Samuel Gore

(February 6, 1751 – November 23, 1831) 

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of prominent heraldic painter John Gore, Esq., Samuel Gore followed his father into business and found himself wrapped up in the politics of the day.  

Well before his participation in the Boston Tea Party, and less than two weeks before the Boston Massacre, Samuel Gore was wounded by customs informant Ebenezer Richardson on February 22, 1770, during a riot. That same incident caused the death of 11-year-old Christopher Seider, and became a call to action for many in Boston. Gore was one of many who formed a protesting mob outside the home of Theophilus Lillie, a merchant accused of importing British goods that were being boycotted against the wishes of the non-importation agreements set forth by various committees in town. Richardson chastised the protest and drew the ire of the mob, causing him to flee and retreat to his home. So goaded was Richardson by the mob that he attempted to disperse them by firing his musket out the window of his house, hitting both Christopher Seider and Gore. While young Seider ultimately died of his wounds, Samuel Gore was wounded in the hand and thigh. Gore later supposedly carried his retrieved swan shot projectiles on his person.   

After the Boston Tea Party, Samuel Gore, along with fellow Tea Party participants James Brewer and Moses Grant, spirited away two three-pound brass cannon from the West Street gun house before they could be turned over to British General Thomas Gage upon his arrival in Boston on May 13, 1774.  

Further serving the Revolutionary cause, Samuel Gore was part of an independent militia company formed on December 7, 1776, under the command of Colonel John Hancock. He was discharged as a private on May 5, the following year, having served 211 days, including marching with the company from Boston to Rhode Island. After the Revolutionary War, Gore served as the first treasurer of the newly formed (1795) Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association and joined St. Andrew’s Lodge of freemasons. 

Samuel Gore died in Boston, Massachusetts, on November 23, 1831, and is buried in Boston’s Granary Burying Ground.