HISTORIC SITES and ATTRACTIONS
National Historic Sites
The Rev. Dr. John Clinch Plaque commemorates the first vaccination against smallpox in North America. Clinch (1749-1819) was born in England, came to Newfoundland in 1775 and settled in Trinity where he died. He was a surgeon and clergyman who was a colleague and friend of Dr. Edward Jenner, the discoverer of the vaccine, who sent some to Clinch . He vaccinated his family and 700 persons in Trinity (1799) and many more hundreds in St. John's and Portugal Cove when news of his success in Trinity spread to the capital.
The Sir Richard Whitbourne Plaque commemorates Whitbourne who first visited Trinity on a fishing voyage in 1579. Trinity was his headquarters for forty years thereafter. He held the first Court of Admiralty in the New World at Trinity in 1615 and wrote, in 1622, what is believed to be the first book about Newfoundland.
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