by Daniel Defoe
Part of two Letters from Mr. Thoresby, F. R. S. to the Publisher, concerning an Earthquake, which happen’d in some Places of the North of England, the 28 th of December 1703.4
You have heard, no doubt, of the late Earthquake that affected some part of the North, as the dreadful Storm did the South. It being most observable at Hull, I was desirous of an Account from thence that might be depended upon; and therefore writ to the very obliging Mr. Banks, Prebendary of York, who being Vicar of Hull, was the most suitable Person I knew to address my self unto: and he being pleased to favour me with a judicious Account of it, I will venture to communicate it to you, with his pious Reflection thereupon. ‘As to the Earthquake you mention, it was felt here on Tuesday the 28th of the last Month, which was Childermas Day, about three or four Minutes after Five in the Evening. I confess I did not feel it my self; for I was at that moment walking to visit a sick Gentleman, and the Noise in the Streets, and my quick Motion, made it impossible, I believe, for me to feel it: but it was so almost universally felt, that there can be no manner of doubt of the Truth of it.
Mr. Peers, my Reader, (who is an ingenious good Man) was then at his Study, and Writing; but the heaving up of his Chair and his Desk, the Shake of his Chamber, and the rattling of his Windows, did so amaze him, that he was really affrighted, and was forc’d for a while to give over his Work: and there are twenty such Instances amongst Tradesmen, too tedious to repeat. My Wife was then in her Closet, and thought her China would have come about her Ears, and my Family felt the Chairs mov’d, in which they were sitting by the Kitchen Fire-side, and heard such a Rattle of the Pewter and Windows as almost affrighted them. A Gentlewoman not far off said, her Chair lifted so high, that she thought the great Dog had got under it, and to save her self from falling, slipt off her Chair. I sent to a House where part of a Chimney was shak’d down, to enquire of the particulars; they kept Ale, and being pretty full of Company that they were merry, they did not perceive the Shock, only heard the Pewter and Glass-windows dance; but the Landlady’s Mother, who was in a Chamber by her self, felt the Shock so violent, that she verily believed the House to be coming down (as part of the Chimney afore mention’d did at the same Moment) and cried out in a Fright, and had fall’n, but that she catched hold of a Table. It came and went suddenly, and was attended with a Noise like the Wind, though there was then a perfect Calm.’
From other Hands I have an Account that it was felt in Beverly, and other Places; at South Dalton particularly, where the Parson’s Wife (my own Sister) being alone in her Chamber, was sadly frighted with the heaving up of the Chair she sat in, and the very sensible Shake of the Room, especially the Windows, &c. A Relation of mine, who is a Minister near Lincoln, being then at a Gentleman’s House in the Neighbourhood, was amaz’d at the Moving of the Chairs they sat upon, which was so violent, he writes every Limb of him was shaken; I am told also from a true Hand, that so nigh us as Selby, where Mr. Travers, a Minister, being in his Study writing, was interrupted much as Mr. Peers above-mentioned; which minds me of worthy Mr. Banks’ serious Conclusion. ‘And now I hope you will not think it unbecoming my Character to make this Reflection upon it, viz. that Famines, Pestilences and Earthquakes, are joyned by our Blessed Saviour, as portending future Calamities, and particularly the Destruction of Jerusalem and the Jewish State; if not the End of the World, St. Matth. 24. 7. And if, as Philosophers observe, those gentler Convulsions within the Bowels of the Earth, which give the Inhabitants but an easie Jog, do usually portend the Approach of some more dreadful Earthquake; then surely we have Reason to fear the worst, because I fear we so well deserve it, and pray God of his infinite Mercy to avert his future Judgments.’
Since my former Account of the Earthquake at Hull, my Cousin Cookson has procured to me the following Account from his Brother, who is a Clergyman near Lincoln, viz, That he, being about Five in the Evening, December the 20th past, set with a neighbouring Minister at his House about a Mile from Navenby, they were surpriz’d with a sudden Noise, as if it had been of two or three Coaches driven furiously down the Yard, whereupon the Servant was sent to the Door, in Expectation of some Strangers; but they quickly perceived what it was, by the shaking of the Chairs they sat upon; they could perceive the very Stones move: the greatest Damage was to the Gentlewoman of the House, who was put into such a Fright, that she miscarried two Days after. He writes, they were put into a greater Fright upon the Fast-day; when there was so violent a Storm, they verily thought the Church would have fallen upon them. We had also at Leedes a much greater Storm the Night preceding the Fast, and a stronger Wind that Day, than when the fatal Storm was in the South; but a good Providence timed this well, to quicken our too cold Devotions.
