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.
[Illustration: Signature, Henry Bass]
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.
[Illustration: Signature, Nathaniel Bradlee
"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.
[Illustration: Signature, David Bradlee]
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.
[Illustration: Signature, Thomas Chase]
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.
[Illustration: Signature, Benjamin Clarke]
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,
Colonel of the Massachusetts regiment of artillery in the Continental
line of the Revolutionary army, was born in Milton, Mass., 7th December,
1744, and died in Whiting, Maine, 21st August, 1805. His education was
scanty. In 1759, when only fifteen years of age, his father, Abijah was
drafted as a soldier in the French war. John offered to go in his
father's stead, and was laughed at on account of his youth.
Nevertheless, the boy went and proved himself a brave lad, saving the
life of a lame fellow-soldier, who had fallen when pursued by a party of
Indians, at St. John's. He came to Boston in early life, married, and
established himself in business as a house carpenter,--his house and
shop being in Tremont Street, opposite Hollis. He assisted Major Paddock
in setting out the elm trees on the Tremont Street mall, about the year
1765. These trees were old acquaintances of Crane's, having, like him,
been transplanted from Milton. Naturally enough, in one of his ardent
temperament, he at once identified himself with the active Sons of
Liberty. One of the famous tea party, his career came near being
permanently ended by the fall of a derrick, used in hoisting out the
tea, which, falling upon him, knocked him senseless. His comrades,
supposing him killed, bore him to a neighboring carpenter's shop, and
secreted the body under a pile of shavings. They afterwards took him to
his home, where good nursing and a strong constitution, soon brought him
round. The late Colonel Joseph Lovering, who lived opposite to Crane,
used to relate that he held the light on that memorable evening, while
Crane, and other young men, his neighbors, disguised themselves for the
occasion. House building and other branches of industry having been
paralyzed by the "Boston Port Bill," Crane, with his partner, Ebenezer
Stevens, (also one of the tea party,) went to Providence, R.I., where
they followed their business with success, until the war broke out. Both
had been members of Paddock's artillery company, a corps famous for
having furnished a large number of valuable officers to that arm of the
service in the Revolutionary army, among whom may be named John Crane,
Ebenezer Stevens, William Perkins, Henry Burbeck, John Lillie, and David
Bryant. Crane had been commissioned by Governor Wanton,
captain-lieutenant of the train of artillery of the colony of Rhode
Island, December 12, 1774, (barely one year after the destruction of the
tea,) and immediately after receiving the news of the battle of
Lexington, he was made captain of the train attached to the Rhode Island
"Army of Observation," commanded by General Nathaniel Greene. Crane's
command, "all well accoutred, with four excellent field-pieces marched,
in the latter part of May, to join the American army near Boston. They
made a very military appearance, and are, without exception, as complete
a body of men as any in the king's dominions." Stevens was a lieutenant
in this company. Possessing a remarkably keen vision, Crane was
exceedingly skilful as an artillerist, a talent he had frequent
opportunities to display during the siege of Boston. Early in the
morning of July 8, 1775, Majors Tupper and Crane, with a number of
volunteers, attacked the British advance guard at Brown's House, on
Boston Neck, (near the corner of Newton Street and Blackstone Square,)
routed them, and burned two houses. This was regarded as a brave and
well-executed affair, and is noteworthy as being the only hostile
encounter that has ever taken place in the old limits of Boston. During
the siege he was stationed at the Roxbury line, and was engaged in
several skirmishes on the islands in the harbor. Commissioned major of
Knox's regiment, January 1, 1776, he accompanied the army to New York,
and while cannonading a British frigate which was passing his batteries
at Corlaers Hook, was severely wounded by a cannon ball, which carried
off a part of his foot, disabling him for several months, and finally
causing his death--the wound having closed. He raised in Massachusetts,
in 1777, the 3d regiment of Continental artillery, which he commanded
till the war ended, when he was brevetted a brigadier-general, (October
10, 1783,) his commission as colonel dating from January 1, 1777. This
corps, officered chiefly from those who had been trained under Paddock,
Gridley and Knox, was not exceeded in discipline, valor, and usefulness
by any in the service. It was principally employed with the main army,
and was an essential auxiliary in the most important operations.
Portions of it were also with Sullivan in the Rhode Island campaign,
with Gates at Saratoga, and in the heroic defence of Red Bank, on the
Delaware. After the peace, Crane formed a partnership with Colonel
Lemuel Trescott, in the lumber business, in Passamaquoddy, Maine, in
which they were unsuccessful. The connection was soon dissolved, and
Crane finally settled in Whiting, Washington County, Maine, where he had
a grant of two hundred acres of land, for his Revolutionary services,
from the legislature of Massachusetts. Colonel Crane was five feet eight
inches in height, stout and thick set. He possessed great energy,
resolution and courage, and at critical moments was perfectly cool. In
1790, he was commissioned judge of the Court of Common Pleas, by
Governor Hancock. While at the lines on Boston Neck, Crane aimed a ball
at a house near his own, belonging to Rev. Dr. Byles, the Tory, but
succeeded only in knocking the ridge pole from his own dwelling. He
became a Freemason in 1781, joining an army lodge at West Point, and was
also a member of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati. Colonel
Crane, in 1767, married Mehitabel Wheeler, believed to have been a
sister of Captain Josiah Wheeler, a member of the tea party. His three
daughters married three sons of Colonel John Allan, who, with his Indian
allies, rendered valuable service to the patriot cause in protecting
throughout the Revolutionary war, the exposed north-eastern frontier.
