The Isle of Wight County Museum, in Smithfield, received an exciting new set of historical documents on Wednesday.

When a couple of English tourists came to Isle of Wight County, about two years ago, they stopped by the county’s museum, said Christine Kane, who helped deliver the copies of the original documents. While they were there, a member of the museum mentioned the museum’s interest in obtaining some kind of artifact pertaining to Sir Richard Worsley, said participants of the event.

“We’ve been able to fulfill something that this museum wanted,” Christine Kane said. When Kane and her husband Maurice learned of their friends’ visit back home in England, they told them of their plans to visit the United States, the Kanes said. After contacting local officials, two documents connected to Worsley were uncovered.

Now that the Kanes have come to visit Williamsburg and Jamestown, they traveled to Smithfield to present the copies of the original documents to the museum, the Kanes said.

“We wanted an image of Worsley,” said Jennifer England of the Isle of Wight County Museum.

Sir Richard Worsley I was an investor in the development of plantations in Isle of Wight, Kane said. “He was the major investor,” she said.

It was around 1619 or 1620 that Sir Richard Worsley, who held the official title of baronet, made his investment, the Kanes said. Back in England, the investor lived on an estate called Appuldurcombe, in a part of England known as Isle of Wight, they said.

This may have been one of the reasons for the change in name of Virginia’s Isle of Wight County, participants said. Another possible reason for changing the name from Warraskoyack, to Isle of Wight, was because of its difficult pronunciation, England said. The area had originally been named after the tribe of Indians who lived there.

A third potential reason for the change was that the area might have reminded settlers of the Isle of Wight in England because of its resemblance in landscape, such as the woodsy and hilly areas, Christine Kane said.

“We’re very excited to have taken these into our collection,” England said of the documents. One is a hand written copy of a letter written by the Earl of South Hampton. The other was a warrant sent to Isle of Wight police officials and was signed by Worsley himself, participants of the event said.

The Isle of Wight County Museum depicts the county’s history, beginning in the pre-colonial era and ending with the Cold War, England said. It also contains the world’s oldest peanut and the world’s oldest ham.

An exciting new sister-city alliance may in the works between the two Isle of Wights, England said.

Learn more about the museum at www.historicisleofwight.com/museum.