1737, Dec-Jan 1738 — Smallpox, esp. Chilmark & Edgartown, Martha’s Vineyard, MA– 12
–12 Duffy. Epidemics in Colonial America. 1953, p. 55.
— 1 Edgartown, Dr. Matthews. Banks. The History of Martha’s Vineyard (Vol. 1), 1911, p499.[1]
Narrative Information
Boston Selectmen: “At the Meeting of the Select Men, Dec. 14, 1737.[2]
Messrs. Thomas West and Hezekiah Dunham, both belonging to Martha’s Vineyard, being sent for, Appeared, And Inform, That they came from Homes’s hole on Martha’s Vineyard on thee 12th and 13th instant, that before they came from thence They were credibly inform’d that the Small Pox was broke out at Edgar Town, or Old Town Harbour so Called, and had spread into Nine Families in that Town, that One Matthews a Physician had died of that Distemper,[3] that they heard the Infection was received from Soloman Davis’s Sloop, who touch’d there in her passage from Philadelphia, They also say there are Pilots Appointed at {89} Holmes’s hole to give information thereof to all Vessels as they pass by, or Order to prevent their going in to that Harbour…
“…about Twenty persons were, or had been sick of that Distemper {small pox}, and about Five had died from it….
“At the Meeting of the Select Men, Jan. 2, 1738
“They heard the Small Pox was in about Ten Families at Old Town, that ‘twas broke anew only in One Family, and that it was not Spread within about Eight Miles of Holmes’s hole, and that none of their Men had been at Old Town….” (Boston Selectmen. “Testimonty from Mess. Joseph Lathrop…. 1886.)
Duffy: “The island of Martha’s Vineyard was next to pay toll to smallpox,[4] for an epidemic occurred in the winter of 1737-38. The towns of Chilmark and Edgartown bore the brunt of the attack which struck seventeen adults and twenty-six children, leaving twelve dead in its wake.” (Duffy. Epidemics in Colonial America. 1953, p. 55.)
Sources
Banks, Charles Edward, MD. The History of Martha’s Vineyard, Duke County, Massachusetts, in Three Volumes (Volume I, General History). Boston: George H. Dean, 1911. Google preview accessed 3-24-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=iYUlAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Boston Selectmen. “Testimonty from Mess. Joseph Lathrop, Master of the Sloop Trail from New London and other shipmasters; At a Meeting of the Select Men, Dec. & Jan. 1737.” A Report of the Record Commissions of the City of Boston containing the Records of Boston Selectmen, 1736 to 1742. Boston: Rockwell and Churchill, City Printers, 1886. SV: 88-89, 91, 92 (Transcription by L. Leibman). Accessed 3-24-2018 at: https://rdc.reed.edu/c/colhist/s/r?_pp=20&s=6617d2de16bdcaae031cc7994472644fa8807216&p=4&pp=1
Duffy, John. Epidemics in Colonial America. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1953.
[1] Notes: “There had been severe epidemics of this disease [smallpox] in Edgartown in 1737 and 1738, during which one Dr. Matthews had died…”
[2] Footnote 1: “A Report of the Record Commissions of the City of Boston containing the Records of Boston Selectmen, 1736- to 1742. Boston: Rockwell and Churchill, City Printers, 1886. SV: 88-89. In between the previous minutes and this are a large number of updates on the crew and the Small Pox situation.”
[3] Footnote 2: “Disease.”
[4] Duffy had in preceding sentence noted outbreak of smallpox in Wallingford, CT in 1732.