July 2, 1752

1752 July 2 (Thursday).  Publick Fast on the Account of the Small pox and other Malignant Distempers at Boston and divers other Towns.[1]  N.B. We had no proclamation, but read what is inserted in the Boston Gazette.  However there was So much Said of there being no Proclamation in the County of Worcester, and that in several parishes there would be no Meeting, as at our North End; at Shrewsbury etc. that I doubted of an Assembly (some number did go to work and came not at all: some came from their work in their Sweat and Dirt).  I therefore threw aside my design’d sermon for the forenoon, and took that on 1 Pet. 5.6 which I deliver’d.  But there was So considerable a Congregation that I took Heart, and p.m. preach’d on 1 Kings 8.37.38, and may God please to add his Blessing!  N.B. Dr. Willson[2] of Hopkinton here at Eve.

[1]A study of the extent of smallpox at this time may be found in John Duffy, Epidemics in Colonial America (Baton Rouge, [1953]). pp. 57-61.

[2]John Wilson or Willson, the physician.