The Chatham Fire of 1820

Extract from “An account of the dreadful fire at Chatham, … the 3rd of March, 1820, etc” by William Jefferys

Published in 1821

Pages 1 – 7

EARLY in the morning of the 3d of March 1820 , a Fire was discovered
in the outbuildings at the back of two houses in the High – street of
Chatham , near the Town Quay , in the occupation of Mr. William Hills a
baker , and Mrs. Jane Burdett a tallow chandler , ( No. 69 and 70 in the
annexed Plan ) which in a few hours consumed thirty – four dwelling houses ,
and materially injured sixteen more ; two others were nearly pulled down ,
to prevent the spreading of the flames , and twelve or thirteen warehouses
or outhouses were either destroyed , or seriously damaged ; an immense
quantity of goods , furniture and other effects , in and about the premises ,
were either entirely consumed or materially injured , and the total loss was
estimated at little less than £ 100,000 .

The greatest part of the property
was insured in the Hope , Kent , Norwich Union , Phoenix , Eagle , Sun , and
West of England Fire Offices ; the Hope , in which the Estates of James
Best , Esq . were insured , sustaining the greatest loss .

The cause in which the fire originated , or the precise spot in
which it began , will always , it is presumed , remain uncertain ; it commenced
either in the bakehouse of Mr. Hills , or in the adjoining melting – house of
Mrs. Burdett , both of which buildings were chiefly composed of timber , and filled with articles of a combustible nature , and workmen had been
employed therein , till late in the evening on the day previous to the accident .

It is imagined , that the strong north – westwardly wind which prevailed the
day before , and which , during the night of the fire , blew a hurricane from
the river Medway ( on the borders of which the Estates were situated ) ,
directly on the buildings that were first discovered to be on fire , enlivened
the ashes thrown from the ovens or furnaces , and by communicating the fire
to the building in which they were deposited , produced the fatal catas
trophe .

Amidst a variety of opinions on the subject , and from the best
information that can be gained , nothing like certainty appears , but the pre
vailing notion , and perhaps the most probable one , is , that the fire began
in the bakehouse of Mr. Hills .

It is very consolatory to infer , when reflecting on this melancholy
occurrence , that the cause of it was accidental , and not the work of an
incendiary ; and that neither a single life was lost on the dreadful occasion ,
nor a person seriously injured in endeavouring to extinguish the flames .

It was a little after two o’clock in the morning when the fire was dis
covered from the river by one Joseph Joyce a waterman , who immediately
rowed his boat on shore at the Town Quay , and gave alarm to the inhabi
tants ; at the same time it was perceived by the sentinel on duty at the
Chatham Barrack Gate , who directly communicated the intelligence to
Lieutenant Larimore , of the First Royal Veteran Battalion , the officer in
command of the guard , who immediately beat to arms , hastened to the town
with a portion of his guard , and roused the occupiers of the houses in the
vicinity of the fire : by these prompt measures the lives of many were
doubtless preserved , as from the dread hour of the night , and the rapidity of
the flames , several might otherwise have fallen a sacrifice to the destructive
element .

The fire in a few minutes making its progress to the front of the High
street , quickly reached the buildings ( No. 19 and 20 ) on the opposite side
of the way , and in the course of half an hour the flames raged with so much
violence as to prevent all near approach to them ; notwithstanding there was presently gathered together a great number of very able , active , and
enterprising men , who nobly exerted themselves in endeavouring to stop the
progress of the flames , and who were well supplied with water from the
river ( it being about the time of high water ) from the adjoining pumps , & c .
the fire , however , bade defiance to all human exertions , and rapidly extending
its destructive powers soon enveloped the whole of the houses , contiguous
to those in which it began , in a general conflagration .

At three o’clock
the scene was terrific in the extreme , and such : was the violence of the
tempest , that the flakes of fire arising from the consuming buildings were
carried by the wind with unparalleled velocity , and of such magnitude ,
as none but an eye witness can credit ; these large flakes communicated the
fire to one hay and two corn stacks standing in the barn yard of Rome
House , belonging to Mr. Best , a distance of four or five hundred yards .

