William Tuffs/Tufts

(June 11, 1750 – September 5, 1847) 

William Tuffs assisted his father as an innkeeper at the time of the Boston Tea Party.       

In an interview for the Goshen Democrat in 1840, Tuffs recounted his participation in the “destruction of the tea” on December 16, 1773. He reportedly disguised himself by sticking feathers in his hat and smudging his face with paint. His job was to assist in lifting the chests from the cargo hold to the other participants above deck.  

After the Revolutionary War, Tuff’s war pension claimed to have been drafted in Boston in 1775 and reenlisted in May 1776. He was tasked with getting provisions across Lake George in Upstate New York near Fort Ticonderoga. In 1777, he served in the Rhode Island Campaign. 

William Tuffs died on September 5, 1847, in Middlebury, Indiana, and is buried in Bonneyville Cemetery in Bristol, Indiana.