James Watson

(July 25, 1745 – March 12, 1834) 

James Watson was a mariner from the territory of the Massachusetts Bay Colony that would eventually become the State of Maine.     

Given his profession as a sailor and the shared politics between Maine and Massachusetts, Watson could have been well informed in the political crisis unfolding in Boston surrounding the East India Company tea.  

After the Boston Tea Party, Watson reportedly captained the ship Sally, a 50-ton sloop that traversed the coastal waters between Maine and Massachusetts. He helped bring supplies to Boston in December 1774, despite the British blockade of the harbor imposed by the Boston Port Bill. James Watson remained in Maine after the war, taking over a saltworks operation. 

According to Cyrus Easton’s History of Thomaston, Rockland, and South Thomaston, Maine, published in 1865, Watson participated in the “destruction of the tea.” However, other historians question this participation, and there is little primary source evidence to support the claim.   

James Watson died in Thomaston, Maine, in March of 1834.