Weymouth, MA-240-290

lornajarrettblanchard January 1, 1751

–240-290. Blanchard tally of breakouts below.

Abington

–60 Hobart. An Historical Sketch of Abington…Massachusetts. 1849, p. 86.

Hingham

–80 Hingham.

–80 Hingham. Caulfield, citing diary of Benjamin Loring of Hingham. (Caulfield 1950, 44.)

Weymouth

–~150 Grob. The Deadly Truth. 2002, p. 83.

— 120 Adams. Wessagusset and Weymouth. p. 52.

— 110 Town of Weymouth, MA. Historic Timeline. Highlights of Weymouth’s past.

— 100 Caulfield, citing diary of Benjamin Loring of Hingham. (Caulfield 1950, 44.)

Narrative Information

Caulfield, Early Childhood Diseases: “This paper concerns only seven of the two thousand diseases that were known to the physicians of Cotton Mather’s time. These seven have been studied as a group because they were all common contagious diseases and therefore responsible for many, if not most, of the colonial epidemics. So far as children were concerned, two of these diseases, chicken pox and mumps, were relatively harmless; but another two, diphtheria and dysentery, outranked smallpox as a cause of death….

“In colonial records one looks for diphtheria under the name of cynanche, squinancy, quinsy, angina, canker, bladders, rattles, hives, throat ail, or throat distemper. It is said that the first epidemic occurred about 1659. According to Cotton Mather, it was during December, 1659, that the Reverend Samuel Danforth lost three children within a fortnight from “Bladders in the Windpipe,” which could have been laryngeal diphtheria. Scattered references to probable sporadic cases or local epidemics can be found particularly in Connecticut and Massachusetts between 1712 and 1735. John Walton’s Essay on Fevers, the Rattles & Canker (Boston, 1732) was the earliest American article on diphtheria…

“After a lull of about a year, that is, during 1751-1752, some terrible epidemics reappeared in this same area [southeastern MA] but in different towns — Abington, Attleborough, Hanover, and Weymouth. Twelve percent of the population, or 150 persons, mostly children, died in Weymouth during ‘The Throat Distemper Year’ of 1751.[1] The Colson family lost four children [end of p. 22] in January, 1752, and three more from ‘throat ail’ in 1760.[2] About eighty children died in Hingham….” (Transactions of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Vol. 35, April 1942, pp. 4-65.)

Caulfield, “The Pursuit of a Pestilence”: “Inasmuch as the News-Letter [Boston] for February and March, 1752, contains numerous references to various outbreaks of throat distemper, it would seem that the two separate epidemics in Boston[3] could be easily explained. But all references to throat distemper concern its prevalence ‘in some Countrey Towns,’ and although one can trace its ravages among the children of Abington, Attleborough, Bridgewater, Framingham, Hanover, Hingham, Sudbury, and Weymouth during 1751-1752, no specific references to this disease in Boston have been found….” (Caulfield, Ernest. “The Pursuit of a Pestilence.” Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, April 1950, pp. 43-44.)

Abington

Hobart: “In 1751-2, a disease, commonly called the throat-distemper, prevailed, and carried off many of the inhabitants, particularly children. More than 60 persons died of it.”[4] (Hobart. An Historical Sketch of Abington…Massachusetts. 1849, p. 86.)

Weymouth

Adams: “…the other disaster which made memorable the year [meeting house fire] was far more terrible than the destruction of any building the work of human hands. That year was marked by a veritable slaughter of the innocents. Death stalked through the town. Between May, 1751, and May, 1752, a terrible throat distemper so raged among the children as to amount almost to a pestilence. In October, 1751, alone, thirty died, and in all there perished some one hundred and twenty. Out of a population of only twelve hundred, no less than one hundred and fifty persons died in the town during that twelvemonth.[5] During the succeeding year the disease gradually disappeared, and has since been almost unknown in Weymouth. Rarely, indeed, however, even in times of plague, has the death-rate exceeded that of Weymouth in 1751-2.” (Wessagusset and Weymouth. p. 52.)

Grob: “In Weymouth, Massachusetts…about 150 persons (overwhelmingly children), or 12 percent of the population, perished from the throat distemper” in 1751…” (Grob. The Deadly Truth. 2002, p. 83.)

Town of Weymouth: “A large proportion of Weymouth’s population perishes from a ‘throat distemper’ that same year [1751]. One book says one tenth of the population died in this manner. Another books says one eighth of the population died, and a third book says 110 people died…it was a widespread tragedy.” (Historic Timeline. Highlights of Weymouth’s past.)

Sources

Adams, Charles Francis Jr. Wessagusset and Weymouth. Weymouth Historical Society, 1905. Google preview accessed 1-16-2017 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=aT4WAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

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

Caulfield, Ernest. “The Pursuit of a Pestilence.” Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, April 1950, pp. 21-52. Accessed 1-17-2018 at: http://www.americanantiquarian.org/proceedings/44807204.pdf

Grob, Gerald N. The Deadly Truth: A History of Disease in America. Cambridge, MA: President and Fellows of Harvard College, Harvard University Press, 2002. Partially Google digitized at: http://books.google.com/books?id=U1H5rq3IQUAC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Hobart, Aaron. An Historical Sketch of Abington, Plymouth County, Massachusetts. With an Appendix. Boston, Samuel N. Dickinson, 1849. Google preview accessed 1-16-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=DMwTAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Town of Weymouth, MA. Historic Timeline. Highlights of Weymouth’s past. Accessed 1-16-2018 at: http://www.weymouth.ma.us/history/pages/historic-timeline

[1] Caulfield footnote 50:

[2] Caulfield footnote 51.

[3] Goes on to note these outbreaks in Boston were probably smallpox.

[4] Hobart footnote: “Mr. Dodge, in his journal, 22d October, 1752, says, ‘from August 1^st, 1751, to August, 1752, there died, belonging to this town and congregation, with the throat distemper, 41 — in the whole, 50.’ 24^th February, 1753, he says — ‘attended two funerals of children, who died of the throat distemper. N.B. — We have lost 60 in town and congregation, since August, ’51.’”

[5] It seems clear that 120 children died. It is less clear if the 150 deaths, which would seem to include adults, are due to the epidemic. In that thirty deaths of adults within a year in a small settlement seems large, it could well be that at least some of the thirty deaths beyond the 120 children, would be due to the epidemic as well.