When one of their children could not shake off what Samuel describes as “irrepressible convulsions”, they decided based on medical advice to remove him from the home and send him to live with his grandparents. Even though he was wealthy there was no effective treatment available for his children – they resorted to desperate measures. We also read that when his children were not actually dying, they battled with smallpox, measles, the flux, ague, colds and numerous other infections. In it, he woke up and all of his children were dead – his nightmare nearly came true. In Samuel’s diary, we read of a nightmare he experienced. In the years 1685, 16 Samuel buried three sons, Henry, Hull, and Steven. Out of the 6 who survived to adulthood, only three outlived their father meaning that Samuel Sewall buried 11 out of his 14 children. Of their 14 children, one was stillborn and seven died before they reached the age of three. Over a period of 24 years, he and his wife Hannah had 14 children: his first son John died aged 17 months his third son Hull died aged 23 months his fourth son Henry died aged two weeks his fifth son Stephen died aged 6 months his third daughter Judith died aged 6 weeks his fourth daughter Mary died following childbirth aged just 19 years his fifth daughter Jane died at 5 weeks his sixth daughter, Sarah, after just five weeks of life, was laid in the family tomb, and his seventh son never saw the world alive, being stillborn. Samuel Sewall lived with his family in Puritan America between 16, and he suffered in ways unimaginable to us today.
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