One random number, or date, connects two of my ancestors. They were related by marriage, but I doubt they actually knew each other, or even realised their familial connection. One was a captain of a brig named The Beaver, and the other was to become a naval captain later in life, but on the date in question was a merchant of Boston. Their lives connected on 12:16:1773, at Boston, when one ancestor boarded one of three ships docked in Boston, one being the aforementioned 'The Beaver', captained by the other ancestor, and took chests of valuable highly taxed tea out of the hold and dumped it over the side of the ship.
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| A map of Boston, dated 1775, from the Pennsylvania Magazine |
Backing up just for a moment, let me explain how they were related to each other, and to me. Joseph Coffin and Bethiah Macy of Nantucket, MA were my 7x great grandparents. They had seven children, their eldest daughter Eunice Coffin (born 1707) was my 6x great grandmother. Their third child, and second eldest son was Zacheus Coffin (born 1710). Zaccheus Coffin remained in Nantucket, and married Mary Pinkham. Together they had six children, their fourth being Hezekiah Coffin. Hezekiah Coffin was the captain of The Beaver at Boston, on the 16th December 1773, and he was my 1st cousin, 7x removed.
Eunice Coffin (Hezekiah's aunt) left Nantucket for mainland MA in the early 1730s, married to Andrew Newell. Eunice and Andrew were my 6x great grandparents. Their son, also named Andrew Newell (born 1729) married twice. His first wife, Sarah Ayres, died young and apparently without issue. His second wife was Elizabeth Lee, of Boston. Elizabeth's father was Thomas Lee, a merchant of Boston. He was married twice, and Elizabeth was the second of two daughters from his first marriage, with Elizabeth Charnock. Elizabeth Charnock died sometime before 1737. He remarried, and his second wife, Lois Orne, bore him three more children, the middle child being Joseph Lee (born 1744). Joseph Lee was one of the 100-120 men who boarded the three ships, The Beaver, The Eleanor, and The Dartmouth, docked at Boston on the 16th December, 1773, and he was my 5x great grand-uncle.
Hezekiah Coffin was born 20th August 1741, in Nantucket, MA. He married Abigail Coleman on the 4th February 1762, at Sherburne, on Nantucket island. Together they had seven children (6 sons and 1 daughter); Elizabeth (born 1763), Owen (born 1766), Timothy (born 1769), Ichabod (born 1771), Levi (born 1773), and Hezekiah (born 1775). Hezekiah (senior) was a sea captain who worked out of Nantucket harbour, shipping the island's main product, whale oil, to Great Britain.
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The town on the island of Nantucket was originally called Sherburne, but was changed to Nantucket in 1795. Printmakers include Valentine Green, Henry Bryan Hall and James Barton Longacre.
Title from Calendar of Emmet Collection. EM7792 Statement of responsibility : B. Tanner
By Scan by NYPL , Public Domain |
Joseph Lee was born in Salem on the 22nd May 1744. On 9th Jun 1769 Joseph Lee married Elizabeth Cabot, in Salem, MA. Together they had 12 children; Joseph (born 1770), Nathaniel Cabot (born 1772), Elizabeth (born 1774), George (born 1776), Amelia (born 1777), Charles (born 1778), Thomas (born 1779), Nancy (born 1780), Henry (born 1782), John (born 1783), Francis (born 1784), and Rebecca (born 1785). Joseph's wife, Elizabeth, died in 1786, and he remarried in 1793 to a Deborah Cabot, the widow of his first wife's brother, Stephen Cabot. Joseph and Deborah did not have any children, but she would have been fairly busy raising his surviving children, the youngest of whom was 9 years old at the time of the marriage.
Joseph Lee worked as a merchant out of Long Wharf, in Boston, MA. Long Wharf was an important part of the commercial scene of Boston, and central to it's maritime trade. Early in 1773 Joseph Lee joined the Freemasons, and so it appears he was well connected with influential people both in the business world, and in the politics of the time. It is on his masonic membership card that we can see a reference to the event that caused these ancestors' lives to collide.
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| Joseph Lee's Mason Membership Card |
In late 1773, while Joseph Lee was buying and selling shipments coming off, and going onto ships in the port of Boston, Hezekiah Coffin was taking a shipload of whale oil from Nantucket to England on a brig named The Beaver, owned by Joseph Rotch. Hezekiah docked in London, and after selling his whale oil, searched for a shipment with which to return to the colony of North America. He was offered a load of furniture and some chests of tea, due for the city of Boston.
