1756 — Epidemics, esp. Dysentery; Mass. Bay Col., esp. Rutland/60, Lancaster/42, MA >225
— >225 Caulfield. “Some…Diseases of Colonial Children.” 1942, 52.[1]
— 220 Blanchard tally from locality breakouts below.
Maine ( ?)
–? Black Point, “the slow fever and bloody flux” “prevailed.” Caulfield 1942, pp. 53-54.
–? Falmouth, “the slow fever and bloody flux” “prevailed.” Caulfield 1942, pp. 53-54.
–? North Yarmouth, “the slow fever and bloody flux” “prevailed.” Caulfield 1942, pp. 53-54.
Massachusetts (220)
Boston ( ?) “Infectious Distemper” caught from returning French & Indian War troops.[2]
Chauxit ( ?) (Sterling.) 5% of population within eight weeks. Caulfield 1942, pp. 53-54.[3]
Dudley (>4)
–4 Robinson children, Oct-Nov. Caulfield. “Some…Diseases of Colonial Children.” 1942, 52.
Harvard (25)
–~25 Sep-Oct. Caulfield. “Some Common Diseases of Colonial Children.” 1942, 53-54.[4]
Holden (40)
–40 By Oct 20. Rev. John Mellen of Lancaster, “Discourse,” in Caulfield 1942, pp. 52-53.[5]
Lancaster (42) Thirty-three were children.
–42 Parish of John Mellen of Lancaster, from his “Discourse” in Caulfield 1942, pp. 52-53.
Marlborough ( ?) Caulfield citing Parkman as referring to epidemic as “malignant fever.”[6]
Newbury ( ?) John Tucker called Jan epidemic “wasting pestilence.” Caulfield 1950, 48.
Newtown (>5) (Just 1 family. Caulfield writes his belief that over 1,000 MA children died.)
–5 Sheppard children, Aug-Sep. Caulfield. “Some…Diseases of Colonial Children.” 1942, 52.
Oxford (>4) (Just 1 family. Caulfield writes his belief that over 1,000 MA children died.)
–4 Parker children, Aug-Sep. Caulfield. “Some…Diseases of Colonial Children.” 1942, 52.
Rutland (60)
–60 MHC. MHC Reconnaissance Survey Town Report, Rutland. 1984, p. 3.
–45 By Oct 20. Rev. John Mellen of Lancaster, “Discourse,” in Caulfield 1942, pp. 52-53.[7]
Sherborn (>4)
–4 Lealand children, Oct-Nov. Caulfield. “Some…Diseases of Colonial Children.” 1942, 52.
Shrewsbury (20) (Just within the North Parish.)
–20 Rev. John Mellen of Lancaster, “Discourse,” in Caulfield 1942, pp. 52-53.
Southborough(>4)
–4 Johnson children, Oct-Nov. Caulfield. “Some…Diseases of Colonial Children.” 1942, 52.
Sutton ( ?) “Nervous Fever, re one David Hall, cited in Caulfield 1950, p. 48.
Westborough ( 8) Within 4 days in Oct. Ebenezer Parkman Diary.[8]
Weston (>4)
–4 Smith children, Aug-Sep. Caulfield. “Some…Diseases of Colonial Children.” 1942, 52.
Narrative Information
Caulfield (Dysentery section of 1942 paper): “The year 1756 was a perilous one for the children of Massachusetts. It would not be surprising to find that well over a thousand of them died in this one colony alone. The throat distemper was not so bad as usual, but it was bad enough. Most of the trouble started, however, after the middle of July, when multiple deaths began to increase in number. In Newton five Sheppard children, in Oxford four Parker children, and in Weston four Smith children died during August and September. During October and November four Lealands died in Sherborn, four Robinsons in Dudley, and four Johnsons in Southborough. At least one hundred families lost two or three. The cause has not been determined in all cases, but a detailed account of the epidemics in some small towns north of Worcester has been preserved in a sermon by the Reverend John Mellen of Lancaster.[9] He started off in the usual tough Calvinistic fashion but managed to include some interesting footnotes:
I write unto you little Children, because I wou’d move you to Consideration and Seriousness, to reflect upon yourselves, upon your Ways, upon the End of Things, upon Death, Judgment and the eternal World, and to prepare for your own Death and Dissolution. I write unto you because I am tenderly concerned for you, and pained at my Heart for that dreadful Destruction that God has made among you, within a few Weeks past, by an obstinate and noisome Disease, that has bid such Defiance to Medicine . . .
How we have attended Funeral upon Funeral, Day after Day, and Week after Week; and laid our Hopes in the Grave . . . How sudden the Deaths! How awfully distressing the Sickness of the Deceased! . . .
And how that in the Autumn . . . [of] Seventeen Hundred fifty-six, the Inhabitants of the Land, and more especially those in the Neighbourhood of this Chasm, were seiz’d with this mortal pestiferous Distemper, that has swept them off in such Numbers.
The Distemper is a Dysentery, or Bloody-Flux. And when malignant, is commonly attended with Vomiting, high Fever, extream Pain: and sometimes with visible Canker.—When the Patient appeared with high Symptoms of the Distemper at first, he often died in 3 or 4 Days: Others, and especially those less violently seiz’d, lived 8 or 10 Days, or more. Much vomiting a bad Symptom: and cold Hands and great Restlessness commonly fatal: Tho’ many died without all, if not without any, of these Symptoms in a high Degree . . .
