1821
Shetlopedia - The Shetland Encyclopaedia
- Harley Radington: a tale by Dorothea Primrose Campbell is published in London. It is mainly set in Shetland.
- Captain James Vetch and Mr. Thomas Drummond, engineering officers for the Ordnance Survey, finished the trigonometrical geographical survey of Shetland, while Captain Hewet made a nautical survey of various harbours.
- Sir Walter Scott's novel, The Pirate is published.
January
- 15th
Sumburgh Head Lighthouse first lit, a fixed light visible at 22 miles.
March
April
- The Isabella (1821), of and for Workington, Cumbria, England, wrecked near Lerwick.
July
- 7th
The rise in the letting of estates to merchants brought about complications in establishing teind valuations. In Northmavine, the heritors and the minister had agreed to let referees set the value of teinds based on their estimates of the rents that could be expected per merk (3/4 acre) held under a lease of nineteen years. The Rev. William Watson, not satisfied with the outcome, pursued a case against the heritors, requesting that if the valuation was not to be on the exact value of rent paid by the tenants that he would be willing to accept the rent paid by the tacksmen to the heritors. The defenders successfully argued that the slump rents paid to them also included the non-teindable elements of fishing returns, kelp, wreck, whales, booths, etc. The Court of Sessions ruled that "When rent is paid for lands and fishings let in cumulo, only that part of the rent applicable to the land is teindable".