At this time, the majority of legal tea in the north American colony was sold in Boston. Most of the other major ports in colony dealt in smuggled or foreign tea. The British government had passed several laws throughout the mid-late 1700s regarding the import, sale and tax of tea. Tea had become a very popular drink in Europe and Great Britain over the previous century, and the colonies of North America had swiftly joined in with the tea craze. The sole importer of the precious leaves, into Great Britain was the East India Company. The East India Company did not export to the colonies of North America. Instead, merchants would buy the tea wholesale, at auction in British ports, and then ship it out to various American ports. The tea was taxed heavily on arrival into Britain, and these taxes were passed on to the colonies when it arrived on the other side of the pond. Other European countries, such as the Netherlands, were importing tea without such a high tax, and so tea smuggling was rife, both in Britain and in the colonies. Illegal tea in Britain was costing the East India Company a huge amount. It is thought that in the 1760s the powerful company was losing up to £400,000 to British smugglers each year.
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| A political cartoon published in Boston, 1767. |
In an effort to help the struggling East India Company, the British government passed various acts relating to the tax on tea. This made the tea in Britain cheaper, but on the other side of the pond, the colonists were getting increasingly angry about the situation. They did not necessarily have a problem with the high tax on tea, but with the actual tax itself. A political movement rose up around this issue, led by a group called the 'Patriots'. They argued that the British government had no right to tax people living in the British colony of north America. The Magna Carta, commonly accepted as the British constitution, outlines the principle that taxation must be by consent. The colonists did not have any representation in the British government, and therefore should not have been subjected to taxation by the British government. Their rallying cry was, "NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION!" Nevertheless, the British government held firm, maintaining and asserting their right to tax the colony.
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| Engraving of East India House, Leadenhall Street, London, by T. Simpson: published in John Entick,
A New and Accurate History and Survey of London (London, 1766);
reproduced in William Foster, The East India House (London, 1924) |
The movement against tea taxation grew, and people across the land boycotted legal tea. By this point the only people allowed to deal in tea, in the colonies, were those appointed by the East India Company, as consignees. The Whigs, sometimes called the Sons of Liberty, managed to talk all the consignees into resigning from their position. All except the consignees in Massachusetts. In Boston, MA the governor, Thomas Hutchinson, encouraged the consignees to not give into the pressure. Two of these consignees were Hutchinson's sons, and so he obviously held some sway with the men. A tea/tax standoff ensued.
On November 28th 1773 the first of the three ships arrived in Boston, docking at Griffin Wharf. The Dartmouth was the sister ship to The Beaver; both sailed out of Nantucket Island, and both had been relieved of their whale oil in London, and reloaded with tea and other shipments. James Hall captained The Dartmouth, which held 114 chests of British tea. The Boston Whigs called for a mass meeting to debate what should be done with the cargo of tea. The desire was for The Dartmouth to leave the Boston harbour, without paying any of the import duty. Governor Hutchinson refused to allow the ship to leave the port, and so the stand off continued. Men were sent to guard the ship, to ensure that the cargo was not unloaded, while the matter continued to be debated.
On December 2nd, 1773, The Eleanor arrived at Griffin's Wharf, Boston, carrying another 114 chests of tea from London, Great Britain. The Eleanor was owned by Whig supported John Rowe, but captained by a Tory sympathiser and loyalist to the British crown, Captain Bruce.
The Beaver, which had sailed with The Dartmouth, from Great Britain, was the last to arrive in the port of Boston. On the voyage over the Atlantic, the crew of The Beaver had suffered an outbreak of smallpox. The ship had been held in quarantine for two weeks, in the outer harbour, finally docking at Griffin's Wharf on the 15th December 1773, with its cargo of 112 chests of British tea.
The 16th December marked the 20th day since The Dartmouth's arrival. British law asserted that cargo should be unloaded and duty paid, within 20 days of arrival, after which cargo could be forcibly removed by customs officials. Time was running out and the pressure was on, creating a boiling point; perfect conditions for brewing tea! A large crowd gathered at the Old South Meeting House, ready to hear what was to be done. It is estimated that between 5,000-7,000 people were present, which would have been upwards of a third of the population of Boston at the time. At this meeting the people learned that Governor Hutchinson continued to refuse to allow the ships to leave Boston, without paying the tea tax. Undoubtedly Joseph Lee was in the crowd when Samuel Adams, a political philosopher who would go on to become a Founding Father of the USA, was heard to say, "This meeting can do nothing further to save the country."
