The name of the city is a
Native American word which roughly translates to "great marsh." The term
pocosin, with its varied spellings, was a term used by the area's inhabitants to describe a low, marshy, woody place covered by water in the winter, but dry in the summer. These
Native Americans were
Algonquians, a tribal group affiliated through the
Powhatan Confederacy, and were defensive to the early colonizers. A petition to have the name of the parish and river changed was an attempt to rid the language of all vestiges of Indian terms. However, "poquoson" has survived through the centuries and has become a proper noun used to designate the present city. The current city is a remnant of a larger area known from the first days of its settlement in the early 17th century by English colonists as the New Poquoson Parish of the
Church of England. In the colonial times before
separation of church and state and
freedom of religion were established in Virginia and the United States, the church parish boundaries and governmental ones were often the same. In addition to the current city of Poquoson, New Poquoson Parish originally included the areas in York County known today as Poquoson,
Tabb,
Grafton,
Dare and
Seaford. This land was opened for settlement in the year 1628 and was occupied by people from the English settlement of the
Virginia Colony established at
Kecoughtan in 1610 by Sir
Thomas Gates which eventually became part of the current
City of Hampton. The first reference to Poquoson is believed to be in Colonial records of a land grant of in New Poquoson to Christopher Calthorpe in 1631 by a court in what became the former
Elizabeth City County. This area located just outside of the Poquoson city limits in York County is still known in the 21st century as Calthrop Neck. In 1634, the eight original
shires of Virginia were created. Poquoson was located in
Charles River Shire. The name was changed to
York County in 1642–43. The
York River was known earlier as the Charles River, and its name was also changed about the same time. Poquoson grew as a close-knit rural community of York County for the next 300 years. During the
American Revolutionary War, independence was won at nearby Yorktown, a major tourist attraction of the
Historic Triangle of Colonial Virginia. One of the first land battles of the
American Civil War, the
Battle of Big Bethel was fought nearby on June 10, 1861. In the spring of 1862, Union General
George B. McClellan put together an ambitious plan known as the
Peninsula Campaign to end the war by marching up the peninsula from Union held
Fort Monroe and taking the Confederate capitol at
Richmond. A copy of his battle plans was obtained by Confederate spy
Thomas Nelson Conrad and in response Confederate forces under General
John B. Magruder established three lines of defensive positions extending across the peninsula to stop McClellan's march towards Richmond. The first line of defense was anchored on the north by a redoubt on Ship Point near the mouth of the
Poquoson River. After the Confederates abandoned the position in 1863 the Union Army established a supply depot and a hospital at Ship Point. Several Poquoson residents fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War including Wesley Messick, who was a crewman on the
CSS Virginia during the
Battle of Hampton Roads. Poquoson became an
incorporated town in 1952, as the citizens of the community wanted to keep their own high school open instead of having their children
bused to
York High School due to distance. When the town was incorporated, Poquoson's small predominantly
African American community known as Cary's Chapel remained just outside the town limits in York County. The town became an independent city in 1975 in order to maintain this status. The change from incorporated town to independent city status also effectively protected Poquoson from potential annexation suits by the adjacent City of Hampton. The changes to incorporated town and independent city were part of a wave of municipal changes in southeastern Virginia in the third quarter of the 20th century. Although Poquoson is one of the smaller of 8 independent cities extant in the Hampton Roads region in the 21st century, it is not unique in the area as a city having large areas of undeveloped land and protected wetlands. Poquoson has long been informally known as "Bull Island" because for centuries farmers in the area let their cattle roam free in the salt marshes. Although only a few small farms remain and the herd of cattle that once grazed in the marshes are long gone, Poquoson residents still call themselves "Bull Islanders". ==Government and law==