From John Jay to John Oothout and the Health Office, 20 November 1798
To John Oothout and the Health Office
Albany 20th. Novr. 1798
Gentlemen
Those Officers who fulfill their Duties in a manner highly satisfactory & useful do honor not only to themselves but to the Governmt. Convinced by repeated and concurring Accounts of the Zeal, Perseverance & Talents by which you have rendered most important services to our suffering fellow Citizens, during the late melancholy season, I think it my duty to express to you my Warmest approbation & thanks.—.—. I have been frequently informed that the late fever did certainly derive additional malignancy from large Quantities of putrid provisions stored in the City. Let nothing be omitted to ascertain the names of the Inspectors by whom those provisions were inspected and branded.
Permit me to recommend this subject to your Attention, and to request that you will transmit to me whatever Information you may possess or acquire concerning it. I have the Honor to be with great Esteem Gent. Your most obt. Servt.
LbkC, N: Governor’s Lbk. 1 (EJ: 03188).
1. The Health Office consisted of Dr. Richard Bayley, Health Officer, and the Health Commission: John Oothout, Jacob Abramse, and Ezekiel Robins. They were tasked with policing tainted provisions, which were thought to be a possible cause of yellow fever. See the editorial note “John Jay and the Yellow Fever Epidemics,” above.
2. The members of JJ’s unofficial staff during the 1798 yellow fever epidemic—Robert Troup, Matthew Clarkson, and PJM—were probably copied here. Troup and Munro’s copies might have accompanied the letters that JJ sent them about Sheriff J.J. Lansing. See JJ to Troup, 20 Nov. 1798, ALS, CtY-BR (EJ: 12337); and JJ to PJM, 20 Nov. 1798, ALS, NNMus (EJ: 00462). See the editorial note “John Jay and the Yellow Fever Epidemics,” above and accompanying notes 48–50.