In this Parish have been buried 42 in about seven Weeks [thirty-three of them children]. A Mortality, (which in less than three Years wou’d have buried the whole Parish, which consisted of near 800 Souls), allowing for the probable Increase in the mean Time. The Proportion of the Dead to the Living is as 1 to 19, nearly. In the little Town of Holden [population about four hundred], where the Sickness first began, which, [to] the 20th of October had buried 40, the Proportion is much greater. In Old Rutland [population about nine hundred], at the same Time, had died 45. In the North Parish in Shrewsbury upwards of 20. And in more distant Places less, in Proportion to the Number of People.[10]
“This same epidemic spread to Westborough. Ebenezer Parkman, recording the names of those who were sick or dead, turned back a few pages of his diary to September 13, 1756, to make a marginal note: “The Beging of ye sore sickness.” Of some significance, perhaps, was his remark that Dr. Gott had returned to Marlborough “from ye camp” and that “The sorrowf. news from ye Army is confirmed, of ye multitudes wc have dyd by Sickness.” Early in October he noted that eight persons died within four days. There was a fast in Shrewsbury on October 13, and another the following day in Westborough. In Chauxit (now Sterling) five percent of the population died within eight weeks, “and the well hardly sufficed to give proper care to the sick.” In Harvard there were about twenty-five more dysentery deaths during September and October.[11] Other Massachusetts towns suffered epidemics during the autumn of 1756; and in Maine “the slow fever and bloody flux” prevailed at Black Point, North Yarmouth, and Falmouth.[12] (Caulfield. “Some Common Diseases of Colonial Children.” Transactions…Colonial Society…[MA], V35, April 1942, pp. 53-54.)
Caulfield, from Pursuit of a Pestilence, 1950: “Students of colonial military affairs are no doubt aware that the epidemics which broke out frequently in camps should be more thoroughly investigated. At Louisburg in 1745, to cite but one example, the name of the enemy that killed less than 100 men during May and June is known while the name of the enemy that during the following winter killed 560 men, or about one-quarter of the total fighting force, remains unknown. Sometimes these camp distempers were directly responsible for frightful epidemics among civilian populations, the diseases having been carried back home by sickly soldiers. This was true particularly of dysentery as can be amply demonstrated by the Massachusetts epidemics of 1745, 1756, and 1775.” (Caulfield 1950, p. 22.)
“1756…was a dysentery year, in fact one of the frightful dysentery years of New England history with abundant instances of multiple deaths of children especially during August and September. Despite all the epidemics during the early months of 1756 it seems as if every one deliberately avoided giving them names by which they can now be recognized. John Tucker called the January epidemic in Newbury ‘the wasting pestilence.’ Parkman made frequent notes on ‘malignant fever’ in Marlborough and Westborough between January and March. David Hall, after noting a few cases of throat disease in children, mentioned a different disease of all age groups in Sutton which he called ‘The Nervous Fever.’ During May and June sickly soldiers were returning from Albany [NY] and Nova Scotia bringing with them ‘an Infectious Distemper’ which quickly spread in Boston. And in one of his sermons John Mellen of Lancaster made indefinite references to some ‘mortal distempers’ and ‘contagious diseases’.” (Caulfield. The Pursuit of a Pestilence. 1950, pp. 48-49.)
Massachusetts Historical Commission: “By 1720, 50 families had settled in the town…the total equaled 1,090 in 1765. The town lost 60 children to dysentery in 1756…”
Sources
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
Massachusetts Historical Commission. MHC Reconnaissance Survey Town Report, Rutland. Boston, MA: MHC, 1984, 13 pages. Accessed 1-21-2018 at: http://www.sec.state.ma.us/mhc/mhcpdf/townreports/Cent-Mass/rut.pdf
Nourse, Henry Stedman (Ed.). The Early Records of Lancaster, Massachusetts, 1643-1725, Lancaster, MA: 1884. Google digitized. Accessed 1-22-2013 at: http://books.google.com/books?id=687odzw5rKYC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false
[1] Caulfield: “At least one hundred families lost two or three [children in MA colony]. Two children each times one hundred families is 200, to which we add the twenty-five deaths of children he notes within context of named families who lost four or five children. He further notes that over 1,000 MA Bay Colony children probably died and that dysentery was rampant in British and colonists fighting the French and Indians. Sick soldiers would not only contaminate water sources near settlements but would carry the disease with them when sent home to recover.
[2] Noted in Caulfield. The Pursuit of a Pestilence, 1950, pp. 48-49.
[3] Cites History of Harvard by Nourse (p. 119) to effect that “the well hardly sufficed to give proper care to the sick.”
[4] Caulfield “In Harvard there were about twenty-five more dysentery deaths during September and October.”
[5] Mellon refers to Holden as a little town and Caulfield adds that the population was about 400.
[6] Caulfield 1950, p. 48.
[7] Caulfield notes a population of about nine hundred at the time.
[8] Noted in: Caulfield. “Some Common Diseases of Colonial Children.” MA Transactions, 1942, 53.
[9] A Discourse…at the West Parish in Lancaster: on Occasion of the Late Mortality in That and the Neighbouring Places (Boston, 1757).
[10] A Discourse…at the West Parish in Lancaster… (op cit) (Boston, 1757), pp. 2-3 and 30-31.
[11] Nourse. History of the Town of Harvard, Massachusetts: 1732-1893. Harvard, MA: 1894, p. 119.
[12] Cites, in footnote 157, Journals of the Rev. Thomas Smith and the Rev. Samuel Deane, 169.