Who participated in the Boston Tea Party?
It is well known that patriots Samuel Adams, Josiah Quincy and John Hancock were present at the December 16, 1773 meeting at the Old South Meeting House preceding the dumping of the tea. However, the men who actually destroyed the tea at Griffin’s Wharf are less well-known. Most of the estimated 200 Boston Tea Party participants remained anonymous for many years for fear of punishment. Among the purported participants, the best known are silversmith and patriot Paul Revere, and Dr. Thomas Young, John Adam’s family physician. George Robert Twelves Hughes, a 31 year old shoemaker (whose statue stands in the exhibit at the Old South Meeting House) told the story of his participation in the Boston Tea Party to a journalist in 1835 when he was in his 90’s. His account can be read in Alfred Young’s book The Shoemaker and the Tea Party: Memory and the American Revolution. Click here to see a complete list of Boston Tea Party participants Membership Form or Contact us for more membership infor
