Chapter III: Part 3

"Our numbers were between twenty-eight and thirty. Of my
associates I only remember the names of Frothingham, Mead,
Martin and Grant. Many of them were apprentices and
journeymen, not a few, as was the case with myself, living
with Tory masters. I had but a few hours warning of what was
intended to be done. We first talked of firing the ships,
but feared the fire would communicate to the town. We then
proposed sinking them, but dropped that project through fear
that we should alarm the town before we could get through
with it. We had observed that very few persons remained on
board the ships, and we finally concluded that we could take
possession of them, and discharge the tea into the harbor
without danger or opposition. One of the ships laid at the
wharf, the others a little way out in the stream, with their
warps made fast to the wharf. To prevent discovery, we
agreed to wear ragged clothes and disfigure ourselves,
dressing to resemble Indians as much as possible, smearing
our faces with grease and lamp black or soot, and should not
have known each other except by our voices. Our most
intimate friends among the spectators had not the least
knowledge of us. We surely resembled devils from the
bottomless pit rather than men. At the appointed time we met
in an old building at the head of the wharf, and fell in one
after another, as if by accident, so as not to excite
suspicion. We placed a sentry at the head of the wharf,
another in the middle, and one on the bow of each ship as we
took possession. We boarded the ship moored by the wharf,
and our leader, in a very stern and resolute manner, ordered
the captain and crew to open the hatchways, and hand us the
hoisting tackle and ropes, assuring them that no harm was
intended them. The captain asked what we intended to do. Our
leader told him that we were going to unload the tea, and
ordered him and the crew below. They instantly obeyed. Some
of our number then jumped into the hold, and passed the
chests to the tackle. As they were hauled on deck others
knocked them open with axes, and others raised them to the
railing and discharged their contents overboard. All who
were not needed for discharging this ship went on board the
others, warped them to the wharf, when the same ceremonies
were repeated. We were merry, in an undertone, at the idea
of making so large a cup of tea for the fishes, but were as
still as the nature of the case would admit, using no more
words than were absolutely necessary. We stirred briskly in
the business from the moment we left our dressing-room. I
never worked harder in my life. While we were unloading, the
people collected in great numbers about the wharf to see
what was going on. They crowded around us so as to be much
in our way. Our sentries were not armed, and could not stop
any who insisted on passing. They were particularly charged
to give us notice in case any known Tory came down to the
wharf. There was much talk about this business next morning.
We pretended to be as zealous to find out the perpetrators
as the rest, and were all so close and loyal, that the whole
affair remained in Egyptian darkness."

* * * * *

In 1835, a small volume appeared, entitled "Traits of the Tea Party," with a memoir of G.R.T. Hewes. From it we glean the following incidents.

Mr. Hewes thinks that among the speakers at the meeting on the afternoon of December 16, was John Hancock, who said that "the matter must be settled before twelve o'clock that night." Hewes positively affirms that he recognized Hancock, who worked by his side in the destruction of the tea, not only by his ruffles, which were accidentally exposed, and by his figure and gait, but by his voice and features, notwithstanding his paint, and the loosened club of hair behind. In this he was undoubtedly mistaken. Neither Hancock, Adams nor Warren were among the disguised Indians. There were enough who were competent for the business without them.

Just before the meeting dissolved, some one in the galleries (Mr. Pierce thinks it was Adam Collson) cried out with a loud voice, "Boston harbor a tea-pot to-night! Hurrah for Griffin's wharf!" This is probably the disorder checked by the chairman, and which was in response to the war-whoops outside. Three cheers were given by the meeting as it broke up.

The disguise of the Indians was hastily prepared. Many of them arrayed themselves in a store on Fort Hill. The original number of one of the parties was fifteen or twenty. Many others joined in the act of breaking up the boxes, who disguised themselves as best they could, and some, chiefly extempore volunteers, were not disguised at all. Hewes himself, while the crowd rushed down Milk Street, made his way to a blacksmith's shop, on Boylston's wharf, where he hastily begrimmed his face with a _soot_-able preparation, thence to the house of an acquaintance near Griffin's, where he got a blanket, which he wrapped around his person.

When he reached the wharf, there were many there, but no crowd. The moon shone brightly. From one hundred to one hundred and fifty were engaged. The whole were divided into three equal divisions, with a captain and boatswain for each. Hewes's whistling talent--a matter of public notoriety--procured him the position of boatswain in the party, under Captain Lendall Pitts, which boarded the brig. Many were fantastically arrayed in old frocks, red woolen caps or gowns, and all manner of like habiliments.

One of Pitts's first official acts was to send a message to the mate, who was in his cabin, for the use of a few lights and the brig's keys, so that as little damage as possible might be done to the vessel. The keys were handed over without a word, and he also provided candles. The three parties finished their separate tasks nearly at the same time, and without unnecessary delay. A number of sailors and others had joined them from time to time, and aided them in hoisting the chests from the hold.

Collecting on the wharf, which was now covered with spectators, a fresh inspection was instituted, and all the tea men were ordered to take off their shoes and empty them, which was supposed to be done. Pitts, who was a military man, and a prominent Son of Liberty, was appointed commander-in-chief; the company was formed in rank and file by his directions, with the aid of Barber, Proctor, and some others, and "shouldering arms,"--such as they had, tomahawks included,--they marched up the wharf, to what is now the east end of Pearl Street, back into town, and then separated and went quietly home.

All was done in plain sight of the British squadron, which lay less than a quarter of a mile distant. Admiral Montagu witnessed most of the affair from a more convenient point--the house of a Tory, named Coffin, on Atkinson Street, near the head of the wharf. Raising the window as they came along, he said, "Well, boys, you have had a fine, pleasant evening for your Indian caper, haven't you? But mind, you have got to pay the fiddler yet!"

