CHAPTER II.
When Penn made up his company of emigrants, which, under his own guidance, landed on the shores of the Delaware in 1682, he was not unmindful of the medical wants of his incipient colony. Several well-educated members of the profession united their destiny with that of the party who arrived that year. It is known that one at least of these physicians was on board the Proprietary’s own vessel, the Welcome, where his services were called into requisition on the voyage from England, as smallpox broke out among the crew and passengers shortly after their embarkation. The attention of a practitioner of the healing art must have been beneficial to those who were attacked by the disease, and, under such appalling circumstances, his presence must have been a source of encouragement and comfort to all who constituted the adventurous company. The individual referred to as having been on board the Welcome was Thomas Wynne.[1] Another skilful
- ↑ Mr. Edward Armstrong, the editor of the reprinted vol. i. of the Memoirs of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, has taken pains to ascertain who were the individuals accompanying William Penn in the Welcome. The name of Thomas Wynne has been determined to be upon the list. We have reason to suppose that there were many, not enumerated, with respect to whom the direct proof is lost that they were in the same vessel as the Proprietary. With the scanty data that are now accessible, it is impossible to specify with accuracy of whom the entire company was composed. Several vessels arrived during the autumn and winter of the same year, and other individuals of the medical profession may have been passengers in them.—Appendix to vol. i. Mem. of Hist. Soc. of Pa., p. 32, and note.
