Benjamin Rice

Benjamin Rice was born in 1723 at North Brookfield. Aside from participating in the Boston tea Party, he was a militia captain and occasional town representative. On December 7th, 1773, days before the tea protest would take place, he was one of a five-man committee that wrote this about the tea tax: “We think it our indispensable duty, in the most public manner to let the world know our utter abhorrence of the last and most detestable scheme, in the introduction of Tea from Great Britain, to be peddled out amongst us, but which means we were made to swallow a poison more fatal in its effects to the national and political Rights and Privileges of the People of this country, than ratsbane would be to the natural body. Therefore, Resolved, that we will not by any way or means, knowingly encourage or promote the sale or consumption of any Tea whatever, subject to a duty payable in America, but all persons whoever they may be, who shall be concerned in a transaction so dangerous, shall be held by us in the utmost contempt, and be deemed enemies to the well being of this country.” Rice later died in 1796; his grave location is unknown.