It was estimated that hundreds took part in the Boston Tea Party. For fear of punishment, many participants of the Boston Tea Party remained anonymous for many years after the event. To date it is known that 168 people are documented to have participated. Not all of the participants in the Boston Tea Party are known; many carried the secret of their participation to their graves.

The participants were made up of men from all walks of colonial society. Many were from Boston or the surrounding area, but some participants are documented to have come from as far away as Worcester in central Massachusetts and Maine. The vast majority were of English descent, but men of Irish, Scottish, French, Portuguese, and Maltese ancestry were documented to have also participated. The participants were of all ages, but the majority of the documented participants were under the age of forty. Many of the Boston Tea Party participants fled Boston immediately after the destruction of the tea to avoid arrest. Thousands witnessed the event, and the implication and impact of this action were enormous, ultimately leading to the start of the American Revolution.

The list of participants presented here is a part of a collaborative research effort and partnership between the Boston Tea Party Ships & Museum ® and American Ancestors ® that began in 2022. The goal of this project was to create, as accurately as possible, a definitive list of those most likely to have accurate claims of participation in the Boston Tea Party while adhering to historical and genealogical standards. This project began in preparation for the launch of the Boston Tea Party Descendants Program ® , which launched in March 2023, on National Genealogy Day.

This helped to create two different categories that we now use to classify those who appeared on lists, or in other sources, as Boston Tea Party participants: Participant and Eyewitness to History. Since there are many claims of participation in the Boston Tea Party that are dubious, or only exist in family folklore, we wanted to differentiate between people who appear in multiple contemporary sources or made claims to participation prior to 1853, and those who only have folklore associations.

Boston Tea Party Participants who are listed are categorized as “men who were likely present on-board ships destroying tea on December 16, 1773.”

Anyone labeled as an Eyewitness to History is defined as “likely not aboard the ships on December 16, 1773, but have family lore associated with either participating in, or witnessing the event.”

To make the decision of which names fit best in which category, we looked at the reigning contemporary sources that have been used by historians to match names. See our Historiography Page for more information.

While some contemporary sources used are from after 1853, these sources are used as a checking point on claims, alongside primary source material such as obituaries, newspaper articles, personal family records, census records, etc. to come as close as we can to an accurately vetted list. Since the event that became known as the Boston Tea Party was largely sworn to secrecy by those involved, the list of participants may never be complete with 100% certainty, but using this framework allows us to get as close as possible in determining the validity of claims made by historians, descendants of those listed as having taken part in the Boston Tea Party, and the supposed participants themselves.

There are many different lists of men purported to be present destroying tea at Griffin’s Wharf on December 16, 1773. Of these lists, many are inconsistent, or contain conflicting information about the participants. But, taken together, these lists can give a clear picture of where the stories of participation originated, and help historians to better encompass a clearer picture of who may have actually been on Griffin’s Wharf that fateful evening in 1773.

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