"Oh, never mind!" shouted Pitts, "never mind, squire! Just come out here, if you please, and we'll settle the bill in two minutes." This caused a shout, the fife struck up a lively air, the admiral put the window down in a hurry, and the company marched on.

When Hewes reached home he told his wife the story. "Well, George," said she, "Did you bring me home a lot of it?" The only tea known to have been brought that night from the wharf was in the shoes of Thomas Melvill. A sample gathered on the Dorchester shore by Dr. Thaddeus M. Harris, is now preserved in the cabinet of the Antiquarian Society, at Worcester.

One O'Connor, an Irishman, formerly a fellow apprentice with Hewes, attempted to secrete some of the tea. Hewes noticed a suspicious movement of his hands along the lining of his coat, and informed Pitts. Catching him by the skirts of his coat, he pulled him back as he was trying to escape, and he was quickly relieved of his cargo, as well as the apparel which contained it, and a few kicks were applied to hasten his retreat.

Early on the morning of the 17th, a long windrow of tea, "about as big as you ever saw of hay," was seen extending from the wharves down to the castle. A party of volunteers soon turned out in boats, and stirred it up in the "pot" pretty effectually.

* * * * *

Those who undertook to preserve any of the poisonous herb were sharply looked after by the patriots. A Boston paper of January 3, 1774, says:

"Whereas, it was reported that one Withington, of
Dorchester, had taken up and partly disposed of a chest of
the East India Company's tea, a number of the Cape or
Narragansett Indians went to the house of Captain Ebenezer
Withington, and his brother Phillip, last Friday evening,
and thoroughly searched their houses, without offering the
least offence to any one. Finding no tea, they proceeded to
the house of old Mr. Ebenezer Withington, at a place called
Sodom, below Dorchester Meeting House, where they found part
of a half-chest, which had floated, and was cast up on
Dorchester Point. This they seized and brought to Boston
Common, where they committed it to the flames."

Benjamin Simpson, a bricklayer's apprentice, says:

"After the meeting in the Old South was over, there was a
cry in the gallery of 'every man to his tent.' We repaired
to the wharf. I went on board both ships, but saw no person
belonging to them. In a few minutes a number of men came on
the wharf, (with the Indian pow-wow,) went on board the
ships, then lying at the side of the wharf, the water in the
dock not more than two feet deep. They began to throw the
tea into the water, which went off with the tide till the
tea grounded. We soon found there was tea on board the brig
also. A demand being made of it, the captain told us the
whole of his cargo was on board; that the tea was directly
under the hatches, which he would open if we would not
damage anything but the tea, which was agreed to. The
hatches were then opened, a man sent down to show us the
tea, which we hoisted out, stove the chests and threw tea
and all overboard. Those on board the ships did the same. I
was on board the ships when the tea was so high by the side
of them as to fall in, which was shovelled down more than
once. We on board the brig were not disguised. I was then
nineteen years old; I am now (1830) seventy-five."

Peter, the son of Benjamin Edes, the printer, in a letter to his grandson, Benjamin C. Edes, written in 1836, says of the tea party:

"I know but little about it, as I was not admitted into
their presence, for fear, I suppose, of their being
known.... I recollect perfectly well that in the afternoon
preceding the evening of the destruction of the tea, a
number of gentlemen met in the parlor of my father's
house,--how many I cannot say. As I said before, I was not
admitted into their presence; my station was in another
room, to make punch for them, in the bowl[20] which is now
in your possession, and which I filled several times. They
remained in the house till dark,--I suppose to disguise
themselves like Indians,--when they left the house, and
proceeded to the wharves where the vessels lay. Before they
reached there they were joined by hundreds. I thought I
would take a walk to the wharves as a spectator, where was
collected, I may say, as many as two thousand persons. The
Indians worked smartly. Some were in the hold immediately
after the hatches were broken open, fixing the ropes to the
tea-chests, others were breaking open the chests, and others
stood ready with hatchets to cut off the bindings of the
chests and cast them overboard. I remained till I was tired,
and fearing some disturbance might occur, went home, leaving
the Indians working like good, industrious fellows. This is
all I know about it."

The account given by General Ebenezer Stevens to his son, Horatio Gates Stevens, is as follows:

"I went from the Old South Meeting House just after dark.
The party was about seventy or eighty. At the head of the
wharf we met the detachment of our company (Paddock's
Artillery) on guard, who joined us. I commenced with a party
on board the vessel of which Hodgdon[21] was mate, (the
'Dartmouth') and as he knew me, I left that vessel with some
of my comrades and went aboard another vessel, which lay at
the opposite side of the wharf. Numbers of others took our
places on board Hodgdon's vessel. We commenced handing the
boxes of tea on deck, and first began breaking them with
axes, but found much difficulty, owing to the boxes of tea
being covered with canvas,--the mode that the article was
then imported in. I think that all the tea was destroyed in
about two hours. We were careful to prevent any being taken
away. None of the party were painted as Indians, nor, that I
know of, disguised, excepting that some of them stopped at a
paint shop on the way, and daubed their faces with paint."

