Joseph Bassett

(December 23, 1738 – September 5, 1833)

Joseph Bassett was a ship’s captain from Yarmouth, Massachusetts, who, according to his descendants, “had just brought his vessel into Boston Harbor at the time when the excitement over the tea cargo was at its height.”

Though documentation to support Bassett’s participation in the Boston Tea Party is scant, his name appears on a monument erected to honor participants of the Boston Tea Party in Worcester, Massachusetts. As above, recollections by his descendants are not a contemporary account given before 1853, and he is not included in Boston Tea Party historian Francis S. Drake’s book, Tea Leaves. Therefore, Joseph Bassett is considered an “Eyewitness” to the Boston Tea Party until further evidence is found. 

Joseph Bassett died in Yarmouth, Massachusetts, on September 5, 1833. He is buried in Ancient Cemetery in Yarmouth Port, Massachusetts.