Great Colonial Hurricane of 1635
| Category 4 major hurricane (SSHWS/NWS) | |
| Formed | August 1635 |
|---|---|
| Dissipated | August 25, 1635 |
| Highest winds |
1-minute sustained: 130 mph (215 km/h) |
| Lowest pressure | ≤ 930 mbar (hPa); 27.46 inHg (Estimated ) |
| Fatalities | 46+ direct |
| Areas affected | Virginia, Long Island, New England, other areas? (Information scarce) |
| Part of the 1635 Atlantic hurricane season | |
The Great Colonial Hurricane of 1635 was a severe hurricane which brushed Virginia and then passed over southeastern New England in August of that year. Accounts of the storm are very limited, but it was likely the most intense hurricane to hit New England since European colonization.
The first recorded mention of the Great Colonial Hurricane was on August 24, 1635 at the Virginia Colony at Jamestown. It affected Jamestown as a major hurricane, although no references can be found to damage, probably because the hurricane evidently moved past rapidly, well east of the settlement.
Governors John Winthrop of Massachusetts Bay Colony and William Bradford of Plymouth Colony recorded accounts of the Great Colonial Hurricane. Both describe high winds, 14 to 20 feet (4.3 to 6.1 m) storm surges along the south-facing coasts of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and great destruction.
Much of the area between Providence, Rhode Island and the Piscataqua River was damaged by the storm, and some damage was still noticeable 50 years later. Governor Bradford wrote that the storm drowned seventeen Indians and toppled or destroyed thousands of trees; many houses were also flattened.
The small barque Watch and Wait owned by a Mr. Isaac Allerton foundered in the storm off Cape Ann with 23 people aboard. The only survivors were Antony Thacher and his wife, who reached Thacher Island. Thacher later wrote an account of the shipwreck. John Greenleaf Whittier based his poem, The Swan Song of Parson Avery, on Thacher's account of the death of Father Joseph Avery in this wreck.
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