Robert Sessions, of South Wilbraham, (now Hampden) Mass., another actor in the scene, says:

"I was living in Boston at the time, in the family of a Mr.
Davis, a lumber merchant, as a common laborer. On that
eventful evening, when Mr. Davis came in from the town
meeting, I asked him what was to be done with the tea. 'They
are now throwing it overboard,' he replied. Receiving
permission, I went immediately to the spot. Everything was
as light as day, by the means of lamps and torches; a pin
might be seen lying on the wharf. I went on board where they
were at work, and took hold with my own hands. I was not one
of those appointed to destroy the tea, and who disguised
themselves as Indians, but was a volunteer; the disguised
men being largely men of family and position in Boston,
while I was a young man, whose home and relations were in
Connecticut. The appointed and disguised party proving too
small for the quick work necessary, other young men,
similarly circumstanced with myself, joined them in their
labors. The chests were drawn up by a tackle,--one man
bringing them forward, another putting a rope around them,
and others hoisting them to the deck and carrying them to
the vessel's side. The chests were then opened, the tea
emptied over the side, and the chests thrown overboard.
Perfect regularity prevailed during the whole transaction.
Although there were many people on the wharf, entire silence
prevailed,--no clamor, no talking. Nothing was meddled with
but the teas on board. After having emptied the whole, the
deck was swept clean, and everything put in its proper
place. An officer on board was requested to come up from the
cabin and see that no damage was done except to the tea. At
about the close of the scene, a man was discovered making
his way through the crowd with his pockets filled with tea.
He was immediately laid hold of, and his coat skirts torn
off, with their pockets, and thrown into the dock with the
rest of the tea. I was obliged to leave the town at once, as
it was of course known that I was concerned in the affair."

William Tudor, then a law student in the office of John Adams, and acquainted with some of the members of the tea party, gives in his "Life of James Otis," the following account of it:

"A band of eighteen or twenty young men (no one of whom was
in any disguise), who had been prepared for the event, went
by the Meeting House giving a shout. It was echoed by some
within; others exclaimed, 'the Mohawks are come!;' the
assembly broke up and a part of it followed this body of
young men to Griffin's wharf. Three different parties,
composed of trust-worthy persons, many of whom were in after
life among the most respectable citizens of the town, had
been prepared, in conformity to the secret resolves of the
political leaders, to act as circumstances should require.
They were seventy or eighty in all, and when every attempt
to have the tea returned had failed, it was immediately made
known to them, and they proceeded at once to throw the
obnoxious merchandise into the water. One, if not two of
these parties, wore a kind of Indian disguise. Two of these
persons, in passing over Fort Hill to the scene of
operations, met a British officer who, on observing them,
naturally enough drew his sword. As they approached, one of
the Indians drew a pistol, and said to the officer, 'The
path is wide enough for us all; we have nothing to do with
you, and intend you no harm; if you keep your own way
peaceably, we shall keep ours."

Henry Purkitt, Samuel Sprague and John Hooten, (all living in 1835,) were apprentices of about the same age. Purkitt and Dolbear were apprentices with Peck, the cooper, in Essex Street. While at their work they heard a loud whistle, which startled them, and which they followed till it brought them to the wharf. Their part of the play was on the flats, by the side of one of the vessels,--for it was nearly low tide,--and with other boys, by direction of the commander, to break up more thoroughly the fragments of chests and masses of tea thrown over in too great haste. They found their return upon deck much facilitated by the immense pile which had accumulated beneath and around them. The commander acted as an interpreter for those persons,--apparently five or six aboard each vessel,--who especially assumed the Indian guise. These were no doubt among the principal directors of the whole affair. They affected to issue their orders from time to time in an Indian jargon, the interpreter communicating what the chiefs said; attended to the procuring of keys and lights, the raising of the derricks, trampling the tea into the mud, sweeping the decks at the close of the scene, calling up the mate to report whether everything (except, of course, the tea) was left as they found it, etc.

Purkitt and Dolbear went home early. Peck, who was believed to be one of the chiefs, came in rather softly, at one o'clock in the morning. The boys noticed some indications of red paint behind his ears, next day. The only tools they used were staves, which they made before starting.

* * * * *

David Kinnison, the last survivor of the tea party, died at Chicago in 1852, at the great age of one hundred and fifteen. He was one of seventeen inhabitants of Lebanon, Maine, who had associated themselves together as a political club, and, who had determined, at all hazards, to destroy the tea, whether assisted or not. Some of them repairing to Boston, joined the party, and twenty-four, disguised as Indians, hastened on board the ships, twelve armed with muskets and bayonets, the rest with tomahawks and clubs. They expected to have a fight, not doubting that an effort would be made for their arrest, and agreed at the outset to stand by each other to the last. They also pledged themselves not to reveal the names of the party. Owing to the great age of Kinnison, when this relation was made to Mr. Lossing, it is possibly in some particulars erroneous, and is given only as a piece of original evidence, and simply for what it is worth.

With a British squadron and British troops so near at hand, it seems strange that the party was not interrupted. The probable reason is, that something far more serious was expected on any attempt to land the tea, and that the authorities, the owners of the ships, the consignees of the tea, and all others concerned, were glad to be thus extricated from a serious dilemma. They, however, could not be called upon to interfere, except by the civil authorities, in case of a riot.

Governor Hutchinson says "the tea could have been secured in the town in no other way than by landing marines from the men-of-war, or bringing to town the regiment which was at the castle, to remove the guards from the ships and to take their places." This would have brought on a greater convulsion than there was any danger of in 1770, and it would not have been possible, when two regiments were forced out of the town, for so small a body of troops to have kept possession of the place. He did not suppose such a measure would be approved of in England, nor was he sure of support from any one person in authority. There was not a justice of peace, sheriff, constable or peace officer in the province who would venture to take cognizance of any breach of law against the general bent of the people. So many of the actors were universally known that a proclamation, with a reward for discovery, would have been ridiculed. Hutchinson submitted the consideration of the affair to the council, and that body promised to give it attention, but nothing came of it. "Of the thousands concerned in the transaction," wrote General Gage to the historian Chalmers, "or who were spectators of it, only one witness could be procured to give testimony against them, and that one conditionally that the delinquents should be tried in England." So far as is known, only a single person was arrested,--a Mr. Eckley, and he was never brought to trial.

