John Crane

(December 7, 1744 – August 21, 1805)

John Crane, a house carpenter living in the South End of Boston, Massachusetts, participated in the Boston Tea Party on December 16, 1773.  

Crane holds the distinction of being the only Boston Tea Party participant recorded as being injured during the event. He was in the cargo hold of one of the ships when an overloaded hoist collapsed, and he was struck unconscious by a derrick. His fellow participants, thinking he was dead, hauled him off the ship and stashed him in a nearby woodshop. Immediately following the “destruction of the tea”, several men went to recover the “body” only to find that Crane was alive, albeit dazed and confused. 

By 1774, the Boston Port Bill had effectively sealed off all commerce in and out of Boston Harbor. Crane and fellow Boston Tea Party participant Ebenezer Stevens relocated to Providence, Rhode Island, where Crane would establish himself as a housewright to support his family. With the outbreak of hostilities between the British and Americans at Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775, Crane and Stevens raised militia companies in Providence and marched them to Boston, where Crane was appointed Major of the Rhode Island Artillery Chain. From that point, there was scarcely a campaign in Rhode Island, New York, or Massachusetts in which Crane’s artillery command was not involved. The Rhode Island chain was swiftly merged into the Continental [Army] Artillery. Crane raised and commanded the 3rd Massachusetts Regiment of the Continental Artillery, serving until October 10, 1783. Upon retirement, Crane was a Brigadier General.  

John Crane was a founding member of the Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati. Founded in 1783, the Society’s stated aims were: “to perpetuate the memory of the War for Independence, maintain the fraternal bonds between the officers, promote the ideals of the Revolution, support members and their families in need, distinguish its members as men of honor, and advocate for the compensation promised to the officers by Congress”. After the war, Crane formed a lumber business partnership with another Boston Tea Party veteran, Lemuel Trescott, in Passamaquoddy Bay, Maine. It did not flourish. However, Crane and his family remained in Maine, where he was appointed as a judge in the Court of Common Pleas in the town of Whiting. 

John Crane died on August 21, 1805, in Whiting, Maine. He is buried at the Whiting Cemetery.