Joshua Wyeth

(October 6, 1758 – January 22, 1829) 

A young boy in 1773, Joshua Wyeth, would come to be known as one of the first to share names of participants in the Boston Tea Party. Wyeth was a 15-year-old blacksmith’s apprentice working under Obadiah Whiston on Orange Street in Boston.  

According to Wyeth’s account, he was alongside participants such as John Martin and Moses Grant on the night of December 16, 1773. He also stated that,

“We agreed in order, as much as we might prevent ourselves from being discovered to wear ragged clothes, and disfigure ourselves as much as possible.” 

During the Revolutionary War, Wyeth was present at the Battle of Bunker Hill and served in Col. Henry Knox’s Massachusetts regiment. He also served in the Artillery Corps, putting his blacksmithing skills to use. After the war, Wyeth married and started a family, but had to relocate to Pennsylvania in 1787 after a fire destroyed 60 homes in Boston.  

Unlike most Boston Tea Party participants, Joshua Wyeth’s participation was widely publicised in a 1827 interview in the Niles Weekly Register. He revealed his participation in the “destruction of the tea” on December 16, 1773, including a list of names to journalist Timothy Flint. Not only was Wyeth one of the first participants to admit his role in the uprising, but he is also credited as one of the first to label the event a “Tea Party.” 

Joshua Wyeth died in Cincinnati, OH, on January 22, 1829. A memorial stone for Joshua Wyeth can be found in Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati, OH.