Thomas Hunstable

(Unknown – February 12, 1798) 

Historian Francis S. Drake claims that Thomas Hunstable, a bricklayer and mason from Boston, Massachusetts was a Boston Tea Party participant.

However, the details given in Francis S. Drake’s 1884 book Tea Leaves could be in reference to his son, also named Thomas Hunstable, who was only 6 years old in 1773. Even more confusingly, the entry in Drake’s work states the birth year for Thomas Hunstable as 1753, making the assumption that the entry is in reference to this Thomas’s son even more questionable.

It is due to the singular mention of Thomas Hunstable in Drake’s Tea Leaves, that he has been categorized as an “Eyewitness to History.” Little is known about Hunstable’s life except that he and his wife Sarah apparently owned land and buildings on Prince Street in Boston. He also served briefly during the Revolutionary War, after which he received a total of $175 on May 1, 1780, for five months’ work in Springfield, Massachusetts, where he helped to build the public ferry across the Connecticut River to facilitate munitions shipments. 

Thomas Hunstable died in Boston, Massachusetts after February 12, 1798. His place of burial is unknown.