David Williams

(July 24, 1759 – December 4, 1836) 

David Williams spent his life as a mariner. This experience gave him intimate knowledge of Boston Harbor and the activities in and around the port of Boston.   

Williams was born on Governor’s Island in Boston Harbor and spent his youth navigating the sea into the town. Though only fourteen years old at the time of the Boston Tea Party, he was likely already aware of the crisis unfolding over the tax on tea as a mariner’s apprentice. The Tea Act was well discussed in the ports and would have been known to young Williams as he worked on vessels on the wharves. 

There is little known about his life after the Boston Tea Party. He may have engaged in privateering during the Revolutionary War aboard the ship General Arnold.  

David Williams died in South Boston, MA, on December 4, 1836, and is buried in Hawes Burying Ground in Boston.