The Speckled Monster

by Jennifer Lee Carrell

  General Court at the George Inn: JHRM 3: 84-93.

  Newgate

  Maitland’s “Journal of the Experiment at Newgate”: Maitland 20-26; Maitland’s note to Sloane: BL, Sloane MS 4076, folio 96. Witnesses of the inoculation: Miller, AIS 84, quoting contemporary newspapers. Sloane’s description of the Newgate experiment: Sloane. Wagstaffe’s opposition observations (along with identification of Dr. John Freind as one of the witnesses): Wagstaffe. Additional details and modern scholarly accounts: Miller, AIS 84-86; Grundy, “Medical Advance.”

  Applebee’s opposition: Applebee’s, August 12, 1721, qtd. in Grundy, “Medical Advance” 21 (prisoners pretending not to have had the smallpox); Applebee’s, August 19, 1721, p. 2139, qtd. in Miller, AIS 86-87 (a way for the guilty to escape). Political implications of the experiments: Wilson; Grundy, LMWM 212.

  Mead’s experiment with the Chinese method (up the nose): Mead 257; The Post-Boy, no. 5005, 19-22 August, 1721, and The Weekly Journal: or, British Gazetteer, Aug. 26, 1721, p. 2011 (for the claim that it had been done while the girl was asleep).

  LM’s summer: LMCL 2: 12-13, Letter to Lady Mar, 6 September 1721 (including “thread-satin beauty” and melting time “in almost perpetual concerts”); Grundy, LMWM 211 (quoting LM’s lost diary on the Princess of Wales’s “unquailing” support); Grundy, “Medical Advance” 28 (reasons for LM’s concealment).

  LM/Mr. Cook: Maitland 25; story of sneaking into the Hagia Sofia: Halsband, Life 82-83; Spence, Grand Tour 359-60 (LMCL 1: 398-99 for officially sanctioned tours of Hagia Sofia and Sultan Suleiman’s mosque, the Suleymaniye). Second cook and the plague: LMCL 1: 338. LM’s delight in going incognito in Turkish veils: LMCL 1: 328-30, 354-55, 405-12; Grundy, LMWM. Isaac Massey fuming at Child’s: Isaac Massey, Short and Plain Account 3-4.

  Sir Hans on a further experiment: Sir Hans Sloane, Letter to Dr. Richardson, 22 August 1721, in Nichols 1: 277-78.

  An Hour of Mourning

  ZB’s inoculations through the period covered by this chapter: ZBHA 9-15. Mrs. Dixwell: ZBHA 9-10; John Williams, Several Arguments 8-9. John Dixwell: Thwing RCN 24202; “Notes and Queries,” NEHGR 32 (1878): 93; RCB, New North Church records. Dixwell children: see deeds noted in Thwing RCN 62626 and 62624 (Hannah and John Wormall) and 50805 (their maternal grandfather, John Prout). Sammy Mather: CMD August 30, 1721, 2: 643; ZBHA 8. Mrs. Dodge: ZBHA 11; her father: Thwing RCN 24264 and 24265 (likely the same person). Judge Lynde’s young black man: ZBHA 11.

  Boylstons’ dinner: Gibson 12, 23, 42.

  Moses Pierce House: www.paulreverehouse.org/history3.html; Moses Pierce: Thwing RCN 49812 (also recording the death of their daughter); Elizabeth Parminter Pierce: Thwing RCN 48596, for John Parminter (her father), recording a birthdate of September 3, 1688, which identifies her with ZB’s “Mrs. Pierce, about thirty-two years old.” William Clark house: Whitehill and Kennedy 27.

  Bethiah Nichols/Mrs. N--s: ZBHA 12-13; Thwing RCN 46997 (for her husband William Nichols); Vinton 500.

  Selectmen’s meeting to regulate funerals: SM 87. Frances Webb’s funeral: SSD 2:982; CMD 2:646. Adams family: ZBHA 14-15, Vinton 499-503 (for relations to Webbs). Samuel Adams: Thwing RCN 212; “Adams Family Bible” 283-84. Samuel Jones: Thwing RCN 41168; RCB, records of New North Church (for marriage to Mary Adams, and baptism of daughter Mary); Boston Births 106 (for birth of daughter Mary).

