Now! Then! A hurricane hits the church at Hornsea (Holderness), revealing the parish clerk’s relationship with a noted smuggler along the coast

23 December 1732: A hurricane hits the church at Hornsea (Holderness), revealing the parish clerk’s relationship with a noted smuggler along the coast

George Poulson. 1840. The History and Antiquities of the Seigniory of Holderness, in the East-Riding of the County of York, Vol. 1. Hull: Robert Brown. Get it:

Excerpt

The vault has been open time immemorial, and, sorry am I to tell you, has been used formerly as a place to conceal smuggled goods in. I have heard that the late parish clerk was concealing prohibited goods there in the night of the 23rd December, 1732, the very time when the violent hurricane came and unroofed the church, the door having been opened by the clerk for that bad design. George _____’s ship was certainly near the beck that night, and was laid flat on her side during the time the tempest continued, which was only two minutes. The parish clerk was suddenly afflicted with a paralytic stroke, which deprived him of the use of his speech, and confined him to his bed some months before his death. We are not fully authorised to declare the causes of God’s judgments, but this hurricane, a few centuries ago, would have been deemed so.

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To facilitate reading, the spelling and punctuation of elderly excerpts have generally been modernised, and distracting excision scars concealed. My selections, translations, and editions are copyright.

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Original

The following curious account is given in the words of the writer [William Dade], relative to the crypt, described in the account of the church:-

The vault has been open time immemorial, and, sorry am I to tell you, has been used formerly as a place to conceal smuggled goods in. I have heard that the late parish clerk was concealing prohibited goods there in the night of the 23rd December, 1732, the very time when the violent hurricane came and unroofed the church, the door having been opened by the clerk for that bad design.[] George *****’s ship was certainly near the beck that night, and was laid flat on her side during the time the tempest continued, which was only two minutes. The parish clerk was suddenly afflicted with a paralytic stroke, which deprived him of the use of his speech, and confined him to his bed some months before his death. We are not fully authorised to declare the causes of God’s judgments, but this hurricane, a few centuries ago, would have been deemed so. ***

The remainder of the letter is worn away with mildew, but the reader may easily conclude it.

202 words.