Inoculation for the smallpox by Dr. John Bond at the Pest House in Hampstead, New Hampshire, in 1794

This is an original document dated 1794, Hampstead, New Hampshire, where the selectmen have called a town meeting to see if the town will allow Dr. John Bond the liberty to inoculate for the small pox at the Pest House. Dated January 11, 1794.

"State of New Hampshire, Rockingham to Moses Little, Constable of the Town of Hampstead. Greeting.

In the name of said state, you are hereby required to Notify and warn all the Freeholders and other inhabitants of the Town of Hampstead qualified by Law to vote in Town affairs to meet at the meeting house in said town upon Tuesday the twenty eighth day of this instant January at at 2 o'clock to act upon the following particulars

1) to choose a Moderator for said Meetings

2) to see if the Inhabitants will grant Dr. John Bond Liberty to carry on inoculation for the Small Pox at the Pest House or Saint Clair Farm, so-called, in said town

3) to see if the town will choose a committee for making Laws for the Inoculation and take bond that said Laws shall be adhered to... also to invest the committee with power to stop the Inoculation provided it shall be to the damage of said town.

John True, and Dudley Kimball and Jonathan Little, Select Men"

An addendum reads that the town voted "not to grant Dr. John Bond the Liberty of carrying out inoculation in Hampstead".

A pest house, plague house, pesthouse or fever shed was a type of building used for persons afflicted with communicable diseases such as tuberculosis, cholera, smallpox or typhus. Often used for forcible quarantine, many towns and cities had one or more pesthouses accompanied by a cemetery or a waste pond nearby for disposal of the dead.

Dr. John Bond (January 14, 1718 - ) was a doctor in Hampstead for many years, and mention is made on the town records of his caring for the smallpox patients in the Sinclear family and of the pest house on the island in 1778. He settled in Kingston, in that part now Sandown, and was one of the petitioners for a separate township for Sandown.

From the town records of 1794: " Voted, that the request of Dr. John Bond, for inoculating for small pox for the term of one year, excluding July and August, at the Sinclear house, be granted, he taking the Sinclear Farm for himself, all but the house which is kept as a hospital for the use of ye town in case of need, and for paying the whole of the expense for purchasing said farm all charges, on account of the small pox."

Contributed by anonymous