n England, which are called Walflete oysters: so
called of a place in the sea; but of which place in the sea
it is, hath been some disputation. And by the circumstances
that I have observed thereof in my travail, I take it to be
the shore which lieth betwene St. Peter's chappell and Crowch
the bredthe onlie of Denge hundred, through which upon the
verie shore, was erected a wall for the preservation of the
lande. And thereof St. Peter's on the wall. And all the sea
shore which beateth on the wall is called Walfleet. And upon
that shore on, and not elswher, but up in Crouche creeke, at
the ende of the wall, wher also is an ilande called commonlie
and corruptlie Walled (but I take it more trulie Wallflete)
Island, wher and about which ilande thys kinde of oyster
abonndeth. Ther is greate difference betwene theis oysters
and others which lie ypon other shores, for this oyster, that
in London and els wher carieth the name of Walflete is a
little full oyster with a verie greene finn. And like vnto
theis in quantetie and qualitie are none in this lande,
thowgh farr bigger, and for some mens diettes better."

From the above we may understand that Wellfleet oysters, which have
been celebrated in the English markets for between three and four
hundred years, might easily have led the settlers of Nawsett to
believe that at Billinsgate, they had a new Wallfleet Oyster bed.
The fact that Wallfleet oysters were marketed at Billinsgate,
always the big fish market of the Londoners, and that our Wellfleet
was at first known as Billingsgate, seems more than a mere
coincidence.

The difference in spelling between the names "Wallfleet" and
"Wellfleet" is not material. Barnstable; town, county and bay, take
their name from Barnstaple on the coast of Devon. Norden, who was
a highly educated man of University breeding, and a polished writer,
varied the spelling of some words even in the same paragraph as
witness "Crowch" and "Crouche," also "Ilande" and "Island." The
diversified spellings of many of our common names is so marked as to
be beyond comment except to note their wide variety, due to attempts
to follow the peculiar phonetics of untaught individuals. In the one
particular of "Well," who of us has not heard that word pronounced
"W-a-a-l." when used as an interjection? All of which makes it seem
inescapable from the theory that Wellfleet on the Cape is named