  Mrs. Margaret Salter: ZBHA 13-14; Thwing RCN 53516 (her husband), 4210 (her father, Jonathan Balston), and 4209 (her grandfather, also Jonathan Balston, recording the marriage of her aunt Prudence Balston Turner, to John Marion).

  The wrong saddle tarred and feathered: John Williams, Answer 12-13 (noted in Mager 96).

  Firewood: CMD Sept. 16, 1721, 2:646; SM 88-89, September 23, 1721.

  The King’s Pardon

  Lizzy in Hertford: Maitland 19-20, 33; Sloane 517-18; Royal Society Journal-Book 12, entry for Nov. 16, 1721. Maitland’s other inoculations in Hertford: Maitland 26-35. Christ’s Hospital, Hertford: www.hertford.net/bluecoats.htm; www.christs-hospital.org.uk

  Raw Head and Bloody Bones

  WD’s letter to Dr. Alexander Stuart: adapted from Stewart and from WD’s later published version of his several letters to Stuart. See also Stearns and Pasti 116, and Miller, AIS 93-94.

  Paxton’s runaway slave, Hector: BG no. 97, Sept. 25-Oct. 2, 1721, and no. 98, Oct. 2-9, 1721; Roger Paxton: Seahorse paybook, PRO MS ADM 33/316, no. 280.

  Mrs. N--s’s (Bethiah Nichols) miscarriage and loss of eye: ZBHA 12-13.

  Family’s fears for ZB: Peter Thacher 776.

  Biblical references: Thou shalt not kill: Exodus 20:13, and Deuteronomy 5:17; Waters of God: Genesis 1:2, Ezekial 47:1-5; Isaiah 43:2; Revelation 17:1.

  Epidemic statistics: BNL no. 923, Oct. 2-9, 1721; CMD 2: 652, Oct. 7-8, 1721; Stewart (for number of patients visited by doctors daily).

  Eunice Willard’s inoculation: ZBHA 16. For patients’ relative comfort: CM’s anonymous “Way of Proceeding” 33-35; Colman, Some Observations. Her life and character: Willard 370-71. Loring/Breck and Fitch inoculations: ZBHA 16.

  Deaths of Madam Checkley and Martha Cotes: SSD 2:983. Bronsdon children: Thwing RCN 7358 for their father, Benjamin Bronsdon, and genealogy in NEHGR 35 (1881): 362 (Selectman William Clark was married to Benjamin’s sister Sarah) Merchant children: Thwing RCN 45446 for their father, William Merchant.

  Boston newspaper reports of Newgate: BG no. 100, October 16-23, 1721 (also containing camel and lion advertisements); BG no. 101, October 23-30, 1721. ZB’s family inoculations: ZBHA 16-17.

  Shute’s proclamation for Day of Thanksgiving: BG no. 98, October 2-9, 1721; CM falling ill: CMD 2:654. Loring’s death: SSD 2:984, October 27, 1721 (recording the burial). Faithful Account: BG no. 101, October 23-30, 1721; arguments re authorship: Kittredge, “Some Lost Works” 460; Fitz. Governor’s speech: JHRM 3:137.

  Inoculees, Oct. 30-Dec. 2, 1721: ZBHA 17-29.

  CM’s encounter with James Franklin: NEC no. 18, Nov. 27-Dec 4, 1721.

  Just Retribution

  Attack on Boylston household: James Thacher 1:187 (account provided by ZB’s great-nephew, Ward Nicholas Boylston—grandson of Zabdiel’s brother Thomas); Hutchinson 2:206. Boston’s reputation for rioting: Bridenbaugh 382-83. Attack on Mather household: CMD 2:657-58, November 14, 1721; Hutchinson 2:207. Reward: JHRM 3:150, 15 Nov. 1721. House’s measure to help those in “reduced straits” due to the epidemic: JHRM 3:147, 13 Nov. 1721.

  Royal Society’s discussions of inoculation on Nov. 16: Royal Society, Journal-Book 12:163 (1720-26), under Nov. 16, 1721 (with summary of letter from WD to Alexander Stuart). Crane Court: www.royalsoc.ac.uk/library/index.html. Sloane’s French translation of Maitland’s account of his Hertford experiments: BL Sloane MSS 4034, folio 17, qtd. in Miller, AIS 88, note 68; see also p. 89, note 74. London’s Nov. 18 newspaper reports of experiments on charity children: Miller, AIS 88, note 69.

