml|access-date=8 January 2025}}</ref> Dr Wright offered a speculation of her own: that the name "dogs" was bestowed by the Deptford dockyard workers as a punning reference to the barks (naval vessels) moored at this eyot.

The lost Ben Jonson/Thomas Nashe play (above) was vigorously pursued by the authorities, who even employed a torturer to track down its authors.  "The severity of the response seems too great to have been triggered by an attack on a mere individual"; it has been hypothesised that what the play satirised was the then appalling state of England's defences, the play's title ''Isle of Dogs'' being taken to mean the place where the Queen's ships were outfitted.<ref name="Wright"/>{{rp|106–112}}

It is said that [[Canary Wharf]], located in the Isle of Dogs, took its name from sea trade with the [[Canary Islands]], which were named in [[Latin]] as {{lang|la|Canariae Insulae}} ({{lit|Dog Islands}}).  However the name Canary Wharf does not appear until 1936.<ref name="Wright"/>{{rp|89–90}}

The [[Talbot (dog breed)|Talbot dog]] in the [[London Borough of Tower Hamlets#Coat of arms|coat of arms of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets]] represents the Isle of Dogs.<ref>Heraldry of the world https://www.heraldry-wiki.com/heraldrywiki/index.php?title=Tower_Hamlets</ref>