John Dickman

(November 17, 1750 – March 6, 1833) 

John Dickman was a yeoman in Boston, Massachusetts, when he participated in the Boston Tea Party on December 16, 1773.  

According to his son-in-law, Artemas Fay, John Dickman was actively involved in multiple revolutionary events, including being present at the “destruction of the tea”. Fay wrote that Dickman remembered “how the great long chests went splash into the sea,” and that he gave Fay names of men involved.  

In later years, John Dickman filed a claim to be granted a government pension for his service in the Revolutionary War. It was his contention that he was drafted on April 19, 1775, and marched to Cambridge, Massachusetts, under Captain John Homes in Colonel Ballard’s regiment. He further stated in the claim that he enlisted in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, with Captain James Miller in Colonel Ward’s regiment on August 15, 1775. Dickman served three months in Dorchester, Massachusetts, as a private through the end of his term. He re-enlisted as a private and served in various areas around Roxbury, MA. Further service took place in Rhode Island, where he was engaged in helping to keep residents from supplying/selling provisions and supplies to the occupying British. Even though Dickman had no documentary evidence of his service, a Certificate of Pension was issued on 6 May 1833. 

John Dickman died on March 6, 1833, in Hopkinton, Massachusetts. He is buried in the Evergreen Cemetery in Hopkinton.