Samuel Howard (1747)

(May 2, 1747 – June 1, 1840) 

Interestingly, there are two possible Samuel Howards who could have participated in the Boston Tea Party, according to various sources.

Whether it was one or the other, or both, is up for debate. In a letter written by Sarah Gammell, daughter of Boston Tea Party participant John Gammell, an “S. Howard” is mentioned, with no further detail. 

The Samuel Howard, born in 1747, was a ship’s caulker living in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1773. He later recounted his participation in the Boston Tea Party to a visitor late in his life. That visitor later wrote of the experience (which he states occurred in the summer of 1839, just a year before Samuel Howard’s death) in the August 1845 issue of the Yale Literary Magazine. In the account featured in the magazine, Howard stated that the band of young men he participated in the “tea destruction” with “met in a cabinet-maker’s shop; but, when fully disguised, hesitated to proceed, and finally resolved to consult two or three influential men of the city.” When those men would not give an opinion on how they should proceed, they went to another who reportedly said to the group, “’I can give you no advice, if you go you will find friends.’” Each member among Howard’s party was asked individually at that point whether they would still like to take action with the others heading to Griffin’s Wharf, at which point; all present stated they would still go, according to Howard. 

In his book Defiance of the Patriots, historian Benjamin L. Carp states that Samuel Howard was also connected with other Boston Tea Party participants and their relatives. Caleb Davis, brother of fellow tea party participants Amasa and Robert Davis, in the two years preceding the tea party, had paid Thomas Gerrish, Joseph Payson, William Etheridge, James Brewer, Thomas Urann, Daniel Ingersoll, and Samuel Howard for work pertaining to his business: all participants in the Boston Tea Party. This shows the connection Samuel had with those in his community who decided to take a stand in destroying the tea at Griffin’s Wharf in 1773.  

During the Revolutionary War, Howard enlisted in 1776, and served as a private under Captain Edward Burbank in Colonel Henry Knox’s regiment. He took part in the battles of Trenton, and Princeton in New Jersey.  

After the war, he and his family likely moved to Maine, which corroborates the Yale Literary Magazine article, which stated that the author met Samuel Howard in a town on the border of Maine in New Hampshire, likely Conway, as records have been found for a Samuel Howard in Brownfield, Maine, just across the border from Conway, New Hampshire. 

Samuel Howard died in Conway, New Hampshire on June 1, 1840, and was buried in the Center Conway Cemetery in Center Conway, Carroll County, New Hampshire.