A fourth tea-ship, destined for Boston, was wrecked on Cape Cod. The few chests of tea saved from her cargo were, by the governor's order, placed in the castle. Twenty-eight chests, brought a little later by another vessel from London, on the joint account of Boston merchants, were destroyed by a disguised party, on March 7, 1774. The people of Charlestown destroyed, in the market place, all the tea they could find in the town, paying the owners its value. Other towns did the same.

An account of the transaction, drawn up by the Boston committee, was carried by Paul Revere, to New York and Philadelphia. When the news reached New York, vast numbers of the people collected. They were in high spirits, one and all declaring that the ships with tea on board, designed for that port, should on arrival be sent back, or the tea destroyed. They highly extolled the Bostonians for what the people had done, and immediately forwarded the news to Philadelphia. When Revere, on his return, brought word that Governor Tryon had engaged to send the New York tea-ships back, all the bells in Boston were rung next morning.

Extract from a letter to the Sons of Liberty, in New York, dated Boston, December 17, 1773:

"The bearer is chosen by the committee from a number of
gentlemen, who volunteered to carry you this intelligence.
We are in a perfect jubilee. Not a Tory in the whole
community can find the least fault with our proceedings....
The spirit of the people throughout the country is to be
described by no terms in my power. Their conduct last night
surprised the admiral and English gentlemen, who observed
that these were not a mob of disorderly rabble, (as they
have been reported,) but men of sense, coolness and
intrepidity."

The tea shipped to South Carolina (two hundred and fifty-seven chests) arrived on the second of December. So strenuous was the opposition to its being landed, that the consignees were persuaded to resign. Though the collector, after the twentieth day, seized the dutiable article, as no one would sell it or pay the duty, it perished in the damp cellars where it was stored.

On December 25, news reached Philadelphia that its tea-ship was at Chester. The Delaware pilots had been warned, by printed handbills, not to conduct any tea-ships into the harbor, as they were only sent for the purpose of enslaving and poisoning the Americans. Four miles below the town it came to anchor. On the 27th, news of what had occurred in Boston having arrived, five thousand men collected in town meeting at an hour's notice. At their suggestion, the consignee, who came as passenger, resigned, and the captain agreed to take his ship and cargo back to London the very next day.

The ship "Nancy," Captain Lockyer, destined for New York, having been blown off the coast, refitted at Antigua, and proceeding thence to New York, arrived there April 18, 1774. Some of the committee went on board and prevented her coming up to the city, but the captain was allowed to procure some necessary stores, and then, by the advice of the consignees, returned to London without breaking bulk. A quantity of tea--private property--was imported from London, and an application from the consignee to have it returned to England was refused by the custom-house officers. A number of "Mohawks" then took charge of the business, and emptied the whole of it into the sea.

A few days later, Captain Chambers, master of the ship "London," trading to New York, who had on a former occasion received the thanks of her citizens for refusing to bring the East India Company's tea, was detected in introducing eighteen boxes of fine tea, curiously concealed between blankets, etc., which he intended to smuggle, but the people having discovered it, immediately threw it into the sea, and the captain, to escape the wrath of the people, took refuge in Captain Lockyer's vessel, and sailed for England.

Opposition to the obnoxious tea duty had by no means subsided, when, in October, 1774, the brigantine "Peggy Stewart" approached Annapolis, Maryland, with a cargo of tea on board. At once there was a great commotion. Terror seized the owners. They applied to Charles Carroll for advice. He told them there was but one way to save their persons and property from swift destruction, and that was to burn their vessel and cargo instantly, and in sight of the people. It was done, and the flames did for Annapolis what the "Mohawks" had done for Boston.

* * * * *

"This," said Hutchinson, referring to the action of Boston, "was the boldest stroke that had been struck in America." Writing to Sir Francis Bernard, he spoke of it as "an unfortunate event, and what every body supposed impossible after so many men of property had made part of the meetings, and were in danger of being liable for the value of it. It would have given me a much more painful reflection," he continued, "if I had saved it by any concession to a lawless and highly criminal assembly of men, to whose proceedings the loss must be consequently attributed, and the probability is that it was a part of their plan from the beginning."

"We do console ourselves," wrote John Scollay, chairman of the Selectmen of Boston, and prominent in the affair, "that we have acted constitutionally."

"The most magnificent movement of all," wrote John Adams in his diary. "There is a dignity, a majesty, a solemnity in this last effort of the patriots that I greatly admire. This destruction of the tea is so bold, so daring, so firm, so intrepid and inflexible, and it must have so important consequences, and so lasting, that I cannot but consider it as an epoch in history. The question is whether the destruction of the tea was necessary? I apprehend it was absolutely and indispensably so.... To let it be landed would be giving up the principle of taxation by Parliamentary authority, against which the continent has struggled for ten years.... But, it will be said, it might have been left in the care of a committee of the town, or in Castle William. To this many objections may be urged."

The historian Ramsay says: "If the American position was right in relation to taxation, the destruction of the tea was warranted by the great law of self-preservation. For it was not possible for them by any other means within the compass of probability to discharge the duty they owed to their country."

