The New Hampshire Gazette And General Advertiser

BOSTON, JULY 21.

THE shower on the 12th inst. was extremely heavy in Bridgewater, and several of the adjacent towns:—A long and severe drought having preceded it, the air was highly charged with the electric fluid:—The clouds began to gather, a little after one in the afternoon, attended with thunder and lightning as usual, 'till about three o'clock, when the rain poured down in torrents; From experiment it appears, that (especially in the North-Parish) the rain fell at least ten inches deep on a level. From three 'till half past six, there was one incessant roar of thunder, with sharp and terrible lightning: The winds were blowing strong in various directions at the same time: so that the clouds and elements seemed in perfect distraction:—In Pembroke a barn filled with hay, was struck and consumed:—In Stoughton, one pair of oxen, and two horses were killed. At Wrentham, two barns were burned.—In Easton, a pair of oxen and two horses killed. In Duxbury, two women were struck, one of which, 'tis said, is since dead:—In Abington, a cow was killed, and a watch, which a man had hung on a tree, while at work, was shattered to pieces, and thrown in every direction: In Bridgewater, one horse and a hog were killed: a house and corn-house struck: a hovel set on fire: a tree was torn to pieces, and large rails of timber thrown to the distance of 25 rods, and three men who were standing by were knocked down and stunned: The circumstance of a rock deserves particular notice; it lay partly covered in a cornfield, the lightning took it, raised it above the corn, and carried it to the distance of five rods, and left it upside down, the stone weighed 200 wt. The clouds—on account of the changes in the wind, hung the whole afternoon over Bridgewater and Abington; and in Bridgewater, it has undoubtedly, besides those mentioned, struck in more than fifty other places.