1871
Shetlopedia - The Shetland Encyclopaedia
- First Truck Commission
- Census of 1871:
- Population: 13,080 males, 18,525 females, 31,605 total. 6494 families.
- 5740 inhabited houses, 222 vacant houses, 10 houses building.
- 3992 occupiers of land made returns with average holdings of 13 acres each.
- Of 563,200 total acres, 50,762 were cultivated: ll,626 under corn crops; 3493 under green crops (including 2909 of potatoes); 522 in clover and grass under rotation; and 33,227 in permanent pasture.
- On the 25th of June: horses numbered 5354; cattle 21,725; sheep 86,834; and pigs 5251.
- Gross rental £30,000. Annual value, after deducting all burdens, including the expenditure on the poor (3s. to 4s. per pound rental), £21,000.
- Sixty-three Shetland smacks (tonnage 2,809) carried 816 men to the Faroe fishing and returned home with 370,597 fish. Twenty-one English smacks (tonnage 680 carrying 210 men) brought an additional 200,042 fish (6280 cwt.) to the Shetland curers for a total harvest of 19,434 cwt. dried fish.
- The Commercial Bank building was erected in Lerwick.
- A sailors' home and institute opened in Lerwick, chiefly funded by the adventurer and philanthropist Mr. John MacGregor.
February
- 8th
SS Pacific wrecked on Whalsay with the loss of 26 lives. - 10th or 11th
Part of the bows of an unidentified vessel, estimated to have been of approx 500 tons register, washed ashore at Gulber Wick. - 20th
The nameboards of three vessels reported washed ashore at seperate locations in Shetland. The John & Gustave on the 'Island of Linga', the records do not specify which one of several islands that bears this name is being referred to, the Marys at Dunrossness and the Elizabeth H. Fry on Yell. The fate of these vessels are otherwise unknown. This is presumed to be the date the report was made.
March
- 20th
John Cheyne 2 of Tangwick, the sixth Laird Cheyne of Tangwick, married Margaret, daughter of Archibald Simson of Commeapore Bengal. - 27th
The first ever rugby international takes place in Edinburgh. Amongst the players is Alfred Clunies-Ross, who is the first non-white rugby international. His grandfather is John Clunies-Ross, who founded the Cocos Islands dynasty.
September
- 7th
Election of the Lerwick Town Council. - 29th
George Trail, MP for Orkney and Shetland, died.
November
- 27th
An unidentified vessel, laden with a cargo of timber (logs), presumed lost on or near Yell, after wreckage reported found on the island. This date is presumed to be the date the report was made.
December
- 12th
The vessel Flora (1871), for the U.S.A. As a result of a bottle message found near Kirkwall, Orkney on February 24th 1872, this vessel was presumed lost on or shortly after this date, at an unknown location in the Atlantic, possibly generally west of Shetland. - 13th
John Bruce, who became the eleventh Laird of Sumburgh, married Mary Dalziel, daughter of Ralph Erskine Scott, C.A., Edinburgh.
