The “Throat Distemper” of 1735-1740

Most of the old towns between Casco Bay and Boston were connected by a road which ran roughly parallel to the coast and far enough inland to avoid the many small inlets, marsh lands, and sandy dunes. A few weeks after the Kingston outbreak the disease invaded Kittery and Hampton Falls, two important trading centers along this road. From Kittery the infection was carried northward into Maine and from Hampton Falls southward across disputed territory into the Province of Massachusetts Bay. Amesbury73 and Salisbury74 were soon involved, and by September the epidemic had crossed the Merrimac River and like an invading army concentrated its forces at Newbury before it started down the old Bay Path towards Boston. Newbury, which at that time included Newburyport, was only about ten miles south of Hampton Falls and the inhabitants must have heard about the New Hampshire epidemic, though it does not appear that they were aware of any direct relation. They could explain their own distress without reference to any sickness in the neighboring towns. During the previous summer there had been a plague of huge black caterpillars such as had never been seen before, and the leaves on the trees and bushes had been destroyed until the country-side was as barren as in winter. These caterpillars were indeed a nuisance: "No river or pond could stop them. They could swim like dogs, and travel in unaccountable armies and completely cover whole houses and trees. Cart and carriage wheels would be dyed green from the numbers they crushed in progress."