Well, while we are all social distancing and spending more time at home, seems fitting to find a Prior who had to endure quarantine in the early 1800’s.
BOSTON, March 27.–Came from quarantine, sch’r Elizabeth & Mary Prior, 182 from Rotterdam, viz Martinique, 33 days where she put in a distress Capt. Prior having had the small pox on the passage, has been landed on the island–he is fast recovering.
The Charleston Daily Courier, 9 April 1819
There’s a report of another ship encountering Captain Prior in December 1818, probably before he became ill (at least we hope so!). This account is from a letter written by an unnamed passenger aboard the schooner General Brown with Captain W. Taylor master. “From this port” presumably New York heading to Genoa. This passenger wrote from Gibraltar on 10th May 1819 after their ship encountered problems that required repairs. (from The Evening Post, 13 July 1819)
Another notice of Captain Prior in The Evening Post (a NY newspaper) on 13 May 1818.
Another notice of Captain Prior in The Evening Post (a NY newspaper) on 17 June 1818.
The schooner Elizabeth and Mary with Captain Prior is identified as “of Duxbury”. The Evening Post, 21 November 1818.
Captain Prior set sail from England in 1823 per the Bury and Norwich Post, 19 March 1823.