The New International Encyclopædia/Axholme

AXHOLME, ăks'ṓlm, or (AS. holm, island in a river; Engl. holm, hill; islet). An island in the northwest of Lincolnshire, England, formed by the rivers Trent, Don, Idle, and Vicardyke (Map: England, F 3). Area 47,000 acres. It incloses various parishes, of which Epworth is the chief. Abundant crops are raised by small landowners. Formerly a marsh which succeeded an ancient forest, it was reclaimed in 1634, after five years' labor by Vermuyden, a Dutchman, under contract from Charles I. The land became very fertile under Dutch and French Protestant immigrants, which fact antagonized the local peasantry. Litigation ensued, which ended in 1691, by the natives receiving 10,532 acres and the settlers 2868. The accent and physical characteristics of the settlers exist in the present inhabitants. Consult: Peck, Isle of Axholme (1815); Peacock, in Anthropological Review (1870).