Smallpox Outbreak of 1690

Smallpox was the most feared epidemic disease of early Billerica, and the first outbreak in the town's records came in the autumn and winter of 1690, twelve years after the earliest recorded death from it. Later outbreaks are told under Smallpox Outbreak of 1760 and Smallpox Outbreak of 1811.

The earliest cases come from the seventeenth-century records. Mary Hamlet, wife of Jacob Hamlet and a daughter of Thomas Dutton, died of "small pox" on July 9, 1678. In the autumn and winter of 1690 the disease went through several households: Daniel Shed, who lived on the great plain near North Billerica, died of it, and his daughter Dorothy on December 23, and John Dunkin, died on December 19, "leaving seven children," as Hazen wrote. The same year the selectmen refused help to the family of Thomas Carrier, who had moved from Billerica to Andover and whose house there "was smitten with the small-pox," telling his friends that the town was not responsible "for they took care, when first they came, to warn them out." John Farmer, writing in 1816, put the outbreak in 1692: "The Small Pox prevailed in a few families in 1692, and three or four persons died."

People

• Mary Dutton Hamlet: Wife of Jacob Hamlet who died of smallpox on July 9, 1678, the earliest smallpox death in the town records.
• Daniel Shed: North Billerica settler who died of smallpox in the outbreak of 1690, as did his daughter Dorothy.
• John Dunkin: Settler who died of smallpox on December 19, 1690, leaving seven children.
• Thomas Carrier: Former Billerica resident whose Andover household had smallpox in 1690; the Billerica selectmen refused responsibility for his family.

References

1. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 151 of the scan: John Dunkin "died in December, 1690, of small-pox, leaving seven children."
2. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), Genealogical Register: Thomas Carrier (1690 smallpox in his Andover home, selectmen refuse aid), Mary Dutton Hamlet 1678, Daniel Shed 1690, Dea. William Patten 1730.
3. Vital Records of Billerica (1908), deaths: John Dunkin, small pox, Dec. 19, 1690; John Dutton Dec. 1, 1760, wife Rebeckah Dec. 9 and daughter Rebeckah Dec. 17, small pox, gravestones.
4. Vital Records of Billerica (1908), deaths: Benjamin Shed Jr., small pox, Dec. 1760; Daniel Shed, small pox, 1690, and his daughter Dorothy, Dec. 23, 1690.
5. Vital Records of Billerica (1908), deaths: Mary, wife of Jacob Hamlet, small pox, July 9, 1678.