[1] Stotfield has now been absorbed into Lossiemouth but originally it was a small ferm toun in Moray that was established in the Middle Ages.
King David I of Scotland introduced settlers from other parts of the kingdom as a way of reducing the powers of the lords who had ruled large territories as independent provinces.
Stotfield's close proximity to the sea eventually led it to develop a fishing arm to its farming activities.
A weather diary kept at Gordon Castle, Fochabers, Moray, stated that the temperature at 8 a.m. on this day was 50 degrees Fahrenheit.
When the ship reached Kinnaird Head, Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, she was forced to return to Orkney where she was wrecked on the island of Flotta with loss of life to crew and passengers.
The accounts from all parts of the country represent the mischief done by this dreadful gale as beyond calculation - thatched houses unroofed barns and stables blown down: stacks of corn and hay scattered to the wind; and an immense quantity of large and valuable timber torn from the roots."
A number of vessels on this coast are still missing, and several fishing boats on the Moray Firth were driven out to sea in the violence of the gales and have not been heard of."
(7/1/07) In January the same newspaper wrote:"In addition to the melancholy accounts formerly received, of the damage done by the late gale, we have to mention the loss of several vessels on the coast of Caithness... Five vessels names unknown, ashore in the Orkney Islands, twenty to thirty men supposed to be lost... We hear from Elgin, that three boats belonging to Stotfield, were lost, containing 21 seamen, who have left 17 widows and 42 children, besides aged parents and other helpless relations to lament their fate.
The paper later reported: "We have much pleasure in mentioning, that a collection for relief of the widows and families of the unfortunate fishermen who perished in the tremendous gale of Christmas last, is to be made in all the (18) churches of this city, tomorrow (a national fast day; £190 3 11¾ was raised (11/3/07)...
Thirty-seven industrious fishermen perished in the deep, leaving behind them 31 widows, 89 children and 56 aged parents or other relations, all ... by the fatal event, now rendered totally destitute."
The minister of Drainie recorded in 1841 that of the total of £1075 13 0 collected for the Stotfield and Burghead Relief Fund, £35 remained to be distributed while there were still eight widows surviving.