Of remarkable Deliverances
As the sad and remarkable Disasters of this Terrible Night were full of a Dismal Variety, so the Goodness of Providence, in the many remarkable Deliverances both by Sea and Land, have their Share in this Account, as they claim an equal Variety and Wonder.
The Sense of extraordinary Deliverances, as it is a Mark of Generous Christianity, so I presume ’tis the best Token, that a good Use is made of the Mercies receiv’d.
The Persons, who desire a thankful Acknowledgement should be made to their Merciful Deliverer, and the Wonders of his Providence remitted to Posterity, shall never have it to say, that the Editor of this Book refus’d to admit so great a Subject a Place in these Memoirs; and therefore, with all imaginable Freedom, he gives the World the Particulars from their own Mouths, and under their own Hands.
The first Account we have from the Reverend Mr. King, Lecturer at St. Martins in the Fields, as follows.
SIR
The short Account I now send to shew the Providence of God in the late Dreadful Storm, (if yet it comes not too late) I had from the Mouth of the Gentleman himself, Mr. Woodgate Gisser by Name, who is a Neighbour of mine, living in St. Martin’s-street in the Parish of St. Martins in the Fields, and a Sufferer in the common Calamity; is as follows, viz.
Between Two and Three of the Clock in the Morning, my Neighbour’s Stack of Chimneys fell, and broke down the Roof of my Garret into the Passage going up and down Stairs; upon which, I thought it convenient to retire into the Kitchen with my Family; where we had not been above a Quarter of an Hour, before my Wife sent her Maid to fetch some Necessaries out of a Back Parlour Closet, and as she had shut the Door, and was upon her Return, the very same Instant my Neighbour’s Stack of Chimneys, on the other Side of the House, fell upon my Stack, and beat in the Roof, and so drove down the several Floors through the Parlour into the Kitchen, where the Maid was buried near Five Hours in the Rubbish, without the least Damage or Hurt whatsoever: This her miraculous Preservation was occasion’d (as, I afterwards with Surprize found) by her falling into a small Cavity near the Bed, and afterwards (as she declar’d) by her creeping under the Tester that lay hollow by Reason of some Joices that lay athwart each other, which prevented her perishing in the said Rubbish: About Eight in the Morning, when I helped her out of the Ruins, and asked her how she did, and why she did not cry out for Assistance, since she was not (as I suppos’d she had been) dead, and so to let me know she was alive; her Answer was, that truly she for her Part had felt no Hurt, and was not the least affrighted, but lay quiet; and which is more, even slumbred until then.
The Preservation of my self, and the rest of my Family, about Eleven in Number, was, next to the Providence of God, occasion’d by our running into a Vault almost level with the Kitchen upon the Noise and Alarm of the Falling of the Chimneys, which breaking through three Floors, and about two Minutes in passing, gave us the Opportunities of that Retreat. Pray accept of this short Account from
Your Humble Servant, and Lecturer,
Feb. 12. 1703. James King, M.A.
Another is from a Reverend Minister at—whose Name is to his Letter as follows.
SIR
I thank you for your charitable Visit not long since; I could have heartily wish’d your Business would hav
e permitted you to have made a little longer Stay at the parsonage, and then you might have taken a stricter View of the Ruins by the late terrible Wind. Seeing you are pleas’d to desire from me a more particular Account of that sad Disaster; I have for your fuller Satisfaction sent you the best I am able to give; and if it be not so perfect, and so exact a one, as you may expect, you may rely upon me it is a true, and a faithful one, and that I do not impose upon you, or the World in the least in any Part of the following Relation. I shall not trouble you with the Uneasiness the Family was under all the fore Part of the Evening, even to a Fault, as I thought, and told them, I did not then apprehend the Wind to be much higher than it had been often on other Times; but went to Bed, hoping we were more afraid than we needed to have been: when in Bed, we began to be more sensible of it, and lay most of the Night awake, dreading every Blast till about Four of the Clock in the Morning, when to our thinking it seemed a little to abate; and then we fell asleep, and slept till about Six of the Clock, at which Time my Wife waking, and calling one of her Maids to rise, and come to the Children, the Maid rose, and hasten’d to her; she had not been up above Half an Hour, but all on the sudden we heard a prodigious Noise, as if part of the House had been fallen down; I need not tell you the Consternation we were all in upon this Alarm; in a Minutes Time, I am sure, I was surrounded with all my Infantry, that I thought I should have been overlay’d; I had not even Power to stir one Limb of me, much less to rise, though I could not tell how to lie in Bed. The Shrieks and the Cries of my dear Babes perfectly stun’d me; I think I hear them still in my Ears, I shall not easily, I am confident, if ever, forget them. There I lay preaching Patience to those little Innocent Creatures, till the Day began to appear.
