1752 — Early in year through at least Summer, Small-Pox Epidemic, Boston, MA –535-569
–652 Henry. “Experience in Massachusetts…with Smallpox…” 1921, p. 221.[1]
–539 Natural
— 30 Inoculated
–569 Celebrate Boston. Boston Disasters. “Smallpox Epidemics.”
–539 Naturally exposed deaths.
— 30 Smallpox inoculation deaths.
–569 Creighton. Table: “Smallpox in Boston, Massachusetts.” p. 626 in History of Epidemics.[2]
–569 Rev. Thomas Prince. Ltr. to ed., Gentlemen’s Magazine, 1753, pp. 413-14 (in Duffy, 59).
–569 Purvis, Thomas L. Colonial America to 1763. NY: Facts On File, Inc., 1999, p. 173.[3]
–550 Childs. A History of the United States…1492 to the Year 1885. 1888, p. 26.
–550 Simonds. The American Date Book. 1902, p. 82.
–545 Willsey and Lewis. “Massachusetts,” Harper’s Book of Facts. 1895, 489.
–514 Naturally exposed deaths.
— 31 Smallpox inoculation deaths.
–535 Duffy (early in year to July 30). Epidemics in Colonial America, 1979, p. 36.
–504 Naturally exposed deaths.
— 31 Smallpox inoculation deaths.
–532 Jan-June. Blake. Public Health in the Town of Boston 1630-1822. 1959, p. 86.
— 5 Jan-March
–119 April
–205 May
–203 June
–500 Henry. “Experience in Massachusetts…with Smallpox…” 1921, p. 221.
Narrative Information
Blake: “…Late in December 1751, a ship from London infected with smallpox came to grief in Nahant Bay near Boston. According to Douglass, rescuers caught the disease and thus brought it to Chelsea. A Suffolk County jury, however, alleged that the captain, knowing his ship to be infected and ‘not regarding the Health Or Lives’ of the people, had ‘Inhumanly and Wickedly’ caused several persons who he knew had never had smallpox to go aboard and remove infected goods. Thereby they became sick, the jurors charged, and smallpox spread to Chelsea.[4] The culprit pleaded nolo contendere. No doubt hoping to prevent such an occurrence in the future, the General Court shortly thereafter passed an act requiring Justices of the Peace to segregate goods suspected of infection.[5]
“The first case appeared in Boston on January 6, 1752, and the Selectmen immediately removed the patient to the pesthouse in the West End. Two weeks later they also sent another victim from the same family. Rumors soon circulated that the sickness was rife, but during February the Selectmen kept it well under control. It appeared in only three houses besides the pesthouse, and the physicians promised not to inoculate without due notice.[6] The first two weeks of March seemed equally hopeful, and according to one Bostonian most people thought the epidemic ‘might have been stop’d had the phisians {sic} & the town in general desir’d.’ However, she continued, ‘it was thought to be a good Season of the year and no business in town to be hindred [sic] therefore was best to have it Spread.’ In consequence, smallpox having broken out in several new families, the Selectmen officially informed the public on March 23 of their opinion that ‘no Method can be taken to prevent the spreading of that Distemper.’[7] [end of p. 83]
“ ‘Upon this,’ Benjamin Franklin later reported, ‘all that inclined to Inoculation for themselves of families hurried into it precipitately, fearing the infection might otherwise be taken in the common way.’[8]…. [p. 84]
“….The best argument for the opposition [to inoculation] was a letter published in the Evening-Post on April 13. So far as the author could discover, there were by April 6 about six dead, fifty recovered, and forty currently sick from natural smallpox, and perhaps twelve hundred inoculated cases, with more coming every day. He thought it very dangerous to inoculate so many at a time…. [p. 85]
“This writer’s fears seem to have had some justification. During January, February, and March there were only five deaths from smallpox, but early in April those who had been inoculated late the month before broke out and, as Franklin later wrote, they ‘spread the infection likewise more speedily among those who did not chuse Inoculation.’ Many more people caught it the natural way than by inoculation, and nearly all who died were among the former. The death toll mounted rapidly. During April there were 119 smallpox deaths, in May 205, and in June 203.[9] The Selectmen curtailed the tolling of funeral bells and ordered the dead buried without the usual solemnities. As hundreds fled the stricken town, neighboring communities set gates and guards to ward off the infected….
“By the end of June the epidemic was waning. The Selectmen predicted on July 4 that it would soon be safe for country people to enter and warned any inhabitants then out of town who planned to return for inoculation that the treatment would be forbidden as soon as only twenty families were infected….By July 27 only twenty-three persons, in seventeen families, were still sick….” [p. 86] Blake. Public Health in the Town of Boston 1630-1822. 1959.
Celebrate Boston: “In 1752, it again appeared amongst the then 15,684 inhabitants, 7,669 were supposed to have then received the disease. Many of the citizens removed from the town, and all the residents but 174 had it either by inoculation or by the natural way. 2,124 were treated by the first method of whom 30 died. 5,545 were seized with it, of whom 539 died.” (Celebrate Boston. Boston Disasters. “Smallpox Epidemics.”)
Childs: “The small-pox visited Boston this year, of which disease about 550 died. The town contained at the time 17,574 inhabitants.” (Childs 1886, p. 26.)
Creighton:
Boston population 15,684
Attacked by smallpox 5,545
Died of smallpox 569
Had smallpox before 5,598
Moved out of town 1,843.
