Sarah (Bradlee) Fulton

(December 24, 1740 – November 9, 1835)

Sarah Bradlee Fulton was born on December 24, 1740, in Dorchester, now a part of Boston. In 1762, she married John Fulton, and they moved to Medford; although she frequently visited her brother Nathaniel Bradlee in Boston.

In addition to being a prominent member and leader of the Daughters of Liberty, Sarah is often referred to as the “Mother of the Boston Tea Party” and, for this reason, is given a special place as an Eyewitness. Sarah is credited with the idea of disguising the participants in her family, painting their faces, and obscuring their clothing. She also anxiously awaited the men’s return to her home to dispose of their disguises.

This was not the end of Sarah’s involvement in the Revolution. Two years later, after the Battle of Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775, Sarah voluntarily rallied women to nurse and tend to wounded soldiers. She came to an open space by Wade’s Tavern between the bridge and South Street, armed with basketfuls of lint, bandages, and other basic medicinal remedies of that time, to act as surgeon to the injured men.  

In March 1776, Major John Brooks of Medford needed an urgent message to be delivered to General George Washington. He called upon the Fulton family for aid. Sarah volunteered to carry the message alone through the enemy lines of the Charleston waterfront; she did so successfully and later returned home. Washington later visited the Fultons to thank Sarah for the dangerous mission she undertook.  

As the Americans besieged Boston, the British used their own ships for protection and often rowed across the river to Medford to seek fuel and wood. Sarah was aware that a shipment of wood, meant for the American troops at Cambridge, was about to be delivered. She sent her husband to buy the wood, hoping that the laws regarding personal property would be respected. This was not so. The British confiscated the wood from Mr. Fulton, but Sarah pursued them until she caught up. Reportedly, she grabbed the oxen by the horns and turned them around, leading them away even as the British prepared to shoot her. She simply told them to “shoot away,” and the British, so astonished by her defiance, surrendered the wood to her without resistance.  

Sarah Bradlee Fulton died in 1835 at the age of 95 and was buried in the Salem Street Cemetery, Medford.