The Great Storm of 1703

A note written by the Rev. William Cullyer on the first page of the Deopham Parish Registers for the period 1681-1812 records that:-

As can be seen, this page in the register has been somewhat damaged; nevertheless, the event recorded is clear. The best transcription I can make of it is as follows:-

The greatest hurricane (y^t did so much damage by sea & land [as] have not been known in y^e memory of man or read of in …rory ……… of England) happened on Saturday the 27^th day of November 1703.

Because of the change of calendar, November 27^th equates to December 7^th in the Gregorian calendar now in use.

There is no information beyond the above comment concerning Deopham itself. There are records of destruction around Ipswich and Southwold, as well of as of two deaths in Riddlesworth where Elinor Drury’s gravestone says that she “was Unfortunately Kild in ye Fatal Hurricane Nov ye 27 in ye year of our Lord 1703”, and another memorial records the death of the “virtuous Mrs Mary Fisher Whose Soul tooke her Flight to heaven in ye Furious hurricane on November ye 27th 1703”.

The historian Francis Blomefield wrote concerning November 25th that “in the night, was a great tempest; and on the 26th a most prodigious hurricane of wind, which did abundance of damage both in town and country, by blowing down houses, chimneys, &c.”

Daniel Defoe (the author of Robinson Crusoe) wrote a whole book on the subject called “The Storm: or, a Collection of the Most Remarkable Casualties and Disasters Which happen’d in the Late Dreadful Tempest, Both by Sea and Land”).

This storm did huge damage in towns (especially London), in the country and to shipping. Many claimed that the storm was divine punishment on those who did not subscribe to their cause. The death toll was put at somewhere between 8,000 and 15,000.
Defoe compared the storm to the Fire of London:

Yet on the other Hand, that Desolation [i.e. The Fire] was confin’d to a small Space, the loss fell on the wealthiest part of the People; but this loss is Universal, and its extent general, not a House, not a Family that had any thing to lose, but have lost something by this Storm, the Sea, the Land, the Houses, the Churches, the Corn, the Trees, the Rivers, all have felt the fury of the Winds.
I cannot therefore think I speak too large, if I say, I am of the Opinion, that the Damage done by this Tempest far exceeded the Fire of London.¹

Defoe was writing at an interesting time at the beginning of the Enlightenment. On the one hand, he blamed the storm on divine retribution upon those who were seeking to outlaw the dissenters (Methodists, Presbyterians etc)² but on the other hand Defoe also attempted to explain the source of the storm in semi-scientific terms:

As this Storm was first felt from the West, some have conjectur’d that the first Generation or rather Collection of Materials, was from the Continent of America, possibly from that part of Florida and Virginia where, if we respect natural Causes, the Confluence of Vapours rais’d by the Sun from the vast and unknown Lakes and Inland Seas of Water, which as some relate are incredibly large as well as numerous, might afford sufficient Matter for the Exhalation; and where time adding to the Preparation, God, who has generally confin’d his Providence to the Chain of natural Causes, might muster together those Troops of Combustion till they made a sufficient Army duly proportion’d to the Expedition design’d.³

A ‘day of fasting’ was ordered by Queen Anne for the 19^th January 1704 to placate the wrath of God, as all natural disasters were deemed a judgement for mankind’s sinfulness.
The queen described the storm as, “a Calamity so Dreadful and Astonishing that the like hath not been Seen or Felt in the Memory of any Persons living in this Our Kingdom”. In Norwich a sermon preached by John Hoadly was published under the grand title:
“A sermon preach’d in the Cathedral-Church of Norwich, on January 19th Being the day appointed for a publick fast For the imploring of a Blessing from Almighty God upon Her Majesty and Her Allies Engaged in the Present War: As also for the Humbling of our selves before Him, in a deep sense of His heavy displeasure shew’d forth in the late dreadful Storm and Tempest; And in order to the obtaining the Pardon of our crying sins, The Averting his Judgments and the Continuance of His Mercies, and in most especial Manner that of the Protestant Religion to us and to our Posterity.”⁴

A national fast day on Wednesday 19 January 1704, to ask for God’s forgiveness and blessing on the nation, demonstrated the extent to which the idea of divine causation of extreme weather saturated British public culture. The mass public participation in these ceremonies included the attendance of Sir Isaac Newton, Archbishop Tennyson and the Astronomer Royal.⁵

It looks as if this day of fasting was not sufficient to placate the deity since the Rev. Cullyer records in the Deopham register that there were two further disturbances in 1705 and 1710:

Blomefield mentions the storm of 1710, writing concerning Norwich that “On the 5th of Dec. at noon, was a great tempest of thunder and lightning, with a storm of hail; the lightning entered a pantry joining to a house just out of the walls by St. Austin’s-gates, melted part of a pewter bason, and parts of four or five plates, but did no other harm.”

Notes

Daniel Defoe, The Storm, ed Richard Hamblyn, 2005, Pp 108f ↩︎
“Tis plain Heaven has suited his Punishment to the Offence, has Punish’d the Stormy Temper of this Party of Men with Storms of his Vengeance, Storms on their Navies, Storms on their Houses, Storms on their Confederates, and I question not will at last with Storms in the Consciences.
If there be any Use to be made of this matter, ’tis to excite the Nation to Spue out from among them these Men of Storms, that Peace, Love, Charity and a General Union may succeed, and God may Bless us, Return to us and delight to dwell among us. that the Favour of Heaven may Return to us, and the Queen who has heartily declared her Eyes open to this needful happiness, may enjoy the Blessing of Wise Counsellors and Faithful Servants, that Constant Victory may Crown all our Enterprizes, and the General Peace of Europe may be Established.
If any one can tell us a way to bring all these Blessed ends to pass, without a General Peace of Parties and Interests at home, he is Wellcome to do it, for I profess It is hid from my Eyes.”
Daniel Defoe, The Lay-Man’s Sermon, 1704 ↩︎
Daniel Defoe, The Storm, 1704 ↩︎
John Hoadly, Sermon, printed by F. Burges, and sold by Tho. Goddard, Bookseller in the Market-Place, Norwich, 1704. ↩︎
Mike Hume, The Conquering of Climate: Discourses of Fear and Their Dissolution;
The Geographical Journal , Mar., 2008, Vol. 174, No. 1 (March, 2008), pp. 5-16. ↩︎

Bibliography

Martin Brayne, The Greatest Storm, 2002
Francis Blomefield, An Essay Towards A Topographical History of the County of Norfolk: Volume 3
Daniel Defoe, The Storm edited with an introduction by Richard Hamblyn, 2005

Date	Change
2/8/23	Enhanced footnotes
27/7/23	Published