“SACRED
To the Memory of

WILLIAM HANSFORD Aged 61 Years
who was killd on the 23 of November 1824
by the Sea overflowing the Village of Chissel
his Leg was broken in attempting to make
his escape afterwards the House fell on him.

FAREWELL MY WIFE AND CHILDREN DEAR
MY DEATH WAS SUDDEN AND SEVERE,
THE WIND AND SEA ITS FURY BROKE
THE WONDROUS WORKS OF GOD BESPOKE
MAN’S DWELLING’S LEVELL’D WITH THE GROUND
WHEN SOME WERE KILL’D AND SOME WERE DROWN’D
THEREFORE O GOD THEIR SOULS PRAY TAKE.
IN JOYS ABOVE FOR JESUS SAKE.”

Those are the words on the tombstone of William Hansford of Chiswell, Dorset, England. The information was sent to me by his 3x-great-granddaughter who had heard I was writing about natural phenomena and their effects on the lives of our ancestors. I made note of the words on his headstone in my 2018 book, Surviving Mother Nature’s Tests .

Hansford was one of dozens who died during the tempest that blew across Southern England in late November 1824. His death was memorialised succinctly on his headstone.

Another story was passed along to me by a descendant of a local family that fared much worse: the Holman family, also primarily residents of Dorset. This family lost four members to the storm, all mariners, resulting in the end of this ancestral Holman line. Richard and two of his sons drowned at sea near Swanage, Dorset. Another son died when his ship was wrecked at Crookhaven, Ireland. One other son had previously died in 1795, at the age of three.

Only one child of Richard and Elizabeth (Burgess) Holman appears to have grown to adulthood. Eliza Jane Holman married Charles Corney in 1832. They had five children after their move to Surrey. Sadly, Charles also died at sea in 1843, at the age of 40. In her later years, Elizabeth lived with Eliza, her widowed daughter, until her death in 1852.

Destructive storms
As a maritime nation, Britain has had it share of such disasters. Living by the sea always has risks, particularly for those who made their living from its bounty. History is replete with stories of shipwrecks and deaths, most from major storms that arose quickly and caught voyagers by surprise. This is true for many communities on the coasts of all continents. Such disasters have occurred frequently during past centuries.

Many family historians may only have basic knowledge of the deaths of ancestors at sea. A search for the causes and whether others suffered the same fate as those during the 1824 storm may not have been carried out but could be very important in constructing family stories.

Major hurricanes originate in the mid-Atlantic, initially crossing to the west, usually to make landfall in North America.

Occasionally some may veer back across the northern Atlantic region, impacting parts of northern Europe. The Great Gale of 1824 was undoubtedly one of those types of storms that made a U-turn, possibly in mid-ocean, and headed back toward the British Isles.

The ‘hurricane season’ in recent times has generally run from late summer to late autumn. During the Little Ice Age (~1300–1850), the thermal and pressure gradients of the North Atlantic were different (Lamb, 1991). The northern ocean was colder which enhanced the thermal gradient with the warm waters of the mid-Atlantic creating many more extreme weather events. The storm season was longer, and the intensity of storms was greater. It was not unusual to have major storms in late fall and early winter seasons, as was the case with the Great Gale of 1824.

We might expect that with the greater number of major storms, more of them may have turned east to hit northern Europe than have been witnessed during the past century. Many of them would have caused harm at least equal to that of the 1824 event.

It should be noted that the North Sea region also suffered from many intense and destructive storms during the period of the Little Ice Age, but those are stories for another time.

The 1824 tempest
Newspapers of the day carried dire reports of damage and devastation of towns, villages, farms and forests from Cornwall to Kent along the southern coast of England in late November 1824. Boats of all sizes, including over 80 large ships, were wrecked in the offshore areas along the English Channel and inside the harbours of every port.

One eyewitness account related the scope of the storm: “Twern’t a sea — not a bit of it — twer the great sea hisself rose up level like and come on right over the ridge and all, like nothing in this world.” (archive.org )

Between 22 and 23 November, settlements in southern England, along the coastline and inland, were ravaged, first with several inches of rain and then from wind-produced storm surges. Homes, farms, forests and orchards, businesses and ships at anchor or tied to wharves – including the wharves and promenades themselves – were severely damaged or lost entirely by wind and water. Floods were widespread. Animals – sheep, cattle, horses, fowl – were lost by the thousands.

The 29 November 1824 issue of the Hampshire Advertiser (page 2) had this to say in retrospect:

It was a picture of nature in her most terrific form. It seemed as if the demon of destruction was riding on the waves ready to pounce upon all over which the watery element had control; it might indeed have taught morality itself a lesson, and shown the weakness of all human reasoning, when unprotected by Him who rules the waves.

An issue of the Western Antiquary (Volume XI, Number 7, February 1892, pages 116–120) contains an extensive description of the many ships wrecked in a report originally printed in the Devonshire Freeholder on 27 November 1824 that begins:

It becomes our painful duty this week to detail the melancholy and sad effects of a calamitous and awful storm, which visited our coast on Tuesday morning last, the effect of which are unparalleled in the history of Plymouth, and which has also spread desolation and distress throughout every part of the adjoining coast…

Newspaper and other reports also recount the heroic efforts of many individuals who risked their lives to save others trapped on stricken vessels and in damaged buildings. These periodicals published shortly after the event are a major source of information about families and communities. Detail can also be found in many publications produced years later such as a detailed summary by Gordon Le Pard (1999).