The stacks burnt with incredible fury , and served to distract the attention
of those who were endeavouring to extinguish the burning houses in the
street .

Attempts were made in the first instance to save the stacks , but
they proved ineffectual , for the wind baffled every effort , carried the
embers to Gibraltar Place , and formed a vast current of fire along the
New Road , and even beyond the turnpike gate , a distance of at least a quar
ter of a mile : every building in that direction was in great danger , and it
became necessary to place men on the tops of the houses , buildings , and
stacks , with pails of water , to extinguish the glowing embers as they fell .

During the conflagration of the stacks , a great quantity of water was thrown
from the buckets and fire engines on the adjacent buildings in the barn
yard , which were in imminent danger from their contiguity to the stacks , and
owing to this precaution they were fortunately preserved ; the water cast
on them , from the extreme severity of the cold , froze as it fell , and formed
an icy surface , which deadened the embers , and prevented any farther
damage to the buildings .

About four o’clock the fire appeared at its greatest height ; it had
not only extended to , but had in a great measure destroyed a very large
pile of buildings called the Sun Inn ( No. 44 ) , and the intermediate houses ; so that every hope was now lost of arresting the progress of the all
powerful flames at the Town Quay , which formed an opening or road
from the High – street to the river , between the inn and the adjoining house ,
in the occupation of Mrs. Etherington .

The fire raged with increased
fury , and soon after spreading to the houses in the tenure of Messrs .
Whitehead , Fisher , and Stroughill , and to those on the opposite side of
the street , occupied by Mr. Edward Wickham the Confidential Clerk , and
Mr. Humphry Wickham the Brewer , of Mr. Best , presently communicated
its devouring flames to the elegant and substantial mansion , called Chatham
House , in the occupation of Mr. Best ; in less than two hours the fire had
consumed the interior of that noble edifice , leaving its walls a melancholy
heap of ruins .

The flames , from some apertures in the walls of Chatham
House , then communicated their baneful effects to that part of the adjoining
Brewhouse where the steam engine is erected , and which , amidst the sur
rounding havoc , discharging water at the rate of several tons a minute ,
had yielded an abundant supply to the engines .

At this awful hour ,
it became doubtful to every person who had a house and family in the
town , even at the remotest part of it , whether he should long possess
them : every one partook of the wide – spreading fear , that the next
hour might witness the destruction of all that was most dear and valua
ble to him in life .

The lamentations and cries of those unfortunate
persons who had been so unexpectedly , so suddenly , and so miserably
driven from their homes , in a cold , wintry , and tempestuous night , many
with no more than the scanty apparel they had , in their great fright , hastily
put on , without a home or shelter , to protect them from the ” pelting
pitiless storm , ” were shocking in the extreme : the moving of the furniture
and effects that were happily snatched , at great risk , from the flames , and
carried to the friendly houses of those whose doors were opened to receive
the wretched fugitives and their property ; the piles of furniture made in
the open street , in situations that exposed it almost to as much injury as
it would sustain from the flames ; and the eager enquiries after the safety
and welfare of those who were exposed to the greatest danger , greatly added to the horror which the heart – rending scene presented .

Every one pos
sessed of the common feelings of humanity , was struck with dismay and
despair at the appalling sight , and this terror was rendered more awfully
visible by the prodigious glare of the flames , which illumined the counte
nances of those who were present at the awful scene .

The sparks issuing
from the dreadful crash occasioned by the falling in of the roofs and by the
consuming buildings , rose majestically in a shower of fire to an immense
height in the air , and mixing thickly with the large flakes of snow and hail
that occasionally fell , discoloured , in a remarkable manner , the apparel of
those on whom they alighted ; many persons , and particularly those who
had heroically placed themselves in situations at once difficult and dan
gerous , were ( from their minds being deeply engaged in the awful events ,
in which they were the principal actors ) insensible of the different tem
peratures to which they were exposed ; one moment suffering the effects
arising from the scorching heat , and the next experiencing the intense cold
of a severely freezing atmosphere .

