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��THE GRANITE MONTHLY.
��EARTHQUAKES FROM 1638 TO 18S3, IN THE NE IV ENGLAND STATES AND IN THE BRITISH POSSESSIONS NORTH OF THE UNITED STATES AND EAST OF THE ROCKY MOUN- TAINS.
��BV JOSIAH EMEKV.
��[COXTI
October 29, 1727. The great earth- ((uake of 1727 deserves special no- tice. For most of the following ac- count and ([notations I am indebted to Joshua Coffin's History of New- bury, a work now nearly out of print, though I think his daughter, to whose courtesy I am much indebted, has a few copies. " As the great earth- (juake," says Mr. Coffin. " which hap- pened in October of this year (1727), was one of the most violent that ever happened in New-England, and as, according to Hutchinson and other writers, the shock was greater at Newbury and other towns on the Merrimack river than in any other parts of Massachusetts, I shall be a little more minute in my extracts from accounts written in Newbury at the time. From the records of the Epis- copal church in Newburyport. kept by the Rev. Matthias Plant, the rector, I make the following extract : October 29, 1727, being the Lord's day, at forty minutes past ten the same evening, there was a most terrible, sudden, and amazing earthquake, which did dam- age to the greater part of the neighbor- hood, shook and threw down tops of chimneys, and in many places the earth opened a foot or more. It continued very terrible by frequently bursting and shocking our houses, and lasted all that week (the' first being the loudest shock, and eight more that immediately followed, louder than the rest that fol- lowed), sometimes breaking with loud claps six times or oftener in a day, and as often in the night, until Thursday of the said week, and then somewhat abated.
Upon Friday, in the evening, and about midnii/ht. aiid a'jout break of
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da\', and on Satuday, there were three very loud claps. We also had it on Saturday, the Sabbath, and on Monday morning, about ten, though much abated in the noise and terror. L^pon the Tuesday following, November 7th, about eleven o'clock, a very loud clap ; upon every day and night more or less, three, four, or six times each day or night, and upon the twelfth, being the Lord's day, twice from betwixt three to half-past four, in all of which s[)ace of time some claps were loud, others seemingly at a distance and much abated. Upon Monday, two hours before day, a loud burst, and at half- l)ast two in the afternoon another i)urst was heard, somewhat loud. On the nineteenth, about ten at night, a \-ery loud shock, and another about break of day, somewhat abated ; l)ut at Haverhill a very loud burst, making their houses rock, as that over night did with us. It was the Lord's day. in the evening. It has been heard since, much abated. The very first shock opened a new spring by Samuel Bart- let's house, in the meadow, and threw \\\) in the lower grounds in Newbur)- several loads of white sand. .Vfter that some loud claps, shaking our houses. Another about four the next morning, much abated."
The following account is from the journal of Stephen Jaques, of New- bury :
"On the 29th day of October(i72 7). between ten and eleven, it being Sab- batli day night, there was a terrible earth(iuake. The like was never known in this land. It came with dreadful roaring, as if it was thunder, and then a ])ounce like great guns, two or three times, close, one after another. It
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