It may be of interest to all VA researchers to know that in 1910, our VA ancestors still spoke of the "great gust" - hurricane - that VA suffered through in the summer of 1667.  Quoting ":British State Papers, Colonial Papers" Vol. 23; "Winder Papers", vol. 1, pp. 249 et seq, Ludwell to Berkely letters (Nov. 8, 1667), "British State Papers, Colonial Papers"; and the "Sainsbury Abstracts for 1667", p. 129 (VA State Library), Bruce, in "Economic History of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century", vol. ii, pp 396, et seq.) wrote:

"....it is remarkable that a single tobacco plant survived.  Its violence and its length surpassed anything of the kind observed since the colony began (300 years ago).  First, there arose a tempest of hail, in which there fell to earth many stones as large as a turkey egg.  So prodigious was the force...that those destroyed the fruit, beat down the grasses, smashed the glass in the windows, perforated the tiles of the roofs, and killed many of the cattle.  

As soon as the hailstorm passed away, the rain began to fall and for 40 days it continued with more or less steadiness, spoiling the remnants of the grain that had survived the hailstones.  On the 27th of August there arose a hurricane which, for 24 hours, blew with unexampled fury.

It began at the northeast and gradually moved around the north  until it roared directly from the west.  It then veered to the southeast and there spent its force.  This terrific wind was accompanied by a heavy rain, but there was no thunder or lightning.  The great floods in the upper sections of the rivers were distinctly perceptible in the lower parts in spite of their width, and, to make the rise more destructive, the hurricane, in the beginning and at the end of its career, rolled the waters in the Bays (James and Chesapeake) and the mouths of the rivers back into the creeks , causing those to swell to such an unprecedented heights that the families of many planters who did not reside in sight of a stream were compelled to seek refuge upon the tops of their houses in order to escape destruction.  

Large vessels were swept over bars of sand where, at ordinary tide, a small boat would run aground, and at places where vessels could float at ease at the usual flood, the water was too shallow to keep them off the bottoms.  A vast quantity of Indian corn, not drowned in the rains, which had then been falling for 45 days, was laid flat, the tobacco in the exposed places was torn to shreds, while that which had been cut and stored was destroyed with the barns in which it had been deposited.

The fences were either blown down or crushed out of shape by the falling trees, leaving the cattle at liberty to enter and devour the crops as those lay scattered over the fields.  It was estimated  that ten thousand houses were ruined by the hurricane, this number including, doubtless, barns and stables as well as the cabins of slaves and servants and the residences of planters. 

It was impossible for all of the crops to have been swept away, since much corn and tobacco were planted in spots more or less sheltered from winds by a heavy growth of forest.  According to one calculation made at the time, the amount saved was about one-third only of the expected product; according to another, only one-fifth."

It also was written that the "College Plantation" (Coolidge) was completely destroyed.  Indeed, the sole remnant of that large enterprise is "College Run" that passes under VA #10 north of St. Luke's Church.  Some storm, huh?

So your ancestors, equally or in an even greater measure, shared in what today we are watching and hearing on the news.

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