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At the same time the General Court authorized the transfer of the Spectacle Island to Richard Bill, Esq. and other selectmen of Boston for the purchase of Rainsford Island. The Committee reported on Decemthat the sum of 570 pounds be granted and paid out of the treasury to the honorable John Jeffries, Esq. Īppropriations Made for Purchase of New Quarantine Island The General Court appointed a committee to find a suitable alternative location for the quarantine hospital. the town’s constables) were removed from duty and then inoculation was allowed. The disease was brought into Boston by a vessel from Ireland the preceding autumn but was kept within the bounds of a few families until March 1729. The smallpox visited Boston and its ravages were extensive. Included in this group of individuals in Samuel Sewall one of the most prominent attorneys of his day. In order to control the smallpox epidemic in Boston, the Selectmen order citizens who got inoculated in defiance of local requests, to be quarantined on Spectacle Island. Thus one of the worst smallpox epidemics in Boston history and one of the most storied epidemics in American history was caused by a failure to properly deploy and enforce quarantine. The town requested the Governor to send the Sea Horse to Spectacle Island but there is no evidence that this actually occurred. The virus was imported on the British warship called the Sea Horse. In April 1721, the town of Boston was visited by the smallpox with much greater severity than at any time before.
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Slow Progress with Spectacle Island Hospital: The General Court urged the Boston Selectmen to finish the public hospital on Spectacle Island so as to make it warm and comfortable for the entertainment of the sick. The law establishing this quarantine allowed for alternative quarantine strategies if island isolation did not work. The General Court selects Spectacle Island as the official quarantine station for the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Spectacle Island Chosen as Quarantine Station This action was needed to clear up the title to the land. BillThe Son of Wampatuck, chief of the Massachusetts Indians sells Spectacle Island to Mr. Samuel Bill, his son, now bought his father’s acreage and together with what he purchased from other people, believe he owned the whole island. Thomas Bill, a lighterman began to buy up the rights to the owners of the island and by Januhad acquired 35 acres. The town of Boston grants Spectacle Island to planters for the small yearly fee of six pence per acre but the plan did not work out well.