The experiences at Chiswell, Dorset
Chiswell (known in the past also as Chisel, Chissel and Cheswell) is located on the island of Portland, at the southern end of Chesil Bank. The shingle barrier beach extends 18 miles along Dorset’s western coast. Historically it has generally protected the town site from waves and flooding although it has also been the site of many shipwrecks.

The village was almost obliterated by the 1824 storm surge that topped the beach complex on its west side in the evening of 22 November. A contributing factor in the significant flooding was its coincidence with the highest spring tide of the year. A total of 36 houses were destroyed and 100 others were made uninhabitable. Damaged was estimated at £15,000 (£2.8 million in today’s currency).

A 90-ton sloop, the Ebenezer, was carried completely over Chesil Beach and left lying in a street. It was actually relaunched to the east side of the barrier, into Portland Harbour.

Twenty-two residents, 10 of them children, were killed, one family losing four members. The burial register of St George’s Church, Portland, notes that all individuals were buried under a coroner’s warrant.

The loss of children always seems most tragic. Five Chiswell families were devastated by the deaths of children:

Abel Attwooll lost his entire family save one son. A daughter had previously died in 1817, aged nine months. Abel remarried in 1826, to another widow, Mary Cooper. Together they had two children: Richard Henry Cooper and Ann. Both were baptised the same day – 28 January 1827 – and may have been twins. Abel continued to fish for a living until his death in 1863.

Mary Fuzzard, aged 13, was the middle of three children of Samuel and Ann Fuzzard. The oldest, Robert, went on to marry (Mary Meares) and have five children, all in Portland. The youngest, Elizabeth Mitchell also marred (John Stone), however, this couple did not have children.

John and Edith Russell lost their only two children: Edith, aged 10, and Elizabeth, aged 12. It appears they had no other offspring in subsequent years.

John and Edith Stone lost their daughter, Grace Attwooll, only five years old and the youngest of their seven children.

Grace Mary Wallis, at the time of her death, was one of three children of John and Jane Wallis. They subsequently had four other children between 1824 and 1831.

William and Mary White lost both of their young children: William Jr, aged five and infant Grace, only seven months. They did go on to have six more children between 1826 and 1841.

Also interred at St George’s were 18 individuals believed to be passengers and members of the crew of the Colville, a 400-ton West Indiaman wrecked on Chesil Beach to the north of the village. The ship Colville been on its way homeward from the West Indies to London with a cargo of cotton and rum when it was caught up in the raging tempest and driven onshore.

Only three of the deceased were identified: John Wilson, the captain; Thomas Dixon Gosling, of London, a passenger; and Hugh Baron Fraser, Esq., late of the Civil Commissary of Demerary, in the Dutch East Indies, a passenger. Fraser was one of 16 individuals buried as unknown but was later uninterred and reburied in the church. Over the next month, 11 other bodies were found on Chesil Beach, presumed victims of the storm, and were buried in the St George’s graveyard. Their identities and whether they were part of the complement of the Colville were not known.

The island of Portland, on which Chiswell is located, was entirely cut off from the mainland by the storm. Fishermen, who comprised most of the population, lost their boats, tools and, for many, their homes and other possessions. Several families were left destitute. Relief from Weymouth, on the mainland, was delayed due to the connecting road and bridge having been severely damaged.

It was some time before the village, like many others along the southern coast, fully recovered to the state it was in prior to the Great Gale. So too were the families of those areas.

Other areas
While Chiswell village was significantly impacted and almost destroyed by the storm, there were many other areas and families who felt the loss. Two stories that made the news included the following:

Thomas Major, of Bridport, Dorset, was minding an unoccupied property in West Bay, 20 miles up the coast from Chiswell, when the storm broke. Two of his daughters: Lucretia, aged nine, and Caroline, aged 4, were with him. Afraid the tenement in the harbour in which they were staying would be inundated, Thomas attempted to carry the two little girls to safety. A wave caught them before they could reach high ground and all three perished. Thomas left a 32-year-old widow, Sussanah, with three young children, aged 2, 6 and 13. The couple had already lost a daughter earlier in the same month. Before a year was out, the youngest child also died, compounding the family tragedy.

At Dorchester, Dorset, 71-year old Henry John Richman, Rector of the Holy Trinity, and his wife, Elizabeth, were killed when the chimney of their house fell through the roof, crushing them as they lay in their bed. Rev. Richman had provided guidance and support to the community through his office in the church for over 30 years.

Summary
The Great Gale of 1824 is not unique among the many major storms that have attached coastal communities. It is memorable from the standpoint of damage wrought, though. Towns were rebuilt and families moved. Many of those that were lost were remembered with memorials and written accounts.

Such events as major storms often have impacts beyond the destruction of homes and businesses. On occasion they may force people to relocate long distances from where they were born and expected to make their lives, due to loss of familial support or the negative changes in commercial activity and employment. It may be beneficial for family historians to investigate such events brought on by Mother Nature to determine if any of their ancestors were affected.

References

• Lamb, Hubert (1991). Historic Storms of the North Sea, British Isles and Northwest Europe. Cambridge University Press. 204 pp
• Le Pard, Gordon (1999). ‘The Great Storm of 1824’, Dorset Proceedings, 121, pp. 23–36.
• Shepheard, Wayne (2018). Surviving Mother Nature’s Tests: The effects climate change and other natural phenomena have had on the lives of our ancestors (with examples from the British Isles). St. Agnes, South Australia: Unlock the Past. Available through Mother Nature’s Tests blog site.