Adam Collson

(August 3, 1738 – February 16, 1798) 

Adam Collson was a 35-year-old leather dresser with a shop, “Sign of the Buck and Glove”, on the corner of Bromfield’s Lane in Boston, Massachusetts.  

Collson was highly involved in many groups that helped plan, monitor, and execute the Boston Tea Party on December 16, 1773. Collson reportedly shouted, “Boston harbor a tea-pot to-night,” at the Meeting of the Body of the People at Old South Meeting House, when Francis Rotch finally delivered news from Governor Thomas Hutchinson that the tea must be unloaded. 

Collson had been engaged in political activity for many years in Boston. He was a member of the Masonic Lodge of St. Andrew, the North End Caucus, as well as the Long Room Club. In the lead-up to the “destruction of the tea”, Collson volunteered to guard the first tea ship to arrive, the Dartmouth, on November 30, 1773. 

Collson would hold many civic positions later in life, including Informer of Deer in 1774, Town Warden in 1775, and Inspector of the Market in 1779. In 1792, Collson ran for Lieutenant Governor but received only 7 votes, compared to 686 for Samuel Adams. 

As Collson had no direct descendants at the time of his death, he left the bulk of his considerable estate, including property on Marlboro Street valued at $10,000 and 46 acres in Goshen, Massachusetts, valued at $1110, including livestock and farm equipment, to his several nephews. Collson’s obituary stated, “That spirit of liberty and patriotism which distinguished the Patriots of America in ’75, and previous to the late glorious Revolution, was retain’d [sic] by him in full vigor ‘till the day of his death.” 

Adam Collson died in Boston, Massachusetts, on February 16, 1798.