George Robert Twelves Hewes: A Boston Tea Party Patriot

The Boston Tea Party, one of the most iconic acts of protest in American history, marked an escalation of the rebellion brewing against British rule. It was praised by John Adams, who described the demonstration as “so bold, so daring, so firm, intrepid and inflexible, and it must have so important Consequences, and so lasting, that I cant but consider it as an Epocha in History.”

More than 100 men participated in the protest on Dec. 16, 1773, including shoemaker-turned-patriot George Robert Twelves Hewes, whose recollection of the historic event is widely considered one of the “most reliable overall accounts of the life of an ordinary person living through the Revolutionary period that has been produced,” according to Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum.

Boston Tea Party Protest

On May 10, 1773, the British Parliament imposed the Tea Act on the American colonies. The move was effectively a handout to the East India Company, which had a surplus of tea at the time, as well as a way for the crown to reassert its authority amid growing resistance to British rule.

Under the Tea Act, any tea sold to the colonies by the East India Company would be taxed at point of entry, where special agents would receive and sell the beloved beverage.

News of the tax quickly spread — as did calls for protest. In December that year, three ships — the Dartmouth, Beaver, and Eleanor — arrived at Griffin’s Wharf in Boston Harbor. The vessels were each loaded with more than 100 cases of tea, but in response to the Tea Act, Bostonians voted to block the tea from being brought ashore to be sold, consumed, or even stored.

The Dartmouth — being the first to arrive in America — refused to leave Boston Harbor and return its cargo of tea. So, the Sons of Liberty, led by Samuel Adams, hatched a secret plan to “make Boston Harbor a teapot.”

Dressed like Native Americans, dozens of members of the Sons of Liberty, including George Robert Twelves Hewes, made their way to Griffin’s Wharf. In his memoir, authored by Benjamin Bussey Thatcher in 1835, Hewes explained that more than 100 men boarded the anchored ships, smashed 340 chests belonging to the East India Company, and dumped the tea into Boston Harbor.

Recalling the night’s events, Hewes revealed that he was a “lookout” for the Beaver’s boarding party.

Hewes’ Home Life

Born in Wrentham, MA, Hewes was a shoemaker who owned a shop near Griffin’s Wharf. Years before the dramatic action in the harbor, Hewes tried joining the British military to serve in the French and Indian War, but his “short stature” led to his rejection, the Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum said.

On March 5, 1770, Hewes witnessed the Boston Massacre, during which he helped carry James Caldwell, who was mortally wounded, to a doctor.

Hewes also struggled with money and served time in a debtor’s prison as a result. His family’s financial woes likely persisted for years, the museum noted, citing his wife Sarah’s alleged remark after Hewes returned home in the wake of the Boston Tea Party: She reportedly hoped he had “a lot of it [tea]” with him.

The shoemaker-turned-patriot “volunteered aboard the privateer Diamond out of Providence, Rhode Island, for months,” according to his Revolutionary War pension. He also served in the battle of Newport before going to sea on the Defence – a ship and crew “remarkably proficient at capturing British ships and munitions while under sail up and down the East Coast and as far asea as Jamaica.”

In 1781, after the Battle of Yorktown, Hewes marched from Attleboro, MA, to West Point in New York with Colonel Luke Drury’s regiment. He and his family eventually moved to Richfield, Otsego County, NY, where he remained until his death at 98 on Nov. 5, 1840.

1. George Robert Twelves Hewes was a shoemaker-turned-patriot who witnessed the Boston Massacre and participated in the dumping of tea in Boston Harbor.
2. Hewes served as a lookout during the Boston Tea Party raid.
3. He received a Revolutionary War pension for his service and lived to be 98 years old.