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| A portrait of Samuel Adams, painted by John Singleton Copley, in 1772 |
It was shortly after Adams made this statement that people began to leave the meeting house, and move towards Griffin's Wharf. Some men, perhaps including Joseph Lee, changed their clothing and disguised themselves as Mohawk people. It is thought that the main reason for this was to make it hard for them to be recognised- what they were planning to do would have been considered treason. But the choice of using indigenous 'costumes' was a symbol of the people choosing America over the British oppressors.
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W.D. Cooper. "Boston Tea Party.", The History of North America. London:
E. Newberry, 1789.Engraving. Plate opposite p. 58 |
Arriving at Griffin's Wharf some of the crowd, including the costumed men, began to board the three ships. Captain Hezekiah Coffin pleaded with the men who boarded The Beaver, to not damage the other cargo on his ship; to just take the tea. This transcript from an article published in The Pennsylvania Journal, or Weekly Advertiser, on Wednesday December 29th, 1773, tells the story further;
"...the people immediately, as with one voice, called for a dissolution, which having obtained, they repaired to Griffin's wharf, where the tea vessels lay, proceeded to fix tackles, and hoisted the tea upon deck, cut the chests to pieces, and threw over the side; (there were two ships and a brig, Capt Hall, Bruce and Coffin, each vessel having 114 chests of tea on board,) they began upon the two ships first, as the had nothing on board but the tea, then proceeded to the brig, which had hawled to the wharf, but the day before and had but a small part of her cargo out. The Captain of the brig begged they would not begin with his vessel, as the tea was covered with goods, belonging to different merchants in town, they told him the tea they wanted, and the tea they would have; but if he would go into his cabin quietly, not one article of his goods should be hurt. They immediately proceeded to remove the goods, and then dispose of the tea."
Captain Hezekiah Coffin's other cargo was safe, and the tea was all dumped into the waters of Boston harbour.
The Boston Tea Party, as it came to be known much later, was not the riotous event that many might imagine. I admit, I had thought it had been similar to the event in 2021 when the capitol was attacked on January 6th. But the same news article tells us how relatively calm and careful this demonstration against the ruling government actually was. In actual fact, the only aggressive behaviour seems to have been in reaction to a man who was trying to steal some of the tea, as opposed to dumping it ceremoniously in the water;
"It is to be observed, that they were extremely careful, that not any of the tea should be stolen, so kept a good look out, and detected one man filling his pockets, whom they treated very roughly, by tearing his coat off his back, and driving him up the wharf, through thousands of people, who cuff'd and kicked him as he pass'd."
The Destruction of the Tea, as it was known at the time, was to be a turning point in the history of America, and the Revolutionary War started around 18 months later. During the Revolutionary War Joseph Lee captained ships that worked as privateers; ships that would capture and plunder enemy ships, keeping their riches as a form of payment. As well as financially benefitting quite nicely from this trade, Joseph earned the rank of Captain for this activity against the British enemy. Captain Joseph Lee died at the age of 86, in Boston, MA on the 6th February, 1831. He was buried at Granary Burying Ground.
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| Moses King - "King's Handbook of Boston", by Moses King published 1881 |
Hezekiah Coffin sailed again to England in February of 1774, the year, after the destruction of the tea. Once again, he travelled on The Beaver, from Nantucket, with a ship load of whale oil. According to the Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum website Hezekiah died whilst in London, and The Beaver was sold as a result. The Birth, Marriages and Death Records for Nantucket, MA do not appear to agree, however, and suggests that he died in Nantucket, in 1779. The same record also quotes that Hezekiah was "said to have been the first to heave tea overboard in Boston harbour." It would certainly be nice to imagine both ancestors working together, against the British government's unfair taxation, however unlikely this final boast might have been.
#Newell
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https://www.bostonteapartyship.com/participants-in-the-boston-tea-party
https://kinsmenandkinswomen.com/2016/09/01/capt-joseph-lee-and-the-boston-tea-party/
https://pem.as.atlas-sys.com/repositories/2/resources/678
https://www.nps.gov/places/long-wharf-boston.htm
https://www.bostonteapartyship.com/history-brig-beaver
https://www.bostonteapartyship.com/dartmouth
https://www.bostonteapartyship.com/eleanor
https://familyconnectionsblog.wordpress.com/2017/12/17/hezekiah-coffin-and-the-boston-tea-party/comment-page-1/#respond
https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/2015-parliament-in-the-making/get-involved1/2015-banners-exhibition/ruth-ewan/1215-magna-carta-gallery/#:~:text=Magna%20Carta%20states%20that%20no,became%20fixed%20in%20English%20politics.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriot_(American_Revolution)#Patriots_and_taxes
https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/phil_res_1773.asp
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Tea_Party#
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