Terry Foreman on 4 Jun 2012  •  Link

Maj. Waters, deaf friend of Col. Robert slingsby.

SP

San Diego Sarah on 22 May 2024  •  Link

"... (and Major Waters the deaf gentleman, ...)" -- Tuesday 21 May 1661

Later you'll find an annotation from Linda Levitan saying:

George Downing grew up in Maidstone, Kent, which had a high incidence of deafness, and must have learned what we now call Old Kentish Sign Language from his neighbors. Other residents of Kent, deaf and hearing, emigrated to Martha's Vineyard and brought their signing with them; this ultimately became a "tributary" of American Sign Language. The "dumb boy" was simply deaf — obviously, a bright lad who could converse with Downing in Kentish Sign. Downing evidently employed a circle of deaf spies, the belief being that wouldn't — couldn't — spill secrets, even under torture.

Everyone here spoke sign language
https://www.goodreads.com/book/sh…

From the 17th century to the early years of the 20th, the population of Martha's Vineyard manifested an extremely high rate of profound hereditary deafness. In contrast to the experience of most Deaf people in our own society, the Vineyarders who were born Deaf were so thoroughly integrated into the daily life of the community that they were not seen -- and did not see themselves -- as handicapped or as a group apart. Deaf people were included in all aspects of life, such as town politics, jobs, church affairs, and social life. How was this possible?

On the Vineyard, hearing and Deaf islanders alike grew up speaking sign language. This unique sociolinguistic adaptation meant that the usual barriers to communication between the hearing and the Deaf, which so isolate many Deaf people today, did not exist.

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Lip-reading was reportedly the way Downing (a New Englander) caught some Regicides in the Dutch Republic.