Amasa Davis

(April 17, 1744 – January 31, 1825) 

Amasa Davis was a 29-year-old merchant and trader living at the corner of Washington and Perry Streets in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1773.

It is believed that he joined his brother Robert Davis in participating in the Boston Tea Party. Amasa and his brothers were all present at the celebration at the Liberty Tree (really, Lemuel Robinson’s tavern in Dorchester) on August 14, 1769, to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the Stamp Act Riots in Boston, Massachusetts. 

Amasa’s two other brothers, Caleb and Robert, both worked in the family grocery business as well, and his brother Caleb did extensive business with a firm in Maryland in fish, rum, flour, iron, and staves. While it is unclear what prompted Amasa to join his brother on Griffin’s Wharf to take part in the “destruction of the tea,” the family business did suffer some trouble in 1770, when a man named Mr. Cutler brought a complaint against his brother Caleb and another man for forty thousand pounds worth of damages. Allegedly, Caleb and his associate stopped Mr. Cutler on a road to demand that he give back the imported goods he had purchased from merchant Theophilus Lillie against the “non-importation” agreements many merchants had signed in Boston. Lillie is the same man who, earlier that year, was involved in an incident that same year in which a group of boys heckling Lillie for importing goods resulted in a man firing into the crowd to try and disperse them, injuring another tea party participant, Samuel Gore, and killing a young 11-year-old boy named Christopher Seider. Caleb and his associate were acquitted of the charges made against them by Mr. Cutler. Still, perhaps this incident lingered in the minds of his brothers, Amasa and Robert, and could explain why they participated in the “destruction of the tea”.

During the Revolutionary War, in 1776, Amasa Davis was drafted from the militia to serve in the Continental Army, but paid the fine to be excused. Despite this, he ended up serving during the war and was appointed on May 5, 1779, to outfit the brigantine Active.  

After the war, he was asked to serve as a Selectman for Boston in 1808, but declined. However, he did serve as Quartermaster General for Massachusetts from 1787 to 1825, an accomplishment that was highlighted in his obituary upon his passing.  

Amasa Davis died in Boston on January 31, 1825, and was buried at Central Burying Ground, Tomb 120 in Boston, Massachusetts.