Spesutia Island takes its name from the Latin for Utie's Hope, a 2,300-acre manorial grant made in 1661 to Col. Nathaniel Utie, for whom the island had been surveyed in 1658. After settling here from Virginia, Utie traded with the Indians, became a member of the Maryland Governor's Council, and represented Lord Baltimore in a boundary dispute with the Dutch in Delaware. On May 16, 1661, Gov. Philip Calvert and his council signed a peace treaty with the Susquehannoughs on the island. A house Utie built at this end of the island no longer stands.