ISLIP, a township of Suffolk county, New York, U.S.A., in the central part of the south side of Long Island. The township is 16m. long from E. to W., and 8m. wide in its widest part. It is bounded on the S. by the Atlantic ocean ; between the ocean and the Great South bay, here 5-7m. wide, is a long narrow strip of beach, called Fire Island, at the west end of which is Fire Island Inlet. The "Island" beach and the Inlet, both very dan gerous for shipping, are protected by the Fire Island Lighthouse, the Fire Island Lightship, and a life saving station near the Lighthouse and another at Point o' Woods. A short distance E. of the Lighthouse there is a State park. Along the "Island" beach there is excellent surf-bathing. The township is served by two parallel branches of the Long Island railroad about 4m. apart. On the main (northern) division are the villages of Brentwood (first settled as Modern Times, a quasi free-love community), which now has the Convent and School of St. Joseph ; Central Islip, the seat of the Central Islip State Hospital for the Insane; and Ronkonkoma, on the edge of a lake of the same name. On the
south division of the Long Island railroad are the villages of Bay Shore (to the west of which is West Islip) ; Oakdale; West Say ville, originally a Dutch settlement; Sayville and Bayport. These villages are famous for oyster and clam fisheries. About one half of the present township was patented in 1684, 1686, 1688 and 1697 by William Nicolls (1657-1723), the son of Matthias Nicolls, who came from Islip in Oxfordshire, England; this large estate (on either side of the Connetquot or Great river) was kept intact until 1786; the west part of Islip was mostly included in the Moubray patent of 1708; and the township was incor porated in i710.
See C. J. Werner, Historical Miscellanies Pertaining to Long Island (1917) ; B. F. Thompson, History of Long Island (1918) ; R. H. Gabriel, The Evolution of Long Island (New Haven, Conn., 1921) ; and H. J. Hazelton, The Boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, Counties of Nassau and Suffolk, Long Island, 1609-1924 (Chicago, 1925).