Sibling Infant Burials
Boughton Children
“Under this stone lies the remains of four infant children of Selleck & Clarissa Boughton” reads the inscription on this grave marker. Selleck Boughton, born 1788, his wife Clarissa Brace, born 1789, and their family arrived in Rochester in the early 1820s from Victor, Ontario County, which had been founded by the Boughton family in 1789. Selleck was amongst the first lawyers to practice in Rochester. The registers of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church contain the following entries: son of Mr. Boughton buried 30 March 1821, nine-month-old infant of Mr. S. Boughton buried 20 November 1826, and four-year-old daughter of S. Boughton buried 24 January 1827. This stone’s current location in the corner of the Potter’s Field section appears to indicate that it has been moved from its original position. Clarissa died in 1857, Selleck in 1870, and both were buried in Boughton Hill Cemetery, Victor, NY along with an adult unmarried son. A further three married children were buried at Rochester’s Mount Hope Cemetery.
Infant and child mortality in this era was very high in comparison to today. In 1837 the death total recorded in Rochester was 358 individuals. Of this number, 166 were under the age of one year old and a further 58 were between the ages of one and five years old. Children under six years old therefore accounted for 62% of all deaths in that year. Young children fell victim to smallpox, scarlet fever, diphtheria, whooping cough and other ailments that are all but unknown now. Another killer was cholera infantum, not true cholera but a severe gastrointestinal illness often caused by contaminated milk. The lack of clean water supplies and adequate waste disposal systems contributed to outbreaks of typhoid and cholera in the 1800s. These diseases had a disproportionate effect on the very young and other vulnerable segments of the population.
Headstone of infant siblings