The small pox vaccination was known in the 17th century and even earlier. The Ming dynasty inoculated people by grinding the small pox scabs into a powder and inhaling it.
The inoculation process had an interesting history. In 1721, James Franklin (the brother of Benjamin Franklin) wrote an article in his The New England Courant spoke against Cotton Mathers’ effort at promoting inoculations. However, Benjamin Franklin promoted inoculations in his newspaper, The Pennsylvania Gazette. He was one of the people who advocated to George Washington to have the American army inoculated. (George Washington ordered the army inoculated in 1777).
This is all before Edward Jenners introduced the actual vaccine in 1798.