Samuel Sprague

(December 22, 1753 – June 20, 1844) 

Samuel Sprague was a twenty-year-old mason’s apprentice in Boston under the tutelage of Mr. William Etheridge.          

According to family lore, Samuel Sprague’s participation in the “destruction of the tea” on December 16, 1773, was not planned. His son, the acclaimed poet Charles Sprague, recorded that Sprague was on his way to meet “the young woman” that he “afterwards married,” when he came across a group of men heading toward Griffin’s Wharf. He followed them there and found the “Indians” hard at work destroying tea. He quickly disguised his face with soot and joined. While destroying the tea, he saw his master, Mr. Etheridge, among the group. They would never address this encounter.  

During the Revolutionary War, Samuel Sprague served from 1775 to 1777. He participated in military engagements at White Plains, Trenton, and Princeton. 

Samuel Sprague died on June 20, 1844, and is buried in Boston’s Central Burying Ground in Tomb No. 5.