Anthony Morse

(December 22, 1753 – March 22, 1803)

Shrouded in mystery, Anthony Morse was a tavern keep in Worthington, Massachusetts, in December of  1773.   

Morse reportedly had moved from Preston, Connecticut, to Worthington, Massachusetts, with his uncle Moses Morse shortly after the town was founded in 1760. Morse’s participation in the Boston Tea Party was mentioned in a letter to the Niles Weekly Register written by his son Lewis on June 22, 1819, in which he described his father and another participant, Joseph Roby, as being “most active in destroying the tea in Boston harbor.”  

Anthony Morse was apparently in Worthington when he joined Captain Ebenezer Webber’s company of militiamen. From April 19, 1775, Morse was in service sporadically, under both Webber and Captain John Fellows, eventually earning a captain’s commission when he joined the Continental Army under Colonel Wesson’s regiment. By the time of his discharge on February 13, 1778, he had reportedly served at Dorchester Heights, Massachusetts, and Bennington, Vermont. Morse had been promoted to Major and was present at General John Burgoyne’s surrender in Saratoga, New York, the turning point of the Revolutionary War.  

At the time of the 1790 census, Anthony Morse had settled in Sharon, Vermont, where he raised his family. He continued his political activism by serving as a town representative in the General Assembly at various times from 1784 until 1802, not long before his death. 

Anthony Morse died on March 22, 1803, and is buried in Pine Hill Cemetery in Sharon, Vermont.