Nathaniel Greene

(April 12, 1738 – January 29, 1791) 

Nathaniel Greene of the Boston Tea Party is not the same Nathaniel Greene as the well-documented General from Rhode Island, and the two are often confused.  

A Nathan Green from Leicester, Massachusetts, is reported as a bombardier in Thomas Crafts’s artillery regiment in 1776 and stationed in Boston, Massachusetts. Very little is recorded about this Nathaniel Greene’s life and work in Boston. What is known is that in 1789, Nathaniel was Boston’s Registrar of Deeds. He also had an extensive family. Nathaniel was also present at the celebration of the repeal of the Townshend duties at the Liberty Tree in 1769. The Boston Tea Party, Nathaniel Greene, and General Nathaniel Greene of Rhode Island are separate individuals. The two were distant cousins, both descended from the original settler, John Greene, who arrived in Boston in 1635. 

Nathaniel Greene died in Boston, Massachusetts on January 29, 1791. He is buried at Trinity Church in Boston, Massachusetts.