  William Hutchinson’s illness, death, and funeral: Thomas Hutchinson 2:188, 204; SSD 2:985 for 30 Nov. and 2 Dec. 1721; Thwing RCN 39747; B6 no. 106, Nov. 27-Dec. 4, 1721. Active in the House of Representatives through Nov. 15, 1721: JHRM 3 149-154. Dr. Thomas Robie: Kilgour; Robie; Stearns, Science 426-35. Nicholas Sever’s inoculation: Robie, Nov. 30-Dec. 18, 1721, cross-referenced with Historical Register of Harvard.

  WD’s withdrawal: Preface to WDPE ii; failure of his cold treatment: WDS 394. Zabdiel’s final thoughts: ZBHA 32 (slightly edited for altered context).

  In Royal Fashion

  Applebee’s poor report of Boston inoculations: Applebee’s, Feb. 3, 1722, p. 2285, qtd. in Miller, AIS 94. Inoculations of “Noble Duke in Hanover Square” and Charlotte Tichborne: St. James Evening Post, Dec. 7, 1721, and The Weekly Journal or British Gazetteer, Dec. 9, 1721, respectively, both qtd. in Grundy, “Medical Advance” 37, note 25. Maitland’s Feb. 23 inoculations: The London Gazette no. 6040, March 6-10, 1722, qtd. in Miller, AIS 88-89. Jeremiah Dummer: CMA Preface (by Dummer). Daniel Neal: Neal 17; Miller, AIS 96 (Princess Caroline’s s
ummons).

  St. James’s orphans: Amyand, Letter to Sir Hans Sloane; Miller, AIS 88-89. Sloane’s meetings with the princess and the king: Sloane 518-19.

  Earl of Sunderland’s family history with smallpox: Grundy, “Medical Advance” 22. Judith (Tichborne) Spencer, countess of Sunderland: Grundy, “Medical Advance” 26-27. Inoculation and death of William Spencer, Sunderland’s son: MMV; “Persons Inoculated by Mr. Charles Maitland,” RSI, Part 1, no. 27, folio 220; Grundy, “Medical Advance” 22 (for quotation of newspaper articles).

  The princesses’ inoculations: Amyand, “List,” folio 2. Maitland pointing: “Persons Inoculated by Mr. Charles Maitland,” RSI, Part 1, no. 27, folio 220. See also Miller, AIS 96-99. Princesses’ characters: Van Der Kiste, King George II 129-30. Amyand’s method: Amyand, Letter to Jurin, Jan. 16, 1723/4, in RSI, Part 1, folio 9, no. 2.

  LM’s letter to Lady Mar, April, 1721: LMCL 2:15-16.

  Townshend inoculations: “Persons Inoculated by Mr. Charles Maitland,” RSI, Part 1, no. 27, folios 219-21. Tichborne/De La Warr inoculations: Grundy, “Medical Advance” 27.

  LM’s Turkey-merchant letter: LMEP 95-97; Halsband, “New Light” 400-403. Opposition: Wagstaffe; Edmund Massey, Sermon (on Job 2:7); Grundy, “Medical Advance” 23 (about Massey). Arbuthnot and mathematical analyses: Miller, AIS 106-07, 111-23. Prejudice versus paranoia: Grundy, LMWM 217.

  Inoculations of Prince William, Lady Albinia Bertie, Lady Louisa Bertie, and Miss Selwyn, May 11, 1723: Amyand, “List,” folio 4; “vexation, persecution and obloquy”: adapted from Stuart 35; “Admire the heroism in the heart of your friend”: LMCL 1:340.

  Meetings and Partings

  Sloane’s invitation to ZB: Fitz 324-25, Mager 170, James Thacher, 1:189-90. Five more deaths; admission of poor doctoring; “who was he to refuse”; waning urgency to inoculate: ZBHA 20-33.

