1803
Shetlopedia - The Shetland Encyclopaedia
- Rev. James Ingram (b. April 3, 1776) became minister of Yell and Fetlar.
His marathon ministry from 1803 until his death in 1879 at the great age of 103 made him the oldest minister in the world.
- Rev, John Mill died. His records were later edited by Gilbert Goudie and published under the title The diary of the Reverend John Mill, minister of the parishes of Dunrossness, Sandwick and Cunningsburgh in Shetland, 1740-1803. (Edinburgh University Press, 1889).
- After the fishing fleet of St. Andrews had been decimated in 1765, Cathcart Dempster, Dean of Guild of St. Andrews and a small estate owner in Shetland, proposed to the Town Council to bring two boats and crews from Bressay Sound to serve as the "Town's Fishers". Two yawls with six men each arrived in 1803, but only one, the Craignoon, remained with four of her crew at the end of two month. Andrew Manson, Lowrie Davidson, Archy Lister and Lowrie Burns married local women and served as the nucleus of the St. Andrews' fishing population.
November
- 12th
The Jong Frau Rebecca, a sail brig laden with a cargo of rye and oil, of Bremen, Germany, and said to have been for Archangel, Russia, wrecked at a location identified as "Hesti Geo", Ness of Houlland, North Yell, with the loss of all on board. - 17th
An unidentified vessel laden with a cargo of timber logs and tallow, drove ashore derelict and bottom up at an unrecorded location on the NE coast of Unst. NB. Although Unst is the accepted location within the record for this incident, mention is also made of Uist, one of the isles of the Herbrides, Scotland, which therefor cannot be entirely ruled out as a possible alternative location.
December
- 20th
The Guidehoffnung, a galliot laden with a cargo of glassware, cotton and linen, of Altona, Denmark (now part of Hamburg, Germany), wrecked at North Nesting with the loss of all on board.
