1742 — Aug-Jan 1743 (especially), “Throat Ail” (Diphtheria), esp. Stratham, MA — 97

–97 Caulfield. “Some Common Diseases of Colonial Children.” Transactions. Apr 1942, p. 18.[1]

—  2  Greenland, Cate family. Caulfield. “Some Common Diseases of Colonial Children.”

–95  Stratham.                        Caulfield. “Some Common Diseases of Colonial Children.”

Narrative Information

Caulfield: “In Stratham ‘throat ail’ caused ninety-five deaths, eighty in five months (the 1735 epidemic caused eighteen deaths). From August 1742, to January, 1743, there were six deaths in both the Calley and Stockbridge families, five in the Walter Wiggins family, four each in the William Chase, Hills, Speed and Veazey families, three each in the Abbott, Palmer, Thurston, and Tuftin Wiggins families, and two each in the Jonathan Chase, Fr., Jewet, Jones, Mason, Merrill, Norris, Rollings, Smith and Stevens families.

“Belknap, in his History of New Hampshire (III. 238, 243, 247), gives figures showing epidemics in Hampton, Newmarket, and East Kingston, although no cause is given in the case of the last two.

“The Reverend Thomas Smith identifies the disease in Exeter, Kingston, and Stratham. Journals of the Rev. Thomas Smith and the Rev. Samuel Deane, 116 (November 14, 1744).

“There were numerous deaths from the ‘awful throat distemper’ in Hampton. New Eng. Hist. Gen. Reg., LVIII, 29-36.”

Source

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

[1] In footnote 41, Caulfield cites For Greenland and Stratham: New England Historical and Genealogical Register, XXIX, pp. 38-39, XXX, pp. 427-428, XXXII, pp. 48-49; and A Journal for the Years 1739-1803 by Samuel Lane, of Stratham (Charles L. Hanson, Ed., Concord, 1937, pp. 65 and 105).