1713, Oct-1714 — Measles Epidemic, Boston, MA (also CT, RI, NY, NJ, NH, PA) –>109
–>109 Caulfield. “Some Common Diseases of Colonial Children.” Transactions…, Apr 1942, 8.
New London, CT ( >9)
–>9 Caulfield. “Some Common Diseases of Colonial Children.” Transactions…, Apr 1942, 8.
Boston, MA (>100)
–>100 Caulfield. “Some Common Diseases of Colonial Children.” Transactions…, Apr 1942, 8.
–>100 Christianson. “Medicine in New England,” in Leavitt. Sickness and Health…, 1997, 54
Narrative Information
Caulfield: “During the late summer of 1713 the disease [measles] appeared in some town near Newport, Rhode Island, and from there it was apparently carried to Cambridge by some Harvard student, for an epidemic broke out at the college during September before it spread throughout the town. The Boston epidemic began during October and continued until the following spring. By January the disease had reached New York and a few towns in New Jersey, and by March it had appeared in numerous towns from Piscataqua to Philadelphia.[1] The epidemic passed by some towns at first only to return to them some months later. It was present on Long Island during May, 1714, on Cape Cod during June, in Danvers during November, and in New London during the winter and spring of 1714-1715.
“This was the most alarming measles epidemic of colonial times. It was particularly severe in Boston, for ‘The Hand of the Lord was heavy there.’ Out of a population of about 9,000, ‘Many Hundreds, perhaps Thousands,’ had the disease.[2] Compared with the same months of the following year, there were 180 excess deaths;[3] so it is safe to attribute at least 100 to the epidemic….This epidemic was also so severe in other towns. During March it was ‘very mortal’ in Salem, West-Jersey; and on May 27 it was reported from Philadelphia: ‘We have here an extreme sickly Town, and many Dies, five lies Dead now, and several were Buried Yesterday.’[4] In New London there were nin measles deaths in a population of 2,000. A minister in Westchester fearing that he would get the ‘very mortal distemper,’ refused to baptize a dying child.
“Cotton Mather repeatedly said that in Europe measles was usually considered a mild disease, but that in America it was ‘a very heavy Calamity; a Malady Grievous to most, Mortal to many, and leaving pernicious Relicks behind it in all.’ He had good reason ‘to Remember the Wormwood and the Gall,’ for every member of his household except himself got this ‘venomous’ disease, and five of them—his wife, maid, newly born twins, and two-year-old daughter—died within two weeks. Another daughter, Katherine, never regained her health after her attack, dying three years later at the age of twenty-seven from a residual ‘consumption.’”[5]
(pp. 7-8.)
Christianson: “The most destructive measles epidemic of colonial times, the New England epidemic of 1713, claimed over 100 deaths.” (Christianson. “Medicine in New England,” in Leavitt. Sickness and Health…, 1997, 54.)
Sources
Caulfield, Ernest. “Some Common Diseases of Colonial Children.” Transactions of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Vol. 35, April 1942, pp. 4-65. Accessed 1-17-2018 at: https://www.colonialsociety.org/node/865
Christianson, Eric H. “Medicine in New England,” in Leavitt, Judith Walzer and Ronald L. Numbers. Sickness and Health in America: Readings in the History of Medicine and Public Health (3rd Ed., Revised). Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1997. Google preview accessed 1-17-2018 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=6eOlhNkjXaAC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q&f=false
[1] Cites Boston News-Letter, February 8 and March 15, 1714.
[2] Cotton Mather, Hezekiah (Boston, 1713), 21; A Perfect Recovery (Boston, 1714), 47.
[3] “Burials within the Town of Boston,” Boston News-Letter, March 15, 1714.
[4] Boston News Letter, June 7, 1714.
[5] Cotton Mather, Victorina (Boston, 1717, 71-72.