  House of Representatives’ attempts to outlaw inoculation: Hutchinson 2: 208; JHRM 3: 178, March 15, 1722, and 3:181 and 184, March 20, 1722. Country fears of smallpox returning to Boston: NEC no. 42, May 14-21, 1722. Town meeting on ZB’s last six inoculees: BTR, May 15, 1723. Mob forcing inoculees to Spectacle Island: Robie, May 17, 1722. WD’s slurs comparing inoculation to witchcraft and serpents: NEC no. 42, May 14-21, 1722 (first column, see Lemay for Ben Franklin’s identification of Douglass as author). More rants: WD, Abuses and Scandals and Postscript to Abuses. WD’s grudging admission that inoculation worked: WDCC, May 1, 1722, p. 143.

  Grim numbers: ZBHA; WDS 2:396

  Rescue of James Franklin: Mager; Lemay: “Printer, 1657-1730” then “1721,” June 12-July 7, especially June 20. Governor Shute’s departure: Mager 174.

  Advertisements related to ZB’s departure (and describing garden): BG no. 193, July 29-August 5, 1723; BG no. 221, February 10-17, 1724; NEC no. 133, February 10-17, 1724; qtd. in Mager 170-71. Ambergris: ZB, “Ambergris found in Whales.” “Bear’s grease” advertisement: NEC no. 172, Nov. 9-16.

  Prince Frederick’s inoculation: Miller, AIS 176; “Persons Inoculated by Mr. Charles Maitland, 1724,” RSI, Part 1, no. 29, folio 223.

  Dispute over CM’s FRS: Stearns, Science 408-409, 419-21; Kittredge, “Cotton Mather’s Election” and “Further Notes.” CM’s letter of introduction for ZB to Dr. Jurin: CMSL, 402-03; CM’s letter to Sloane: BL Sloane MS 4048, folio 241. Colman’s letters to Neal and Hollis: Mager 174.

  WD’s charge that ZB went to London to inoculate: WDD 7.

  LM praised for “protecting beauty and inspiring wit”: Aaron Hill’s line (1724), qtd. in Halsband, “New Light” 404; see also Grundy, LMWM 221. LM to Lady Mar (des amis choisies; rat eating the cheese): LMCL 2:45-6, Jan. and Feb. 1725 (two letters condensed and abridged).

  ZB’s arrival in London with horses: Hollis 533. ZB’s introduction to the Royal Society: Royal Society Journal-Book 12:532-34, for February 11, 1725.

  LM’s encounter with duke of Kingston: Stuart 31.

  ZB’s letter home to Colman: ZB, Letter to Benjamin Colman, February 26, 1724/5.

  Pierrepont inoculations: “Persons Inoculated by Mr. Charles Maitland, 1725,” RSI, Part 1, no. 30, folio 224; LMCL 2:49; Daily Post, March 3, 1725.

  Princess Mary’s inoculation: “Persons Inoculated by Claude Amyand, 1725,” RSI, Part 1, no. 9, folio 19.

  Hollis’s gossip about ZB’s horses: Hollis 551. Prince and Princess of Wales’s summer retreat to Richmond: LMCL 2:54, n.4. LM’s letters to Lady Mar about horses: LMCL 2:53-55 (July and Aug. 1725).

  LM writing up the Embassy Letters: Grundy, LMWM 199-201.

  Richardson’s painting: Grundy, LMWM 301-303. Richardson’s friends: Gibson-Wood 74-86. Richardson’s studio: Gibson-Wood, 65-72.

  LM’s son as runaway: LMCL 2:69. Duke of Kingston’s death: Grundy, LMWM 250-53. Lady Townshend’s and Sarah Chiswell’s deaths from smallpox: Grundy, LMWM 248, 253.

  ZB presenting book to Royal Society, and being asked to join: Mager 176-77. “It is and shall be acknowledged . . .”: ZBHA 40. ZB’s departure: Mager 180.

  LM’s mention of America in romance: “Mademoiselle de Condé,” LMRW 39.

  ZB’s letter to Sloane, upon arriving home: ZB to Sir Hans Sloane, Dec. 14, 1726.

  The Practice

  Boston’s 1730 and 1752 epidemics: Blake 75-77; WDS 394-99; Hopkins 256-57; Mager 204. WD quotations: WDD 8-9, 10. ZB’s and WD’s 1730 publications: Blake 75.

