The 1780 Hurricane

Hurricanes are a part of life in the Caribbean and over the centuries Jamaica has suffered from a number of devastating hurricanes.  In October we commemorate the 227th anniversary of the disastrous hurricane which literally destroyed the town of Savanna-la-Mar, and presumable the older parish records as well.  The effects of the hurricane are well documented in the records of both the central and local governments.

The first entry in the volume of the Vestry Minutes for the Parish of Westmoreland, October 1780 to April 1781, begins two weeks after the hurricane.  It records a meeting of a “number of Inhabitants of the parish of Westmoreland at Mr. David Finlayson’s house to consult on the most eligible means of alleviating the distress of the unhappy Sufferers by the Storm of the third October Instant…and to erect a Town for the accommodation of trade & the Inhabitants…:”

The Governor, Sir John Dalling gave details of what he termed “one of the most dreadful calamities that has happened to this colony within the memory of the oldest inhabitant…” This letter which gives a graphic description of the storm surge and earthquake which accompanied the hurricane on October 2, 1780, is among the records the Archives inherited from the Colonial Secretariat in Kingston. Letter from Governor Dalling.

Among the other records is a Petition to the Governor signed by 30 persons   who say that they are “the remaining inhabitants of the place where Savanna-la- Mar once stood..:” requesting urgent relief from their sufferings.