78 Boston Tea-Party (1773)

November 29th. Hall and Bruce arrived Saturday evening with each a hundred and odd chests of the detested tea. What will be done with it, can’t say. But I tremble for the consequences should the consignees still persist in their obstinacy and not consent to reship it. They have softened down so far as to offer it to the care of Council or the town till such times as they hear from their friends in England, but [I] am persuaded from the present dispositions of the people that no other alternative will do than to have it immediately sent back to London again. The bells are ringing for a general muster and a third vessel is now arrived in Nantasket road. Handbills are stuck up calling upon Friends! Citizens! and Countrymen!

December 1st. Having just returned from Fire Club and am now in company with the two Miss Masons and Mr. Williams of your place, at Sam. Eliot’s who has been dining with him at Col. Hancock’s and acquaints me that Mr. Palfrey sets off Express for New York and Philadelphia at five o’clock tomorrow morning to communicate the transactions of this town respecting the tea. I acquainted you that Bruce and Hall had arrived which was a mistake, as only Hall has arrived. Which has caused the most spirited and firm conduct to be observed that ever was known, the regularity and particulars of which proceedings Mr. Palfrey will be able to tell you. The consignees have all taken their residence at the Castle, as they still persist in their refusal to take the tea back. It’s not only the town but the country are unanimous against the landing it, and at the Monday and Tuesday Meetings they attended to the number of some hundreds from all the neighboring towns within a dozen miles. ‘Twould puzzle any person to purchase a pair of pistoIs in town, as they are all bought up, with a full determination to repel force by force.

December 18th. However precarious our situation may be, yet such is the present calm composure of the people that a stranger would hardly think that ten thousand pounds sterling of the East India Company’s tea was destroyed the night, or rather evening before last; yet it’s a serious truth. And if yours together with the other Southern provinces should rest satisfied with their quota being stored, poor Boston will feel the whole weight of ministerial vengeance. However it’s the opinion of most people that we stand an equal chance now, whether troops are sent in consequence of it or not. Whereas had it been stored, we should inevitably have had them to enforce the sale of it. The affair was transacted with the greatest regularity and dispatch. Mr. Rotch finding he exposed himself not only to the loss of his ship but for the value of the tea in case he sent her back with it without a clearance from the custom house, as the Admiral kept a ship in readiness to make a seizure of it whenever it should sail under those circumstances; therefore declined complying with his former promises and absolutely declared his vessel should not carry it without a proper clearance could be procured or he to be indemnified for the value of her. When a general muster was assembled from this and all the neighboring towns to the number of five or six thousand at 10 o’clock Thursday morning in the Old South Meeting house, where they passed a unanimous vote that the tea should go out of the harbor that afternoon and sent a committee with Mr. Rotch to the Custom house to demand a clearance. Which the collector told them was not in his power to give without the duties being first paid. They then sent Mr. Rotch to Milton to ask a pass from the Governor, who sent for answer that “consistent with the rules of government and his duty to the King he could not grant one without [unless] they produced a previous clearance from the office.”

By the time he returned with this message the candles were alight in the house and upon reading it, such prodigious shouts were made that induced me while drinking tea at home to go out and know the cause of it. The house was so crowded I could get no farther than the porch, when I found the moderator was just declaring the meeting to be dissolved which caused another general shout outdoors and in, and three cheers. What with that and the consequent noise of breaking up the meeting, you’d thought that the inhabitants of the infernal regions had broken loose. For my part, I went contentedly home and finished my tea but was soon informed what was going forward. But still not crediting it without ocular demonstration, I went and was satisfied. They mustered, I’m told, upon Fort Hill to the number of about two hundred and proceeded two by two to Griffin’s wharf where Hall, Bruce, and Coffin lay, each with 114 chests of the ill-fated article on board. The two former with only that article but the latter arrived at the wharf only the day before, was freighted with a large quantity of other goods which they took the greatest care not to injure in the least. And before nine o’clock in the evening every chest from on board the three vessels was knocked to pieces and flung over the sides. They say the actors were Indians from Narragansett. Whether they were or not, to a transient observer they appeared as such, being clothed in Blankets with the heads muffled and copper-colored countenances; being each armed with a hatchet or axe and pair pistols. Nor was their dialect different from what I conceive these geniuses to speak, as their jargon was unintelligible to all but themselves. Not the least insult was offered to any person save one Captain Conner, a letter of horses in this place not many years since removed from dear Ireland, who had ripped up the lining of his coat and waistcoat under the arms and watching [for] his opportunity had nearly filled them with tea. But being detected, was handled pretty roughly. They not only stripped him of his clothes, but gave him a coat of mud with a severe bruising into the bargain. And nothing but their utter aversion to make any disturbance prevented his being tarred and feathered.

Should not have troubled you with this by this Post, hadn’t I thought you would be glad of a more particular account of so important a transaction than you could have obtained by common report. And if it affords my brother but a temporary amusement, I shall be more than repaid for the trouble of writing it.

Source: Letters of John Andrews, Esq., of Boston. 1772-1776 edited by Winthrop Sargent, in Massachusetts Historical Society, Proceedings (Boston, 1866), 324-326. https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.45494/page/n455/mode/2up