It Took An Earthquake chronicles the life of the quintessential aristocrat Harry Frankland, great-grandson of Oliver Cromwell, son of the Governor of the East India Company in Bengal, India, and himself the 4th Baronet of Thirsk and the Collector of the Port of Boston in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. It describes his voyage from Bengal to England at age 12 aboard a Dutch East Indiaman vessel and his education at the ancestral Frankland home, Great Thirkleby Hall in the North Riding of York. Most importantly, it focuses on Harry's relationship with Agnes Surriage, a poor, but beautiful, 16-year-old girl from Marblehead, and the enduring love they shared despite rejection of Agnes by Harry's family, the scorn of Boston's society matrons and a devastating earthquake. That earthquake demolished the city of Lisbon, Portugal, in 1755, nearly cost Harry his life as he was buried beneath rubble and debris, and had a profound effect on the couple's future relationship.