John Hooton
According to several historians, oar maker’s apprentice John Hooton’s participation in the Boston Tea Party was somewhat peripheral, but no less important than that of the main “party” of conspirators.
He and several other young apprentices were drawn to the commotion at the harbor at the close of their working day. They were put to task breaking up the crates and bushels of loose-leaf tea that had been tossed overboard but were caught in the mud flats at low tide. In the melee, a small boat paddled close to the ships. Taken at first for a collaborator, it quickly became clear that the man in the small boat had come out to abscond with as much tea as he could grab. In Hooton’s own telling, he and the other “North Enders…as full of spirits as himself, being directed to dislodge the interloper, jumped over and beat up the poor man’s canoe from under him in the twinkling of an eye.”
Hooton took part in the Revolutionary War from April 1, 1777, to August 1778. He spent three months as a Private and the subsequent twelve months as a promoted Sergeant. He served in Captain Elias Parkman’s company under Colonel Joseph Webb’s regiment.
He is named in a list made by Sarah Gammell, the daughter of fellow participant John Gammell, as having been at Griffin’s Wharf on December 16, 1773.
John Hooton died in Boston, Massachusetts, on September 16, 1844. He is buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Sign up to receive special offers, discounts and news on upcoming events.
