1754-55, Jan ‘54-July ‘55 — “Throat Distemper” (Diphtheria), esp. children, Hampton, NH–51

Hampton        (24)

–51  Belknap. The History of New Hampshire (Vol. 1).[1] 1831, p. 236.

–51  Duffy, John. Epidemics in Colonial America. 1953, 1979, p. 126.

–34  in 1754 (30 children).

–17  Jan-July, 1755.

–24  Caulfield. “Some Common Diseases of Colonial Children.” Transactions, 1942, pp. 18-19.[2]

–1  Ezekiel Moulton family.  New Eng. Hist. Gen. Reg., LVIII, 139-140; in Caulfield

–5  Jonathan Moulton fam.    New Eng. Hist. Gen. Reg., LVIII, 139-140; in Caulfield.

–3  Josiah Moulton family.    New Eng. Hist. Gen. Reg., LVIII, 139-140; in Caulfield.

–2  Worthy Moulton family.  New Eng. Hist. Gen. Reg., LVIII, 139-140; in Caulfield.

–2  Philbrick family.               New Eng. Hist. Gen. Reg., LVIII, 139-140; in Caulfield

–3  Amos Towls family.         New Eng. Hist. Gen. Reg., LVIII, 139-140; in Caulfield.

–3  Elisha Towls family.        New Eng. Hist. Gen. Reg., LVIII, 139-140; in Caulfield.

–3  Joseph Towls family.       New Eng. Hist. Gen. Reg., LVIII, 139-140; in Caulfield.

–2  Nathaniel Towls family.   New Eng. Hist. Gen. Reg., LVIII, 139-140; in Caulfield.

 

Narrative Information

 

Caulfield: “A third epidemic wave[3] swept the same area [NH], involving…Hampton and Kinston in 1754, and East Kingston in 1755.”[4]

 

Duffy on Diphtheria: “The years 1754-55 saw a great increase in the virulence of the contagion. Of this period Belknap[5] declared: “In 1754 and 1755, it {throat distemper} produced a great mortality in several parts of New-Hampshire, and the neighboring parts of Massachusetts.’ The church records of Hampton…throw some light upon the extent of the pestilence. From January, 1754, to July, 1755, a total of fifty-one persons succumbed to the infection. Of the thirty-four who died in 1754, thirty were children.

 

Sources

 

Belknap, Jeremy. The History of New Hampshire (Vol. 1). Dover: S. C. Stevens and Ela & Wadleigh, 1831. Google digitized. Accessed 1-31-2013 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=ck-kNJ8whbEC&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

 

Duffy, John. Epidemics in Colonial America. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1953, reprinted 1979.

 

 

 

 

 

[1] “It appears…from the church records of Hampton, that from January 1754, to July 1755, fifty-one persons died of the same distemper [“throat distemper”], in that town.”

[2] Our addition of deaths noted by family in footnote 42 for 1754-1755. Generally, Caulfield notes families where multiple deaths occurred. When within a relative short period of time it is more indicative of contagious disease.

[3] First wave was 1735-37 and second, 1742-45.

[4] Caulfield fn 42, p. 19, notes: “According to Belknap, throat distemper in 1754 and 1755 ‘produced a great mortality in several parts of New-Hampshire, and the neighbouring parts of Massachusetts.’ History of New Hampshire, II, 96. He also gives figures showing epidemics, from unstated causes, in Hampton and East Kingston, Id., III. 178, 186….For the epidemic in Kingston, see Boston Evening Journal (Supplement), Feb. 19, 26, 1881.”

[5] Belknap, Jeremy. The History of New-Hampshire, 3 vols. Boston: 1791-92