"I cannot but express my admiration of the conduct of this people," writes an 'Impartial Observer' in the "Boston Evening Post" of December 20, 1773.... "I shall return home doubly fortified in my resolution to prevent that deprecated calamity, the landing the tea in Rhode Island, and console myself with the happier assurance that my brethren have not less resolution than their neighbors."

"It became," says Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, "a simple question, which should go under, British tea or American liberty? That volunteer band of Liberty Boys performed their work 'better than they knew,' averting contingencies which must have caused immediate bloodshed, and accomplishing results of the greatest importance to the American cause."

Wm. C. Rives, in his Life of James Madison, says: "This memorable occurrence was undoubtedly, in the immediate sequence of the events which it produced, the proximate cause of the American Revolution."

A Tory pamphleteer of the time gives us the Loyalist view of the affair. He says: "Now the crime of the Bostonians was a compound of the grossest injury and insult. It was an act of the highest insolence towards government, such as mildness itself cannot overlook or forgive. The injustice of the deed was also most atrocious, as it was the destruction of property to a vast amount, when it was known that the nation was obliged in honor to protect it."

We subjoin some of the comments of candid British writers respecting the affair. Mr. Massey says: "The question of taxation was virtually settled by this signal failure to enforce the law, or rather by the absence of any attempt to protect the property of merchants who had made their ventures by the express authority, if not at the instance of the British government."

While speaking of the destruction of the tea as the "crowning outrage," Lecky says, "It will probably strike the reader that every argument which shewed that the tea duty was not a grievance, was equally powerful to show that it was perfectly useless as a means of obtaining a revenue. It would be difficult indeed to find a more curious instance of legislative incapacity than the whole transaction displayed."

Hear Carlyle:

"Thursday, December 16, 1773. What a contention is going on
far over seas at Boston, New England. The case is well known
and still memorable to mankind. British parliament, after
nine years of the saddest haggling, and baffling to and fro
under constitutional stress of weather, and such east winds
and west winds of parliamentary eloquence as seldom were,
has made up its mind that America shall pay duty on their
teas before infusing them, and America, Boston more
especially, is tacitly determined that it will not, and that
to avoid mistakes the teas shall never be landed at all....

"Rotch's report done, the chairman (an Adams 'American
Cato,' subsequently so called,) dissolves the sorrowful
seven thousand, with these words, 'The meeting declares it
can do nothing more to save the country," we'll naturally go
home then and weep. Hark however! almost on the instant, in
front of the Old South Meeting House, a terrific war-whoop,
and about fifty Mohawk Indians, with whom Adams seems to be
acquainted, and speaks without interpreter: Aha!

"And sure enough, before the stroke of seven these fifty
painted Mohawks are forward without noise to Griffin's
wharf, have put sentries all round them, and in a great
silence of the neighborhood, are busy in three gangs upon
the dormant tea ships, opening their chests and punctually
shaking them out into the sea. Listening from the distance
you could hear distinctly the ripping open of the chests and
no other sound. About ten P.M. all was finished, ... the
Mohawks gone like a dream, and Boston sleeping more silently
even than usual."

In England, the news of the destruction of the tea at Boston was received with astonishment, not unmixed with anger. Men of all parties were swept into the hostile current. Coercive measures were at once brought forward in parliament. In the debates that ensued, a member said, "The town of Boston ought to be knocked about their ears and destroyed." Moderate and judicious men made a gallant stand against the bill shutting up the port of Boston, but the current was irresistible, and the measure, with others of like character, passed by overwhelming votes. Burke, on the question of the repeal of the tea tax, made one of his noblest efforts. Colonel Barré told the House that if they would keep their hands out of the pockets of the Americans they would be obedient subjects. Johnstone, formerly governor of Florida, who had before predicted to the East India Company, that exporting tea on their own account was absurd and would end in loss, now predicted that the Port Bill would, if passed, be productive of a general confederacy to resist the power of Britain, and end in a general revolt. His utterances were prophetic indeed. These measures did unite the colonies, and produced a general revolt ending in American independence.

Accounts vary greatly as to the number and appearance of the tea party. The original body which arrived so opportunely at the door of the "Old South," and which may have included Molineux, Revere, and the more prominent leaders, was probably not numerous. They, however, had passed the word, and trusty coadjutors were not long in following them. Colonel Tudor and Colonel Stevens say they were not disguised, but all other accounts state that they were in the Indian dress, or something resembling it.

The historian, Gordon, places their number at seventeen, "though judged to be many more as they ran across Fort Hill." "Our number was between twenty-eight and thirty," says Wyeth, one of the party. Hutchinson says about fifty, and many have since adopted his statement. Tudor, in his "Life of Otis," says seventy or eighty. Colonel Ebenezer Stevens agrees with him. "None put the number lower than sixty, nor higher than eighty," is the recollection of "a Bostonian," fifty years after the event. John Andrews was told that they mustered on Fort Hill to the number of about two hundred. "From one hundred to one hundred and fifty being more or less actively engaged" thought Hewes, one of the actors. "Two or three hundred dressed like Indians," wrote Dr. Cooper to Dr. Franklin.

These varying estimates may be accounted for in this way. Those who report the smaller number either repeated what they were told, or saw only one of the parties on its way to the ships, while the others speak of the entire body after its separate parts had united at the wharf. Some may mean only such of the party as were in Indian dress. If we place the number on board the ships at fifty or sixty, and estimate those at work by the sides of the vessels at sixty or seventy, we shall probably not be far out of the way, the whole number then aggregating from one hundred and ten to one hundred and thirty. The names of more than one hundred of these have been preserved.

