Ebenezer MacIntosh

(June 20, 1737 – September 18, 1817) 

In the socially and economically polarized world that was colonial Boston, a mere shoemaker like Ebenezer MacIntosh would have been distinctly of the lower class. Despite his lack of standing in the wider community, MacIntosh was a natural leader and became a major factor in several of the revolutionary events leading up to the Boston Tea Party.  

Ebenezer MacIntosh reportedly fought in the French and Indian War at the Battle of Carillon on July 8, 1758, in present-day Ticonderoga, New York. Less than two weeks later, MacIntosh was also part of the army that was waylaid and ambushed in New York at Half Way Brook between Fort Edward and Lake George.  

Boston’s pre-revolutionary landscape was full of organizations, from political groups such as the Boston Caucus to social groups such as the Freemasons. However, among the lower classes, the North End and South End gangs, named after the neighborhoods they inhabited, wielded the power of the people. Ebenezer MacIntosh was the leader of the South End gang. On August 14, 1765, MacIntosh led a contentious mob of more than 3,000 after rallying at the Liberty Tree during what became known as the Stamp Act Riots. The crowd vandalized the office and home of the soon-to-be Stamp distributor, Andrew Oliver. 

Later that month, on August 26, MacIntosh led another mob that spiraled out of control and destroyed three houses, including the mansion of Lieutenant Governor Thomas Hutchinson. MacIntosh was arrested but not charged for fomenting the destruction. It was felt that charging him would only incite more riots. Pressure to release MacIntosh may have come from the Loyal Nine, a prominent group of merchants opposed to the Stamp Act, many of whom later became participants of the Boston Tea Party.  

MacIntosh served as Sealer of Leather for the Town of Boston from 1766 to 1768, a position he previously held in 1764. In 1770, MacIntosh married Elizabeth Maverick, whose brother, Samuel Maverick, was one of the five men killed during the Boston Massacre. 

MacIntosh personally boasted in later years of the Boston Tea Party that, “It was my chickens that did the job,” at Griffin’s Wharf. A notice in the Massachusetts Spy in May 1774 called for the arrest of MacIntosh, along with John Rowe, Samuel Adams, and John Hancock, for their connection to the “destruction of the tea.” By the end of 1774, MacIntosh had moved with his young children to Haverhill, New Hampshire, possibly due to the tension in Boston. Reprising his civic service in Boston, he was elected Sealer of Leather in that town for 1782-1783.  

During the Revolutionary War, MacIntosh briefly mustered in New Hampshire under Captain Joseph Hutchins as a Private from August 18, 1777, to his discharge on October 6 of that year. He did not stop traveling. In 1802, he apparently walked from New Hampshire to Ohio, where his first son, and eventually the rest, relocated. At 1,300 miles, there is no record of how long the journey took. 

Ebenezer MacIntosh died in North Haverhill, New Hampshire by September 18, 1817. He is buried in Horse Meadow Cemetery in North Haverhill, New Hampshire.