At this critical juncture , a few daring
men , with a courage and intrepidity which will always redound to their
credit , bravely , nay rashly , and at the hazard of their lives , placed them
selves in a dangerous situation between Mr. Best’s house and the adjoining
brewhouse ; the debt of gratitude is justly due to them from the inhabitants
in general , but more particularly from Mr. Best and his friends ; since by their
united exertions , with a plentiful supply of water from buckets , engines ,
& c . and through the merciful interference of a kind Providence , they happily
prevented the flames from spreading in the brewhouse , which was already
on fire in several places .

Their noble exertions were aided by the unusual
thickness and solidity of the walls of Chatham House , which notwithstand
ing the intensity of the heat to which they were exposed ( china , iron ,
silver , & c . melting into one common mass in the interior of the building )
now appeared a ruinous heap indeed , but yet well able to withstand and
form a powerful barrier to the violent impetuosity of the flames , and
the raging tempest by which they were assailed ; from the resistance they
afforded , the contiguous brewhouse , offices , and outbuildings , less solid , yet more extensive , and the valuable property they contained , were rescued
from destruction .

The situation of Chatham House being in the immediate direction of
the wind , and the flames being thereby arrested in their dreadful progress
by its substantial walls , a good opportunity was afforded for many persons
to yield greater assistance in extinguishing the flames in , the houses burn
ing at the other extremity of the fire , and by the great exertions and zealous
endeavours of as brave a set of men as ever contended with so formidable
an assailant , the rapidity of the flames was checked about seven o’clock
in the morning , though it was nine before they were subdued , and noon before
the fire was safely extinguished .

As a proof of the intensity of the heat of
this fire , it is necessary to state , that at the end of five weeks after it hap
pened , some of the timbers on removing the ruins were still burning , and
the coals in the cellars were red with heat .

It would be an invidious task to name those inhabitants who were most
active in endeavouring to extinguish the flames , it is therefore hoped it will be
sufficient to say , that one and all seemed to vie with each other in rendering
their utmost services on the distressing occasion .

It is at the same time pro
per to state that they were well supported by Col. Pasley with the officers
and men of the Sappers ; by Sir Archibald Christie with the officers and men
of the first Veteran Battalion ; by many officers of the Royal Marine Corps
with their men ; by Capt . Parry of the Royal Marine Artillery and his men ;
by Major Hay and Capt . Somerville of the Honourable East India Company’s
service with their men ; and by Brigade Major Holland : many officers of
the Royal Navy with the crews of their respective ships arrived with alacrity
and used their best endeavours not only in preventing the progress of the
flames , but in preserving the property of the unfortunate sufferers by
removing it to places of safety and placing guards to protect it from , the
unhallowed : hands of the pilferers , who then appeared .

The engines of the Dock Yard , Ordnance , and Victualling Office , were
also promptly forwarded by the Commissioner Sir Robert Barlow , Join
Baillie and Henry Stokes , Esqrs . which afforded great assistance .

A painful but necessary task yet remains to be performed , that of
recording the villany of those wretches undeserving the names of men , who ,
during the awful visitation , under the pretence of yielding assistance to their
fellow creatures in the hour of distress , took the base and cowardly advantage
of their sufferings , by pillaging their houses and secretly embezzling their
property .

Several of these unprincipled beings were apprehended and
carried before the Magistrates , who kindly offered their services and
cheerfully gave their attendance and assistance on the melancholy occasion ,
and many were , after a strict examination into their nefarious conduct , com
mitted to prison to answer for crimes for which language has hardly a suitable
epithet ; at the ensuing Assizes sixteen of them were tried , convicted , and
sentenced to various terms of imprisonment ; a few were acquitted , more
from some defect in the evidence than from their own innocence ; and several
escaped the punishment which their infamous conduct justly merited .

To alleviate the pangs of misery and soften the anguish of distress , occa
sioned by this dreadful calamity , a meeting in Vestry of the parishioners was
called on Tuesday the 7th of March , to take into consideration the most
effectual means that could be adopted for the relief of the unfortunate
sufferers .