1715 — Measles, New London, CT (9); “malignant disease,” Plymouth, MA (40) — 49

–49  Blanchard tally from Caulfield (New London, CT) and Webster (Plymouth, MA).

Narrative Information

Caulfield: “Though most of the accounts are dated 1714 there are reports of the epidemic here and there throughout 1715 and 1716. Joshua Hempstead made records during an epidemic in New London [CT] during the winter of 1714-15. In this town of about 2000 inhabitants Calkins lists nine deaths within four months. Jonathan Hill lost three children in February and John Chapell lost two in April, 1715 [Jan-April is a 4-month period].[1] Multiple deaths from measles were infrequent, however….” (p. 537)

Webster: “In 1715…Plymouth in Massachusetts lost 40 of its inhabitants by a malignant disease, but no particulars are known.” (A Brief History of Epidemic and Pestilential Diseases…(in two volumes), 1799, p. 224.)

Source

Caulfield, Ernest. “Early Measles Epidemics in America.” Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine, Vol. 15, No. 4, March 1943, pp. 531-556. Accessed 4-5-2018 at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2601425/pdf/yjbm00506-0001.pdf

Webster, Noah. A Brief History of Epidemic and Pestilential Diseases; with the principal phenomena of the physical world which precede and accompany them, and observations deduced from the facts stated (in two volumes). “Section VII. Historical view of pestilential epidemics from the year 1701 to 1788.” Hartford, CT: Hudson & Goodwin, 1799. Accessed 4-5-2018 at: https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/evans/N27531.0001.001/1:12?rgn=div1;view=fulltext

[1] Cites, in footnote 20, p. 537: F. M. Calkins: Necrology of New London, 1652-1867. Photostat copy in Conn. State Library; Diary of Joshua Hempstead, Coll. New Lond. Hist. Soc., 1901, i; C.B. Graves: Trans. Conn. Med. Soc., 1920, 67.