Peter Harrington

(May 4, 1752 – July 29, 1813) 

Peter Harrington, a yeoman from Watertown, Massachusetts, was first identified as a participant in the Boston Tea Party by Eliza M. Gill in an 1873 article in the Boston Evening Traveler.

Eliza M. Gill, a descendant of Harrington, was the secretary for the Medford Historical Society in Massachusetts at that time. The article did not offer any proof other than the statement that Harrington was present. Beyond the 1873 article, there is no mention of Harrington’s participation. 

During the Revolutionary War, Harrington served for 5 days as a private in Boston Tea Party participant Captain Samuel Barnard’s company under Colonel Thomas Gardiner’s regiment, which answered the Lexington Alarm on April 19, 1775.  

After the Revolution, at the 1781 and 1782 Watertown, Massachusetts Town Meetings, Harrington was elected as a tithingman, one of the most prominent religious offices held in Puritan communities.   

Harrington was tasked with ensuring that all able-bodied residents of the town kept the Sabbath, attended services in the meeting house, and that all attendees remained attentive, awake, properly behaved, and generous with their tithes – their financial support of the parish. After serving for a couple of years, the 1783 and 1785 Town Meetings elected Harrington as the local hog reeve – charged with corralling roaming swine that had escaped their pens while assessing damages related to the animal’s owners if the hogs caused havoc anywhere in the town.  

Peter Harrington died in Watertown, Massachusetts, on July 29, 1813.