Who were these men? "Depend upon it," said John Adams to Hezekiah Niles in 1819, "These were no ordinary Mohawks. The profound secrecy in which they have held their names, and the total abstinence of plunder, are proofs of the character of the men." But two of the recognized leaders of the people were there,--Dr. Young and Thomas Molineux. Most of them were mechanics and apprentices, but they were mechanics of the stamp of Revere, Howard, Wheeler, Crane and Peck, men who could restrain and keep in due subordination the more fiery and dangerous element, always present in popular demonstrations. That element was not wholly absent on this occasion, for Mackintosh, the leader in the Stamp Act riots, was present with "his chickens," as he called them, and active in destroying the tea. There were also professional men, like Dr. Young and Dr. Story, and merchants, such as Molineux, Proctor, Melvill, Palmer, May, Pitts and Davis, men of high character and standing, so that all classes were fairly represented. As might be expected, those appointed for the work, and who were in Indian dress, were largely men of family and position in Boston.

A writer in the American Magazine of History attempts to discredit the statement that the party were in Indian dress, intimating that it was an afterthought, intended to deceive the authorities, and lead them to the belief that the disguise was too complete to allow of identification for arrest or punishment. Cavils like this are superfluous in view of the abundant testimony to the contrary. The sworn protest of Captain Bruce, of the "Eleanor," one of the tea-ships, given on a subsequent page in this volume, is of itself sufficient evidence upon this point. The number of those who, prepared as they were, on the spur of the moment, really bore any very great resemblance to Indians, was no doubt small. A large number of the actors hastily assumed such disguises as were nearest at hand.

No doubt the principals in this transaction pledged one another to keep their connection with it a profound secret, and they did so, but the young apprentices and volunteers, who, without premeditation, joined the party on its way to the wharf, were under no such restraint, and we can only wonder that they made no revelation concerning an event of such importance. It was not until a very late period of their lives that any of them opened their lips publicly about it, and when more than half a century had elapsed since it occurred.

The names of fifty-eight of these men, given below, are taken from Thatcher's "Traits of the Tea Party," published in 1835, while nine or ten of them were yet living, the source whence all later lists have been derived. Possibly this list is identical with that mentioned as having once been in the possession of Peter, the son of Benjamin Edes, the printer. Of this list it is safe to say that, while far from being complete, it is correct as far as it goes. The names that follow the list of 1835, have been gleaned from a great variety of sources, principally family tradition.

"List of the tea party, furnished in 1835, by an aged Bostonian, well acquainted with the subject, of the persons generally supposed, within his knowledge, to have been more or less actively engaged." Those starred were then living:

*George R.T. Hewes.
Joseph Shed.
John Crane.
Josiah Wheeler.
Thomas Urann.
Adam Collson.
S. Coolidge.
Joseph Payson.
James Brewer.
Thomas Bolter.
Edward Proctor.
Samuel Sloper.
Thomas Gerrish.
Nathaniel Green.
*Benj. Simpson.
Joseph Eayres.
Joseph Lee.
William Molineux.
Paul Revere.
John Spurr.
Thomas Moore.
Samuel Howard.
Matthew Loring.
Thomas Spear.
Daniel Ingoldson.
Richard Hunnewell.
John Hooton.
*Jonathan Hunnewell.
Thomas Chase.
Thomas Melvill.
*Henry Purkitt.
Edward C. Howe.
Ebenezer Stevens.
Nicholas Campbell.
John Russell.
Thomas Porter.
William Hendley.
Benjamin Rice.
Samuel Gore.
Nathaniel Frothingham.
Moses Grant.
*Peter Slater.
James Starr.
Abraham Tower.
*William Pierce.
William Russell.
T. Gammell.
---- McIntosh.
Dr. Thomas Young.
Joshua Wyeth.
Edward Dolbear.
---- Martin.
Samuel Peck.
Lendall Pitts.
*Samuel Sprague.
Benjamin Clarke.
Richard Hunnewell, Jr.
*John Prince.

Additional names of the tea party, derived principally from family tradition:

Nathaniel Barber.
Samuel Barnard.
Henry Bass.
Edward Bates.
Nathaniel Bradlee.
David Bradlee.
Josiah Bradlee.
Thomas Bradlee.
Seth Ingersoll Brown.
Stephen Bruce.
Benjamin Burton.
George Carleton.
Gilbert Colesworthy.
John Cochran.
Gershom Collier.
James Foster Condy.
Samuel Cooper.
Thomas Dana, Jr.
Robert Davis.
Joseph Eaton.
---- Eckley.
William Etheridge.
Samuel Fenno.
Samuel Foster.
John Fulton.
Samuel Hammond.
John Hicks.
Samuel Hobbs.
Thomas Hunstable.
Abraham Hunt.
David Kinnison.
Amos Lincoln.
Thomas Machin.
Archibald Macneil.
John May.
---- Mead.
Anthony Morse.
Eliphalet Newell.
Joseph Pearse Palmer.
Jonathan Parker.
John Peters.
Samuel Pitts.
Henry Prentiss.
John Randall.
Joseph Roby.
Phineas Stearns.
Robert Sessions.
Elisha Story.
James Swan.
John Truman.
Isaac Williams.
David Williams.
Jeremiah Williams.
Thomas Williams.
Nathaniel Willis.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES

OF THE

Boston Tea Party.