Preces & Lachrimá, Prayers and Tears, the Primitive Christians Weapons, we had great Plenty of to defend us withal; but had the House all fallen upon our Heads, we were in that Fright as we could scarce have had Power to rise for the present, or do any thing for our Security. Upon our rising, and sending a Servant to view what she could discover, we soon understood that the Chimney was fallen down, and that with its Fall it had beaten down a great part of that End of the House, viz. the Upper Chamber, and the Room under it, which was the Room I chose for my Study: The Chimney was thought as strong, and as well built as most in the Neighbourhood; and it surpriz’d the Mason (whom I immediately sent for to view it) to see it down: but that which was most surprizing to me, was the Manner of its Falling; had it fallen almost any other Way than that it did, it must in all Likelihood have killed the much greater part of my Family, for no less than Nine of us lay at that End of the House, my Wife and Self, and Five Children, and Two Servants, a Maid, and a Man then in my Pay, and so a Servant, though not by the Year: The Bed my Eldest Daughter and the Maid lay in joyned as near as possible to the Chimney, and it was within a very few Yards of the Bed that we lay in; so that as David said to Jonathan, there seem’d to be but one single Step between Death and us, to all outward Appearance.1 One Thing I cannot omit, which was very remarkable and surprizing: It pleased God so to order it, that in the Fall of the House two great Spars seem’d to fall so as to pitch themselves on an End, and by that Means to support that other Part of the House which adjoined to the Upper Chamber; or else in all Likelihood, that must also have fallen too at the same Time. The Carpenter (whom we sent for forthwith) when he came, ask’d who plac’d those two Supporters, supposing somebody had been there before him; and when he was told, those two Spars in the Fall so plac’d themselves, he could scarce believe it possible; it was done so artificially, that he declar’d, they scarce needed to have been removed.
In short, Sir, it is impossible to describe the Danger we were in; you your self was an Eye-witness of some Part of what is here related; and I once more assure you, the whole Account I have here given you is true, and what can be attested by the whole Family. None of all those unfortunate Persons who are said to have been killed with the Fall of a Chimney, could well be much more expos’d to Danger than we were; it is owing wholly to that watchful Providence to whom we all are indebted for every Minute of our Lives, that any of us escaped; none but he who never sleeps nor slumbers could have secured us. I beseech Almighty God to give us All that due Sense as we ought to have of so great and so general Calamity; that we truly repent us of those Sins that have so long provoked his Wrath against us, and brought down so heavy a Judgment as this upon us. O that we were so wise as to consider it, and to sin no more lest a worse thing come upon us! That it may have this happy Effect upon all the sinful Inhabitants of this Land is, and shall be, the Dayly Prayer of Dear Sir,
Your real Friend and Servant,
John Gipps.
Another Account from a Reverend Minister in Dorsetshire, take as follows, viz.
SIR
As you have desired an Account of the Disasters occasion’d by the late Tempest, (which I can assure you was in these Parts very Terrible) so I think my self oblig’d to let you know, that there was a great Mixture of Mercy with it: For though the Hurricane was frightful, and very mischievous, yet God’s gracious Providence was therein very remarkable, in restraining its Violence from an universal Destruction: for then there was a Commotion of the Elements of Air, Earth and Water, which then seemed to outvie each other in Mischief; for (in Davids’ Expression, 2 Sam. 22. 8.) The Earth trembled and quak’d, the Foundations of the Heavens mov’d and shook, because God was angry: and yet, when all was given over for lost, we found our selves more scar’d than hurt; for our Lives was given us for a Prey, and the Tempest did us only so much Damage, as to make us sensible that it might have done us a great deal more, had it not been rebuk’d by the God of Mercy; the Care of whose Providence has been visibly seen in our wonderful Preservations. My Self and Three more of this Parish were then strangely rescued from the Grave: I narrowly escaped with my Life, where I apprehended nothing of Danger; for going out about Midnight to give Orders to my Servants to secure the House, and Reeks2 of Corn and Furses from being blown all away; as soon as I mov’d out of the Place were I stood, I heard something of a great Weight fall close behind me, and a little after going out with a Light, to see what it was, I found it to be the great Stone which covered the Top of my Chimney to keep out the Wet; it was almost a Yard square, and very thick, weighing about an Hundred and Fifty Pound. It was blown about a Yard off from the Chimney, and fell Edge-long, and cut the Earth, about four Inches deep, exactly between my Foot-steps; and a little after, whilst sitting under the Clavel3 of my Kitchen