Duffy: “The fourth smallpox epidemic to ravage Boston in the eighteenth century began early in 1752 and lasted until the end of summer. In midsummer, when the worst was over, the selectmen made a careful check of the town and found that there had been a total of 7,653 cases during the outbreak. Of these, 5,544 had taken it naturally and another 2,109 were inoculated. The death tolls numbered 504 among the natural cases and 31 through inoculation, representing case fatality rates of 9.1 percent and 1.5 percent respectively.”[10] [pp. 35-36]
“….A clergyman of Boston, the Reverend Thomas Prince, in an article in the Gentlemen’s Magazine in 1753, claimed that out of a total population of 15,684 smallpox seized 5,545; another 2,124 were inoculated with it, and of these 569 died….” [p.59]
“The disease apparently did little damage outside of Boston, despite the exodus of hundreds of refugees, some of whom must have carried the infection. Records of surrounding towns speak of the epidemic in Boston but say nothing of the infection of their own localities. However, the Pennsylvania Gazette reported in April that the contagion was in Concord and other Massachusetts towns.[11]” (Duffy, Epidemics in Colonial America, 1979.)
Harper’s: “Small-pox again visits Boston…1752. (Of 2100 persons inoculated with it, only 31 died; of the 5550 taken without inoculation 514 died.)” (Willsey and Lewis. “Massachusetts,” Harper’s Book of Facts. 1895, p. 489.)
Sources
Blake, John B. Public Health in the Town of Boston 1630-1822. President and Fellows of Harvard College, 1959. Google preview accessed 3-26-2018 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=Zk2j4jrSf2EC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Celebrate Boston. Boston Disasters. “Smallpox Epidemics.” Accessed 12/06/2008 at: http://www.celebrateboston.com/disasters/epidemics/smallpox.htm
Childs, Emery E. A History of the United States In Chronological Order From the Discovery of America in 1492 to the Year 1885. NY: Baker & Taylor, 1886. Google digitized at: http://books.google.com/books?id=XLYbAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Creighton, Charles MD. A History of Epidemics in Britain (Vol. II) Cambridge: At the University Press, 1894. Google preview accessed 3-23-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=qYQoAAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Duffy, John. Epidemics in Colonial America. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1953; 1979 printing.
Henry, Jonathan E., M.D. “Experience in Massachusetts and a Few Other Places with Smallpox and Vaccination.” Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, Vol. 185, No. 8, pp. 221-228, 8-25-1921. Accessed 1-8-2018 at: http://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJM192108251850802
Purvis, Thomas L. Colonial America to 1763. NY: Facts On File, Inc., 1999. Google digital preview: http://books.google.com/books?id=BZRJSx3uMYEC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
Simonds, W. E. (ed.) The American Date Book. Kama Publishing Co., 1902, 211 pages. Digitized by Google. Accessed at: http://books.google.com/books?id=JuiSjvd5owAC
Vital Records of Chelsea Massachusetts, to the Year 1850 (compiled by Thomas W. Baldwin, New England Historic Genealogical Society). Boston, MA: Wright & Potter Printing Co., 1916. Google preview accessed 3-26-2018 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=mG7Ea8MOQMMC&dq=vital+records+of+chelsea&source=gbs_navlinks_s
Willsey, Joseph H. (compiler), and Charlton T. Lewis (editor). Harper’s Book of Facts: A Classified History of the World Embracing Science, Literature, and Art.. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1895. Google preview accessed 3-23-2018 at:
https://books.google.com/books?id=UcwGAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
[1] We do not use 652 as the high-end of the fatality range in that the numbers Henry shows in Table I. — Smallpox in Boston, Mass., 1700-1800,” add to 569 (539 naturally caught smallpox deaths and 30 deaths after inoculation).
[2] Cites: Gent. Magazine, Sep 1753, p. 413, as “collected from the Accounts of the Overseers in the Twelve several Wards,” and sent by the Rev. T. Prince.
[3] Cites as source: John B. Blake, Public Health in the Town of Boston, 1630-1822 (1959), p. 244. Shows 539 “natural smallpox” deaths out of 5,545 cases, and 30 “inoculated smallpox” deaths our of 2,124 cases. Total Boston population is listed as 15,684.
[4] We have consulted the Vital Records of Chelsea and find no smallpox deaths noted for 1751 or 1752.
[5] Cites, in footnote 27: Douglass, Summary, Historical and Political, II, 397; Presentment at the Superior Court for Suffolk County, February 1752, MS. in Mellen Chamberlain Papers, V, Mass. Hist. Soc.; Acts, 1751-52, ch. 12, Mass. Acts and Resolves, III, 596-597.
[6] Cites, in footnote 28: Boston News-Letter, Jan 9, 23, Feb. 13, 20, 27, 1752.
[7] Cites, in footnote 29, Abigail Greenleaf to Robert Treat Paine, Boston, July 24, 1752, MS. in R. T. Paine Papers, Mass. Hist. Soc.; Post-Boy, Mar. 23, 1752.
[8] Cites, in footnote 30, B. Franklin and William Herberden, Some Account of the Success of Inoculation for the Small-Pox in England and America Together with Plain Instructions, by Which Any Person May Be Enabled to Perform the Operation, and Conduct the Patient through the Distemper (London, 1759, 3.
[9] Cites, in footnote 34: Thomas Prince, “Observations on the State of the Small Pox at Boston, in 1752,” Gentleman’s Magazine, and Historical Chronicle (London), XXIII (1753), 414; Franklin and Hebreden, Some Account of the Success, 3; John Tudor, Deacon Tudor’s Diary (William Tudor, ed., Boston, 1896), 7-8.
[10] Duffy, in footnote 19, p. 36, cites Boston News-Letter, No. 2614, July 30, 1752.
[11] Cites, in footnote 34, Pennsylvania Gazette, No. 1224, May 28, 1752.