William Allan, who married Alice Crane, was the grandfather of George H.
Allan, of Boston, from whom many of the above facts have been derived,
and who has made extensive collections relative to the Allan and Crane
families.
[Illustration: Signature, John Crane]
MAJOR ROBERT DAVIS,
Merchant, importer of groceries, wines and liquors, did business at No.
1 Cornhill, and resided in Orange Street. He was the son of Joshua and
Sarah (Pierpont) Davis, and was born 24th January, 1747. He was a Son of
Liberty, and as an officer in Crafts's artillery regiment, took part in
the expulsion of the British fleet from Boston harbor, ultimately
attaining the rank of major. Member of the Ancient and Honorable
Artillery Company in 1786. His brothers, Caleb and Amasa, were also
prominent Revolutionary characters,--the latter having been forty years
quartermaster-general of Massachusetts. Robert Davis became a member of
St. Andrew's Lodge of Freemasons in 1777, and died in November, 1798.
His daughter, Clarissa, widow of William Ely, was living in Hartford in
1873, at the age of eighty-two.
EDWARD DOLBEAR
Was a fellow-apprentice, and afterwards a partner with Henry Purkitt, in
the business of a cooper, in South Street. His residence was near Dr.
Eliot's Meeting House, where he died, in April, 1796.
CAPTAIN JOSEPH EATON
Was an eccentric and excitable, but patriotic citizen, a hatter by
trade. He claimed to have hauled down the first British colors at the
outset of the Revolution, and to have loaded a cannon in State Street
to prevent the regulars from landing, in 1774. He was a member of the
Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company; was an ardent democrat, and
late in life wore a cocked hat, and styled himself "general."
JOSEPH EAYRES
Was one of the volunteer guard on the "Dartmouth" on the night of
November 30, 1773. He was a housewright in Essex Street, in 1789.
---- ECKLEY,
A barber, was informed against for his participation in the destruction
of the tea, and committed to prison. The Sons of Liberty supported him
while in confinement, and also provided for his family. He was finally
liberated, and the person who informed against him was tarred and
feathered, and paraded through the town with labels on his breast and
back bearing his name, and the word "informer" in large letters.
WILLIAM ETHERIDGE,
Who was a mason, while engaged in throwing the tea overboard, was
recognized by his apprentice, Samuel Sprague.
SAMUEL FENNO,
A housewright, was born in Boston, in 1745, and died in 1806. He lived
in a large wooden house on Tremont Street, near Hollis Street, and was
a near neighbor of Crane, Lovering and the Bradlees. He was a man of
unusual reticence, but noted for courage and patriotism. From 1773 till
his death, he kept a vow never to drink tea. In 1797 he married Mary,
the sister of Joseph Hiller, the first collector of the port of Salem,
and was the father of Captain John Fenno, a pioneer in the China trade.
CAPTAIN SAMUEL FOSTER,
Of Roxbury, was a sergeant in Captain Moses Whiting's minute company, at
Lexington, and as a captain in Greaton's regiment, served at
Ticonderoga, and in other campaigns of the Revolutionary war.
NATHANIEL FROTHINGHAM,
A coachmaker, at No. 5 West Street, died January 22, 1825; aged
seventy-nine.
[Illustration: Signature, Nathaniel Frothingham]
JOHN GAMMELL
Was of Scotch descent, his father bearing the same name, having come to
Boston about the year 1740. The son was born in Boston, in 1749, and
died there in 1827. His trade was that of a carpenter, in which capacity
he served seven years in the construction department of the
Revolutionary army. He was a participant in the Stamp Act riots, and in
the destruction of the tea, and in his later years used to describe the
latter affair, with great minuteness, in the presence of his family, and
on the anniversary of the day would act over again the part he then
performed. He married Margaret Urann, by whom he had fifteen children.
As the initials J and T were in old times interchangeable, there is no
doubt but this is the person mentioned in the list of 1835.
Communicated by Prof. Wm. Gammell, of Brown University, and
Rev. Sereno Dwight Gammell, of Wellington, O., grandsons of
John Gammell.
SAMUEL GORE,
Born in Boston, February 6, 1751; died November 16, 1831. Captain John
Gore, his father, a lieutenant in the Ancient and Honorable Artillery
Company, in 1753, had, by industry, acquired considerable wealth. Being
a Tory, he left Boston with the British army in 1776, but afterwards
returned. Samuel followed his father's trade, that of a painter, in
Court Street, at the corner of Gore's Alley, (Brattle Street,) but,
unlike him, was an ardent patriot. He was one of the party of young men
who, at noon-day, and under the eyes of the British guard, carried off
and secreted the cannon from the gun-house that stood opposite the mall
at the corner of West Street. His companions in this daring feat were
Nathaniel Balch, James Brewer, Moses Grant, Jeremiah Gridley and
----Whiston. Mr. Gore was one of those who established the glass-works
in Essex Street, a speculation by which he unfortunately lost all the
accumulations of many years of untiring industry. He was a member of the
Masonic Lodge of St. Andrew, in 1778, and was the first treasurer of the
Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association. Governor Christopher Gore
was a younger brother. He was a man of superior intelligence, kindness
of heart, and courtesy of manner.
[Illustration: Signature, Samuel Gore]
MOSES GRANT,