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One of the most disastrous tornadoes or hurricanes that has ever been experienced in New England occurred in Massachusetts along the Merrimac river; Saturday, August 14, 1773. It commenced its havoc a few rods above Deer island, and took its course up the northern bank of the stream.

Cotton Mather thought that New England suffered as much as any other portion of the world from lightning, or, as he termed it, thunder, it being in his day generally supposed that thunder and not lightning caused the damage. Lightning had struck buildings, trees, animals and people from the time of the earliest settlement, but it does not appear to have caused very much damage in any one season until 1768. The scattered buildings and people had but slight chance of being injured by lightning on account of their small number and wide separation.

THE summer of 1740 was cool and wet. An early frost injured much of the corn crop, and the long season of rain which followed hindered its ripening. One-third of it was cut when green, and the rest was so wet that it very soon molded. There was, therefore, very little seed cor in New England for the next spring's planting, and the amount of dry corn for the winter's consumption was also small. The rain of the summer and fall flooded the lowlands of the country everywhere.