Matthew Loring

(September 18, 1751 – November 8, 1829) 

Matthew Loring was a young cordwainer at the time of the Boston Tea Party, whose involvement is confirmed by a list of names provided in the 1860s by fellow Boston Tea Party participant John Gammell’s daughter, Sarah Gammell. 

Loring joined the Revolution as a drummer in Captain Freedom Chamberlain’s company. The company marched from Pembroke to Dorchester Heights on March 5, 1776.  Records show that shortly thereafter, Matthew Loring enlisted as a bombardier under Captain Winthrop Gray in fellow Boston Tea Party participant Colonel Thomas Crafts’ regiment on June 8, 1776. Later in the conflict, Matthew was again a drummer under the command of Captain Simeon Samson on the brigantine Hazard. Loring served until discharged on May 20, 1778.  

Following the Revolutionary War, Matthew Loring successfully returned to the leather industry and was elected Sealer of Leather for the town of Boston at least four times, from 1793 through 1796. During this time, he was so successful in his occupation as a cordwainer that when President George Washington visited Boston in 1789 for his Inaugural Tour, Loring was selected to carry the banner of the Cordwainers’ Association in the parade assembled to honor the president. The banner he carried is now stored in the collections of Revolutionary Spaces, having been donated to the Bostonian Society in 1911.   

Matthew Loring died in Boston, Massachusetts, on November 8, 1829, and is buried in Boston’s Granary Burying Ground.