1790

John Balfour elected as MP for Orkney & Shetland.
Road from Lerwick to Tingwall completed
Fetlar Church was built.
Rev. John Morison of the Parish of Delting reported its population was 1504 persons, an increase over 956 in 1752 and 1417 in 1785. The number of families was 223, all houses in the district were occupied.
Publication of "The Report of the Committee of the Highland Society of Scotland, to whom the Subject of Shetland Wool was referred, with an Appendix, containing Papers drawn up by Sir John Sinclair and Dr. Anderson, in reference to the same Report" examining Shetland sheep as a candidate for general improvement of British wool. The report began: "The number of sheep in Shetland, it is believed, cannot be less than 100,000, and are probably more; their fleeces, which at an average do not produce above one pound and a half each, are not worth at present above sixpence per lb., or £3,250 in all; whereas the finest wool might fetch at least five shillings per lb. if the same breed were reared in the Hebrides, and in the Orkney Islands (where they would thrive equally well) wool would be produced in those neglected parts of Great Britain, to the value of perhaps a million."
A petition was sent from the Presbytery of Zetland to the Church of Scotland's General Assembly concerning the scab disease ravaging their sheep. They requested that it be transmitted to the Lord Advocate and asked for his intercession.

March

9th
The Hillsden, a whaler, of Hull, England, from Hull, England and for the Davis Straits, wrecked in Bressay Sound.

The new Tingwall Kirk was opened.
7th
The Resolution (1790), a brigantine, laden with a cargo of stock fish, of and from Drontheim (now Trondheim), Norway for the Streights of Gibralter and Genoa, Italy wrecked on the Sligga Baa off the Isles of Gletness, Nesting. The only known survivor being the ship's dog who swam ashore.

1789<->1791