Tea Leaves: Being a Collection of Letters and Documents relating to; the shipment of Tea to the American Colonies in the year; 1773, by the East India Tea Company. (With an introduction,; notes, and biographical notices of the Boston Tea Party)Drake, Francis S. (Francis Samuel)
History
Tea Leaves: Being a Collection of Letters and Documents relating to; the shipment of Tea to the American Colonies in the year; 1773, by the East India Tea Company. (With an introduction,; notes, and biographical notices of the Boston Tea Party)
Drake, Francis S. (Francis Samuel)
Boston Tea Party, 1773; Tea tax (American colonies)
Among the members of the "Long Room Club," as those who usually met here
were styled, were Samuel Adams, Hancock, Warren, Otis, Church, Samuel
Dexter, Dr. Samuel Cooper, and his brother, William Cooper, Thomas
Dawes, Samuel Phillips Savage, Royal Tyler, Paul Revere, Thomas Fleet,
John Winthrop, William Molineux, and Thomas Melvill.
A similar claim is also made for the "Green Dragon" tavern, then known
as the "Freemasons' Arms," which stood near the northerly corner of
Union and Hanover Streets, where the Masonic Lodge of St. Andrew held
its meetings. The honor belongs equally to both. In both, the
consultations of the popular leaders were undoubtedly held and their
plans laid. Prominent members of this Lodge, who were also active "Sons
of Liberty," and members of the tea party were, Paul Revere, Edward
Proctor, Thomas Chase, Adam Collson, Samuel Peck and Thomas Urann. Its
later members, also identified with the tea party, were Samuel Gore,
Daniel Ingersoll, Henry Purkitt, Amos Lincoln, James Swan, Robert Davis,
Abraham Hunt, Eliphalet Newell and Nathaniel Willis. Other prominent
Free Masons active in the tea affair were Dr. Warren and John Rowe. The
tradition of the Lodge is, that the preliminaries of the affair were
arranged here, and that the execution of them was committed mainly to
the North End Caucus, with the co-operation of the more daring of the
"Sons of Liberty." The committee of safety also met here. The record
book of the lodge, under date of November 30, 1773, says:
"Lodge met and adjourned. N.B.--The consignees of the tea
took the brethren's time."
And on the eventful 16th of December:
"The Lodge met and closed on account of the few members in
attendance. Adjourned until to-morrow evening."
Three different parties, one or two of whom were disguised, had been
prepared beforehand for this event, by the leaders. Certain it is that
there were several squads in different parts of the town, who disguised
themselves at their own or their neighbors' houses, and who then
rendezvoused at points previously designated, before going to the wharf.
Quite an Indian village was improvised at the junction of Hollis and
Tremont Streets. John Crane, Joseph Lovering, and the Bradlees occupied
opposite corners of this locality, the house and carpenter shop of Crane
adjoining the residence of the famous Dr. Mather Byles. Captain Thomas
Bolter and Samuel Fenno, also of the tea party, were near neighbors of
Crane, and like him, were carpenters. Joseph Lovering, Jr., related
that he held the light for Crane and some of his neighbors, to disguise
themselves, in Crane's shop. The four brothers Bradlee, and a
brother-in-law, were prepared for the occasion at their house opposite.
* * * * *
Perhaps the best contemporaneous account of the affair is the following,
from the "Massachusetts Gazette," of December 23:
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