From John Jay to Peter Augustus Jay, 13 August 1822
To Peter Augustus Jay
Bedford—13th. Augt. 1822
Dear Peter
I have recd. your Letter of the 9th. Inst. from your Acct. of the Fever there was Reason to hope that it would soon cease.1 We have since heard that several new Cases had occurred, and that it would probably become more general— Perhaps this Information may be incorrect. If the Fever is spreading and cases multiplying, I think it would be prudent for Mary and the Children who are with her, either to stay where they are, or to come here and stay with us until they can return with safety to the City— in that case do not let them wait for my Carriage, but come in a hired one at my Expense. Your Duty to your Family doubtless requires proper Attention to your professional Business— but it forbids your attending to it at the Risque of your Life— To expose ourselves to a Danger which may without Impropriety be avoided, appears to me to be tempting Providence— If therefore the State of the Fever should be, or become, such as to make it prudent for you to retire from the City, I hope you will without Hesitation or Delay come and stay with us— The Sufferings of the officers and crew of the Macedonian, are indeed deplorable.2
I am glad you found little Helen much improved in her Looks— your children here are well. Maria is still at Rye— less unwell than she was, but not so much better as we hoped she would be— She purposes to return to Bedford this week; and I expect William will go for her on Thursday or Friday next— I am Dr Peter your very affte. Father
John Jay
Peter Augustus Jay Esqr
ALS, NNC (EJ: 11620). Endorsed: “Letter from J. Jay / Bedford 13 Aug / 1822”.
1. The last yellow fever outbreak to hit New York was in 1822. The disease had plagued every year of JJ’s governorship. See the editorial note “John Jay and the Yellow Fever Epidemics,” , 6: 345–60. See also JJ’s Message to the New York State Senate, 18 Feb. 1799, and John Charlton to JJ, 19 Dec. 1799, both above. On 21 Mar. 1800, the Common Council moved alderman elections to the third Tuesday in November to address low turnouts because of abandonment of the city. After JJ’s term, yellow fever returned with some frequency (Aug. 1801, 1803, and 1805), but then subsided until 1819. The 1819 outbreak added to the chaos of the economic panic, and although only costing 37 lives, revived the concerns of those who lived through the 1790s. See JJ to PAJ, 6 Sept., and PAJ to JJ, 17 Sept. 1819, both above. The 1822 outbreak was more severe, with 250 casualties, but still only an eighth the size of 1798. Public health policy and swamp clearance begun in the 1790s had brought amelioration, but not without continued anxiety. See JJ to PAJ, 4 Nov. 1822, below. See also K. David Patterson, “Yellow Fever Epidemics and Mortality in the United States, 1693–1905,” Soc. Sci. Med. 34 (1992), 856–58; Claude Edwin Heaton, “Yellow Fever in New York City,” Bulletin of the Medical Library Association 34 (April 1946), 76–78; and Peter S. Townsend (1796–1849), An Account of the Yellow Fever, As it Prevailed In the City of New-York, In the Summer And Autumn of 1822 (New York, 1823). PAJ to JJ, 9 Aug. 1822, not found.
2. The frigate Macedonian, Capt. James Biddle, had an outbreak of yellow fever in June while at Port-au-Prince, with 77 dead and 50 sick by the time they came into Hampton Roads (via Havana) 3 Aug., causing much concern. See New-York Evening Post, 18 July; Albany Argus, 23 July; and New-York Evening Post, 8 Aug. 1822 (Dr. David Hosack, reporting). For Hosack’s role in contagion theory, see John Charlton to JJ, 19 Dec. 1799, notes 2 and 4, above.