Chimney, and reaching out my Arm for some Fewel to mend the Fire, I was again strangely preserved from being knock’d on the Head by a Stone of great Weight; it being about a Foot long, Half a Foot broad, and two Inches thick: for as soon as I had drawn in my Arm, I felt something brush against my Elbow, and presently I heard the Stone fall close by my Foot, a third Part of which was broken off by the Violence of the Fall, and skarr’d my Ancle, but did not break the Skin; it had certainly killed me, had it fallen while my Arm was extended. The Top of my Wheat Rick was blown off, and some of the Sheaves were carried a Stones Cast, and with that Violence, that one of them, at that Distance, struck down one Daniel Fookes a late Servant of the Lady Napier, and so forceably, that he was taken up dead, and to all Appearance remain’d so a great while; but at last was happily recover’d to Life again. His Mother, poor Widow, was at the same time more fatally threatned at Home, and her Bed had certainly prov’d her Grave, had not the first Noise awaken’d and scar’d her out of Bed; and she was scarce gotten to the Door, when the House fell all in: The Smith’s Wife likewise being scar’d at such a Rate, leapt out of Bed, with the little Child in her Arms, and ran hastily out of Doors naked, without Hose or Shooes, to a Neighbour’s House; and by that hasty Flight, both their Lives were wonderfully preserved. The Sheets of Lead on Lytton Church, were rolled up like Sheets of Parchment, and blown off to a great Distance. At Strode, a large Apple Tree, being about a Foot in Square, was broken off cleverly like a Stick, about four Foot from the Root, and car
ried over an Hedge about ten Foot high; and cast, as if darted, (with the Trunk forward) above fourteen Yards off. And I am credibly inform’d, that at Ellwood in the Parish of Abbots-bury, a large Wheat Rick (belonging to one Jolyffe) was cleverly blown, with its Staddle, off from the Stones, and set down on the Ground in very good Order. I would fain know of the Atheist what mov’d his Omnipotent Matter to do such Mischief, &c.
SIR, I am,
Your Affectionate Friend and Servant,
though unknown,
Jacob Cole, Rect. of Swyre in County of Dorset.
This Account is very remarkable, and well attested, and the Editor of this Collection can vouch to the Reputation of the Relators, tho’ not to the Particulars of the Story.
A great Preservation in the late Storm
About Three of the Clock in the Morning, the Violence of the Wind blew down a Stack of Chimneys belonging to the dwelling House of Dr. Gideon Harvey, (situate in St. Martins’ Lane over against the Street End) on the back Part of the next House, wherein dwells Mr. Robert Richards an Apothecary, at the Sign of the Unicorn; and Capt. Theodore Collier and his Family lodges in the same. The Chimney fell with that Force as made them pierce thro’ the Roofs and all the Floors, carrying them down quite to the Ground. The two Families, consisting of Fourteen, Men, Women, and Children, besides Three that came in from the next House, were at that Instant dispos’d of as follows, a Footman that us’d to lie in the back Garret, had not a Quarter of an Hour before remov’d himself into the fore Garret, by which means he escap’d the Danger: In the Room under that lay Capt. Colliers’ Child, of Two Months old, in Bed with the Nurse, and a Servant Maid lay on the Bed by her; the Nurse’s Child lying in a Cribb by the Bed-side, which was found, with the Child safe in it, in the Kitchen, where the Nurse and Maid likewise found themselves; their Bed being shatter’d in Pieces, and they a little bruis’d by falling down Three Stories: Capt. Colliers’ Child was in about Two Hours found unhurt in some Pieces of the Bed and Curtains, which had fallen through Two Floors only, and hung on some broken Rafters in that Place, which was the Parlour: In the Room under This, being one Pair of Stairs from the Street, and two from the Kitchen, was Capt. Collier in his Bed, and his Wife just by the Bed-side, and her Maid a little behind her, who likewise found her self in the Kitchin a little bruis’d, and ran out to cry for Help for her Master and Mistress, who lay buried under the Ruins: Mrs. Collier was, by the timely Aid of Neighbours who remov’d the Rubbish from her, taken out in about Half an Hours Time, having receiv’d no Hurt but the Fright, and an Arm a little bruis’d: Capt. Collier in about Half an Hour more was likewise taken out unhurt. In the Parlour were sitting Mr. Richards with his Wife, the Three Neighbours, and the rest of his Family, a little Boy of about a Year old lying in the Cradle, they all run out at the first Noise, and escap’d, Mrs. Richards staying a little longer than the rest, to pull the Cradle with her child in it along with her, but the House fell too suddenly on it, and buried the Child under the Ruins, a Rafter fell on her Foot, and bruis’d it a little, at which she likewise made her Escape, and brought in the Neighbours, who soon uncovered the Head of the Cradle, and cutting it off, took the Child out alive and well. This wonderful Preservation being worthy to be transmitted to Posterity, we do attest to be true in every Particular. Witness our Hands,