MAJOR NATHANIEL BARBER,

A prominent merchant and patriot of Boston, was one of the famous "Whig Club" of ante-revolutionary days, in which were James Otis, Dr. Church, Dr. Warren and other leaders of the popular party. In it Civil Rights and the British Constitution were standing topics for discussion. He was one of the committee of correspondence, from its creation in 1772, and afterwards of the committee of safety, and was naval officer of the port of Boston in 1784. He joined St. Andrew's Lodge of Freemasons in 1780, and died at his house, in Bear Lane, (Richmond Street,) October 13, 1787; aged 59. Before the Revolution he kept an insurance office in Fish (now North) Street.

SAMUEL BARNARD,

A major in the Revolutionary army, was born in Watertown, Mass., June 19, 1737; died August 8, 1782.

HENRY BASS,

A prominent "Son of Liberty," a merchant on Orange Street, residing in Rawson's Lane, (Bromfield Street,) died June 5, 1813; aged 74. He was the first volunteer on the roll of the guard of the tea-ship, November 29, 1773. Drake ("Old Landmarks of Boston,") says Samuel Adams and Major Melvill often passed a convivial evening, and ate a Sunday dinner, at his house.

CAPTAIN THOMAS BOLTER,

A housewright, residing on Nassau (now Tremont) Street, died in August, 1811; aged 76. Mary, his widow, died May 30, 1813; aged 76.

"Owe no man anything. Be true to thyself, to thy country, and to thy God."

--C.D. BRADLEE, Blackstone Square, Boston.]

DAVID, THOMAS, NATHANIEL, AND JOSIAH BRADLEE,

Were brothers, who lived in the house yet standing, on the southerly corner of Hollis and Tremont Streets. Their sister, Sarah, assisted her husband, John Fulton, and her brothers, to disguise themselves, having made preparations for the emergency a day or two beforehand, and afterwards followed them to the wharf, and saw the tea thrown into the dock. Soon returning, she had hot water in readiness for them when they arrived, and assisted in removing the paint from their faces. As the story goes, before they could change their clothes, a British officer looked in to see if the young men were at home, having a suspicion that they were in the tea business. He found them in bed, and to all appearance asleep, they having slipped into bed without removing their "toggery," and feigning sleep. The officer departed satisfied. Mrs. Fulton helped to dress the wounds of the soldiers who were in the battle of Bunker Hill. She died in Medford, Mass., in 1836, and is the authority for the above statement. Of the brothers,--

David, was born November 24, 1742; died March 10, 1811.

Thomas, born December 4, 1744; died Oct. --, 1805.

Nathaniel, born February 16, 1746; died May 8, 1813.

Josiah, born March 24, 1754; died October 2, 1798.

The old house, built by Nathaniel, in 1771, is now the residence of his grandson, Nathaniel Bradlee Doggett, to whose son, Samuel Bradlee Doggett, I am indebted for the above facts.

JAMES BREWER,

Pump and blockmaker, in Summer Street, died in April, 1805. He took an active part in the early movements of the Revolution; was one of the volunteer guard on the "Dartmouth," November 30, 1773, and prominent in the destruction of her cargo, and was also one of the young men who removed at noon-day, and while it was under guard, the cannon from the gun-house on West Street, which afterwards found its way to Washington's camp. Some of the tea party met at his house, and were assisted in preparing themselves by his wife and daughter, who blackened their faces with burnt cork. He was a confidential messenger between Governor Hancock and Washington, and was afterwards a prisoner of war, having been taken in a privateer, in 1781. He was an early member of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association, and was also a member of the Massachusetts Lodge of Freemasons in 1792. His son, Thomas, a member of the City Council of Boston in 1825-26, died June 4, 1859; aged 78.

SETH INGERSOLL BROWN

Was born in Cambridge, Mass., March 13, 1750. He was the son of William Brown, born in 1683. Mr. Brown's trade was that of a house carpenter. In the lower part of his shop, in Charlestown, was stored the ammunition afterwards used in the battle of Bunker Hill. He was in full sympathy with the cause of liberty; was one of the "Mohawks" on the memorable 16th of December, and on that occasion was masked and painted, and bore a club. He used to relate to his daughters, that on returning home from the scene of destruction, he had to fight his way through the excited crowd, with his back to the houses, to avoid discovery. They kept his connection with the affair a profound secret many years, and when it was spoken of in their old age, excused their silence regarding it on the ground that they thought it was a disgrace, like a riot or a mob, and ought not to be told. At Bunker Hill he was wounded in the leg, and also received an injury to his eye. He said he should never forget the cry that went up during the battle, of "No ammunition! no ammunition!" Mr. Brown served as an assistant commissary during the siege of Boston, and continued with the army until the war closed. He was paid off in worthless Continental money--there was no other--and it is related that his spunky little wife, indignant at the poor reward of such sacrifices as her husband had made, on receiving it from him, threw it all into the fire. She is described as short, stout and handsome, with long, straight, black hair, that fell almost to her feet.

After the war, Mr. Brown, with impaired health and eyesight, kept a tavern successively in Charlestown, Cambridge, Newton Corner, the Punch Bowl in Roxbury, and finally the Sun tavern, in Wing's Lane, (Elm Street,) Boston. He died in Charlestown, Mass., March 9, 1809, leaving several children by his second wife, Sarah Godding, of Cambridge. Three of his daughters, Cynthia, Harriet and Angeline--lived to be over eighty,--retained their memories and their mental faculties to the last, and preserved many interesting reminiscences of their father's revolutionary career. Mr. Brown was a good singer, and they recall this verse of a song, having reference to the battle of Bunker Hill:

"We marchèd down to Charlestown ferry,
And there we had our battle;
The shot it flew like pepper and salt,
And made the old town rattle."

The name of Seth Ingersoll Brown is recorded on the monument, in Hope Cemetery, Worcester, Mass., erected in 1870, to the memory of Captain Peter Slater, and his associates of the Boston tea party. He is buried in the Granary burying-ground.

