During the morning of Monday the 16th of December 1735 there was an earth tremor on the Island of Portland described at the time as an earthquake. It did considerable damage but we haven’t found any reports of lives lost. A petition signed by one hundred and eighteen local men was got up and sent to London. Of interest to the family historian is the list of signatories which we have saved in an Excel file: email us if you would like a copy – it’s free.
Here is the wording of the petition headed, The Humble Petition of the Inhabitants of the Island of Portland in the County of Dorset. It was addressed to The Right Hon’ble the Lords Commissioners of his Majesties Treasury and reads:
Humbly Sheweth,
That on Monday the sixteenth of December last in the morning a great and Sudden Shock of the Earth was felt near the Quarrys at the North End of the said Island by which the Earth for more than a mile in length sunk away from the Clift and carried with it the Way leading to the Piere, Overturned the said Piere, and broke and destroyed the Crane thereon, so that at present it is Impossible to carry down from the Quarry’s or to Ship Stone as formerly, by which means his Majesty will loose entirely the Revenue of fourpence per pr.Tunn paid by all persons who Shipped Stone off the said Piere; and also the Duty for all Stone raised in the Island and payable to his Maj’tie and the Inhabitants, will be in a great measure lost, and the latter consequently deprived of his Majesty’s most gracious Bounty extended to them by his Grant of the 28th of July 1730 Until the said Way and Piere is Repaired.
Therefore Your Petitioners most humbly pray that your Honour’s will take this Unhappy Circumstance into your Consideration and Order that the same may be Repaired fit for Shipping Stone as formerly And they as in duty bound shall ever pray.
There follows a list of the 118 signatories.
