1711-12 — Winter (within two months), “Malignant Distemper” (Influenza?), CT — 250

–250  Caulfield (influenza section), citing Boston News-Letter, March 31, 1712.

 

Narrative Information

 

Caulfield: “When the news reached Boston late in January, 1712, that 700 persons in Connecticut, including twenty-four members of the General Assembly, had died of a ‘Malignant Distemper’ within two months, Cotton Mather naturally interpreted this as a heaven-sent occasion to preach a fitting sermon. Seasonable Thoughts Upon Mortality was off the press and liberally distributed in Connecticut before it was learned that the first reports were false and that ‘through God’s Goodness…{there were} not above 250’ deaths.[1] Thus must have been a pretty severe disease since the terror caused by the numerous sudden deaths was still vividly remembered a quarter of a century later; but the nature of it seems to have been as obscure then as it is now.” (p. 33.) ….

 

“Joshua Hempstead of New London recorded the deaths of three adult members of the Lester family within one month, as well as the deaths of a few more who died after short illnesses during the winter of 1711-1712, but he said nothing definite about an epidemic. Nearby in Groton, and in Milford, there are a few gravestones suggesting the prevalence of a contagious disease among adults that winter and spring.” (p. 34.)

 

Source

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[1] Boston News-Letter, March 31, 1712.