Of Mr. Brown's descendants, known in public life, may be mentioned Rev. John W. Hanson, D.D., of Chicago, Ill.; Rev. Warren H. Cudworth, D.D., formerly of East Boston; Harriet H. Robinson, who married William S. Robinson, ("Warrington,") journalist, and clerk of the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1862 to 1873, and their elder daughter, Harriet R. Shattuck.

"Though none of his descendants will continue to bear his name,--the male branch being extinct in the third generation," writes his grand-daughter, Mrs. H.H. Robinson, "some of them have inherited his spirit of resistance to laws that compel them--his only surviving representatives,--"to submit to taxation without representation." To this lady we are indebted for the materials from which this notice is derived.

Some lines, written in 1773, by Susannah Clarke, "Warrington's" great grandmother's sister, serve to manifest the spirit that pervaded the country when non-tea drinking was held to be a religious duty by American women:

"We'll lay hold of card and wheel,
And join our hands to turn and reel;
We'll turn the tea all in the sea,
And all to keep our liberty.

We'll put on home-spun garbs,
And make tea of our garden herbs;
When we are dry we'll drink small beer,
And FREEDOM shall our spirits cheer."

STEPHEN BRUCE

Was a merchant, doing business at 28 State Street, and was one of the volunteer guard on the "Dartmouth." He was the first inspector of beef and pork, appointed by the State of Massachusetts, and was a man of sound judgment and inflexible integrity. He became a member of the Masonic Lodge of St. Andrew in 1779, and master in 1782. He died July 26, 1801.

COLONEL BENJAMIN BURTON

Was born in the old Burton House, Thomaston, Maine, December 9, 1749, and died in Warren, Maine, May 23, 1835. Happening to be in Boston on a visit on the memorable 16th of December, 1773, he went with the crowd to the Old South Meeting House, and at the close of the meeting, heard the cry "Tea party! tea party!" Joining the party that boarded the tea-ships, he labored with all his might in throwing the tea into the water. It being about low tide, the tea rested on the bottom, and when the tide rose it floated, and was lodged by the surf along the shore. He was subsequently an officer in the Revolutionary army; was present at the surrender of Burgoyne, and himself fell into the hands of the enemy, in February, 1781, sharing in the imprisonment of General Peleg Wadsworth, at Castine, and in the daring escape of that officer. After the war, he was eight years a magistrate, and was often a member of the legislature.

NICHOLAS CAMPBELL

A native of the Island of Malta, died in Warren, R.I., July 23, 1829; aged ninety-seven. He came to this country just previous to the Revolution, during a great part of which he was employed in the marine service, and by many deeds of noble daring, aided the cause of liberty, and evinced his attachment to his adopted country. He had been a resident of Warren fifty-four years.

THOMAS CHASE,

One of the most active of the "Sons of Liberty," was a distiller, near the famous Liberty Tree, at the junction of Orange, Essex and Newbury Streets. In the office of Chase & Speakman the meetings of the committee of the "Sons" were held, of one of which John Adams has left an account. Chase was one of those who prepared and suspended the effigies of Bute and Oliver from Liberty Tree, on August 14, 1765. He was one of the volunteer guard on the "Dartmouth," on the night of November 29, 1773; was a member of the "Anti-Stamp Fire Society," formed soon after the passage of the Stamp Act, in 1765, and joined St. Andrew's Lodge of Freemasons in 1769.

BENJAMIN CLARKE

Was a cooper, in Ship Street, and in 1807 resided in Prince Street. He became a member of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association in 1801; of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company in 1806, and died in 1840.

JOHN COCHRAN,

Born in East Boston, in 1750; died in Belfast, Maine, October 30, 1839. The monument there erected to his memory bears the following inscription: "He was one of the memorable tea party at Boston, December 16, 1773." His only surviving son, of the same name, now (1884) resides at Belfast, at the age of eighty-three.

GILBERT COLESWORTHY,

Born in Boston, December 23, 1744, removed to Nantucket, Mass., and died there in 1818.

GERSHOM COLLIER,

Of Chesterfield, Mass., died about the year 1825.

ADAM COLLSON

Was a leather dresser, near the "Great Trees," on Essex Street, as we learn by his advertisement soon after the passage of the Stamp Act, in which he says: "Understanding that many worthy tradesmen had agreed to wear nothing but leather for their working habits, 'he offers' to dress all sorts of skins suitable for that purpose." Collson was one of the volunteer guard on the "Dartmouth" on the night of November 30, 1773, and was said to be the person who, at the close of the meeting of December 16th, at the Old South, shouted from the gallery, "Boston harbor a tea-pot to-night!" He became a member of St. Andrew's Lodge of Freemasons in 1763, and at the time of his death, February 16, 1798, aged sixty, resided at 59 Marlboro' (Washington) Street. He was a member of the "Long Room" Club.

JAMES FOSTER CONDY,

A bookseller in Boston before the Revolution, doing business in Union Street, "opposite the cornfields," died in Haverhill, Mass., July 12, 1809.

SAMUEL COOPER

Was born in Boston, in 1755, and was living in Georgetown, D.C., in 1838. He was commissioned second lieutenant in Crane's artillery regiment, February 1, 1777; quartermaster 14th May, 1778; lieutenant and adjutant in 1783. He was inspector of pot and pearl ashes in New York city and county, from 1808 to 1830. Adjutant-General Samuel Cooper, of the United States army, afterwards a general in the Confederate army, who died in 1877, was his son.

JOHN CRANE,