  Benjamin Franklin: Franklin, Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiographical Writings 38; Mager 178-79; Hopkins 243, 254-56; Duffy 34. John Adams: Fenn 33-35; Ferling 32-33; McCullough 56. Continental Congress: Hopkins 243. Washington and the inoculation of the Continental Army: Fenn, 88-103; Hopkins 257-261; Tucker 20-22. Inoculation’s popularity among Revolutionary women: Hopkins 255, 260; McCullough 142-44

  Later history of inoculation in London: Miller, AIS 134-71; Razzell. On the Continent: Miller, AIS 172-240. Physicians’ “improvements” making the procedure “dangerous”: Grundy, “Medical Advance” 34. King George III and his son: Hopkins 61.

  Jenner: Fisher; Tucker 23-27; Hopkins 77-81; www.jennermuseum.com (for quotation from Napoleon). Jenner “I was astonished,” Royal Society’s rejection, “angel’s trumpet”: Hopkins 79.

  Inoculation chief contribution of Enlightenment: Miller, AIS 195.

  Eradication of smallpox: Tucker, WHO. Indian resister: Tucker 106-107. Jenner on vaccination annihilating smallpox: Hopkins 80.

  The People

  LM and her children: Grundy, LMWM; Halsband, “New Anecdotes”; Spence, Grand Tour 346-46. Maitland: Bulloch. Sloane: de Beer. George I: Hatton. George II, Queen Caroline, and their children: Van der Kiste, Georgian Princesses and King George II. Harrison: Maitland, MMV.

  ZB and family: “Boylston, Dr. Zabdiel, FRS” in James Thacher; Mager; Thwing RCN 6727; William Gray Brooks; Wyman; Booke of the Boylstones. Thomas (Tommy): Thwing RCN 6725; mastectomy and St. Thomas’s Hospital, London: ZB letter to Dr. Mortimer, Dec. 17, 1737, Royal Society MM.20.7; “first fruit”: ZB letter to Sloane, Dec. 19, 1737, BL Sloane MS 4055, folio 248-49, qtd. in Mager 187. John: Parsons. Zabdiel junior: Shipton 317-18. Young Jerusha: Thwing RCN 6709; Mary: Thwing RCN 6716; Elizabeth: Thwing RCN 6708 and 57192. Jack, Moll, and Jackey: Thwing RCN 9395, 9441, 40077, 40068, 40084, 40086, 40258, 40330.

  CM: Silverman. Samuel Mather: Thwing RCN 45053; Silverman; Samuel Mather. Onesimus: Thwing RCN 30145.

  WD: Thwing RCN 24422; DAB; Alexander Hamilton 116-17; “Douglass, William, M.D.” in James Thacher 1:255-57; Bullock.

  Cheever: Thwing RCN 15679.

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  Manuscript and Rare Book Collections:

  The American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts

  The British Library, London

  The Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard University, Boston Massachusetts

  The John Carter Brown Library, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island

  Harrowby MSS Trust, Sandon Hall, Sandon, England

  The Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, M
assachusetts

  Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, Massachusetts

  New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts

  Public Records Office, London

  The Royal Society, London

  Newspapers:

  Applebee’s Original Weekly Journal (London)

  The Boston Gazette

  The Boston News-Letter

  Daily Post (London)

  The London Gazette

  The New-England Courant (Boston)

  The Post-Boy (London)

  St. James Evening Post (London)

  The Weekly Journal: or, British Gazetteer (London)

  The Weekly Journal or Saturday’s Post (London)

  Books and Articles:

  The Accomplish’d Lady’s Delight in Preserving Physick, Beautifying and Cookery. 10th ed. London: printed for Daniel Prat, 1719.

  Acts and Resolves, Public and Private, of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay. 21 vols. Boston: Wright & Potter, printers to the state, 1869-1922.

  “Adams Family Bible.” New England Historical and Genealogical Register 8 (1854): 283-85.

  Allen, Robert J. The Clubs of Augustan London. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1933.

  Amyand, Claude. Letter to Sir Hans Sloane, March 14, 1721/2. Sloane MS 4076, folio 33, British Library.

  ———. “A List of Persons Inoculated by Claude Amyand, Principall & Serjeant Surgeon in Ordinary to His Majesty.” Inoculations. Part 1, no. 1, folios 2-6. The Royal Society. Early Letters and Classified Papers 23.

  Ashton, John. Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne. London: Chatto & Windus, 1904.

  Babington, Anthony. The English Bastille. London: Macdonald, 1971.