The first diking off took place in 1487 in the area of the current village Sint Philipsland. This took place at the initiative of Anna of Burgundy, an illegitimate child of Duke Philip of Burgundy who was married to Adriaan van Borssele. Probably inspired by the name of her father, Anna named the new diked-off area Sint Philipsland.
The new land did not last long – the island flooded in 1530, and 20 people drowned. The dikes were restored in early 1531, but on 2 November 1532 they were breached again, after which the polder was abandoned.
History was made in the flooded area. In 1575, during the Eighty Years’ War, the Spaniards managed to wade through the Zijpe with 1,500 men on foot via the undiked-off Sint Philipsland – these days 40 meters deep – reaching Schouwen-Duiveland, where they conquered Zierikzee.
The battle on the Slaak, which took place in 1631, was won by the Zeelanders. After a chase, the Zeeland fleet under the direction of Marinus Hollaere destroyed the Spanish fleet. Only a few ships escaped. Thousands of crewmen were captured and imprisoned in Reimerswaal.
In 1644 the salt marshes of Sint Philipsland were again issued for diking-off. In 1645, Johan Liens dammed the Luyster trench and embanked the Oudepolder, which was completely surrounded by water. In the centuries that followed, the island was expanded with polders, of which the Anna Jacobapolder (in 1847) is the largest.
The village was founded in the south-eastern corner of the Oudepolder. The village had 36 houses at the start of the 18th century. This had grown to 43 by 1779. The municipality’s first preacher arrived in 1657. The current Dutch Reformed church was built in 1668. The most famous preacher of this church was Pontian van Hattem (1672-1683). The mill is a Zeeland octagonal wooden ‘grondzeiler’, built in 1724.
The floods of 1953 caused a lot of damage, and 9 residents lost their lives.Many houses – particularly in the Karreveld area – suffered water damage, due to their poor quality.
The main means of subsistence was agriculture. Madder was also a popular crop here. The agricultural products were often transported elsewhere by ship. So another means of subsistence was shipping. The number of boatmen rose around the middle of the 19th century. In 1939, Sint Philipsland was home port to no fewer than 36 ships. A weighbridge at the port was built around 1890, a logical addition in the context of the increasing shipping traffic.
Before the merger with the municipality of Tholen on 1 January 1995, Sint Philipsland was an independent municipality.
In the twentieth century, Sint Philipsland was an important link in the connection with Schouwen-Duiveland thanks to the Steenbergen – Brouwershaven tram line, which was opened in 1900 by De Rotterdamse Tramweg Maatschappij (R.T.M). The line was closed after the floods of 1953. The Slaakdam connected the island with the Brabant mainland in 1884. Road traffic was already so important in the 1930s that a main road to the ferry was built in the years 1938 – 1940. The Krabbenkreekdam and the Philipsdam were constructed in the context of the Delta Works, making the Zijpe ferry redundant in 1988.
