Seth Ingersoll Browne

(July 8, 1750 – March 9, 1809)

Seth Ingersoll Browne was a 23-year-old house carpenter with a shop at the end of Warren Bridge in Charlestown, Massachusetts, when he participated in the Boston Tea Party.

In Francis S. Drake’s book Tea Leaves, it is stated that Browne was “one of the ‘Mohawks’ on the memorable 16th of December, and on that occasion was masked and painted, and bore a club”. Browne fought through an excited crowd to make it home safely that night. He would often retell the story of the “destruction of the tea” to his daughters.  Regarding Browne’s involvement in the Boston Tea Party, his family said that “they thought it was a disgrace, like a riot, or a mob, and ought not to be told.” 

In addition to participating in the Boston Tea Party, Browne was present at the Battle of Bunker Hill. He was wounded in the leg and one eye in the battle, but continued despite his injuries. His descendants described Browne as such: “Seth was a thick-set man with a fierce look–called by his descendants the Browne scowl–and had white, even ‘double’ teeth which he gritted in his sleep. He had black hair and light eyes; one blinded in the Battle of Bunker Hill”.  The British would set fire to Charlestown, Massachusetts, that same day. As the war escalated, Browne was selected by General George Washington to transport the funds supplied by the Marquis de Lafayette for the Revolutionary cause from Newport, Rhode Island, to White Plains, New York.   

Family legend held that after the war, Browne was paid for his service with Continental currency. By then, the money had depreciated so far as to be worthless, and his angry wife threw the whole stack into the fire (recalling the phrase “not worth a Continental”). After the war, his eyesight no longer permitted him to continue working in his trade. Having sacrificed his livelihood, his health, and his fortune to the cause, he supported his family precariously by keeping a tavern called the Punch Bowl on Wing’s Lane in Roxbury, Massachusetts. He later ran a riding school and stable. 

Seth Ingersoll Browne died in Charlestown, Massachusetts, on March 9, 1809. He is buried in the Granary Burying Ground in Boston, Massachusetts.