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Boston Merchants Advertise Tea Months before the Boston Tea Party, 1773
Boston Merchants Advertise Tea Months before the Boston Tea Party, 1773
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Boston Massacre


Boston Merchants Advertise Tea Months before the Boston Tea Party, 1773

 

[BOSTON TEA PARTY]. The Boston Evening Post, April 26, 1773. Boston: Thomas Fleet and John Fleet. 4 pp., 9.5" x 14.75"  Hole in p1/2 affecting 3 lines; otherwise very good.

 

This issue features numerous advertisements for tea just months prior to the Boston Tea Party, by some merchants who were later loyalists and others who were later patriots.

 

Excerpts

Joseph Peirce advertised a large variety of goods for sale at his shop “at the North Side of the Town-House in Boston,” including “blue and white India China Tea Cups & Saucers,” “one compleat enamel’d Tea Equipage,” and “The very best Hyson and Souchong TEA, for which his Shop is noted.” (p1/c3)

Joseph Peirce (1745-1828) was a Boston merchant and business agent of Henry Knox. In late November 1773, he was one of several volunteers to patrol the tea docks to make certain that no tea was unloaded from the Dartmouth. He married Ann Dawes, the sister of prominent Boston patriot Thomas Dawes, in 1771, and served as a regimental quartermaster in the Revolutionary War.

 

Cyrus Baldwin announced the availability at his shop in Cornhill, Boston, an assortment of English goods, including “Best Bohea, Hyson and Souchong Teas.” (p2/c3)

Even after the Boston Tea Party, Cyrus Baldwin (1740-1790) continued to offer tea with the caveat that “The above Teas were imported before any of the East India Company’s tea arrived.” In January 1774, he had a driver take goods to his brother Loammi Baldwin in Woburn, twelve miles northwest of Boston. Among the goods was 26 pounds of Bohea tea. A group calling themselves a “Committee of Suspicion” of Charlestown stopped the ox-cart and driver, seized the tea, and dumped it in the river.

 

Henry Lloyd offered “Choice Bohea Tea” sold “cheap for Cash or on short Credit” at Warehouse No. 5 on the Long Wharf in Boston. (p3/c1)

Henry Lloyd (1709-1775) was a Loyalist merchant in Boston, who often traded on behalf of Oliver DeLancey and John Watts, wealthy merchants of New York City. In the Second Boston Tea Party of March 7, 1774, people dressed as Mohawks boarded a ship in Boston harbor and destroyed 28 chests of tea, 16 of which were consigned to Lloyd. During the Revolutionary War, he provided supplies to the British military, and he went to Halifax in March 1776, when the British evacuated Boston

 

Ward Nicholas Boylston offered at his store in King-Street a “General Assortment of Goods,” including “Bohea Tea, Hyson ditto very good, Souchong ditto in pound Cannisters at 9s4d per Cannister.” (p3/c2)

Born Ward Hallowell, Boylston (1747-1828) changed his surname at the request of his uncle, who promised to leave him large estates in his will. As this advertisement indicates, Boylston left Boston in 1773 for an extended trip through Europe and Asia. In 1775, he arrived in London and remained there as a merchant until 1800, when he returned to Boston. He later made several large bequests to Harvard University.

 

Joshua Blanchard Jr. sold at his store over Blanchard’s Wine-Cellar “Bohea, Hyson and Souchong TEA.” (p3/c2)

Joshua Blanchard Jr. (1718-1786) was a Boston merchant who served on the Committee of Public Safety and was a member of the Boston Committee of Correspondence in 1776. In 1781, he owned the Massachusetts Privateer Sloop Revenge.

 

Caleb Blanchard advertised “Best Bohea and Hyson Teas” among a “large and general assortment of English and India Goods” for sale in Union Street, Boston. (p4/c1)

Caleb Blanchard (b. 1721) was a Loyalist Boston shopkeeper and tanner.

 

Historical Background

The Tea Act, passed by Parliament on May 10, 1773, allowed the British East India Company to sell tea from China in American colonies without paying taxes apart from those imposed by the Townshend Acts.  In September and October, seven ships loaded with more than 2,000 chests of East India Company tea sailed for the colonies. Four were bound for Boston, and the other three for New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston, where consignees would be able to sell the tea for less than smugglers were charging for Dutch tea.

 

Americans learned the details of the Tea Act before the ships arrived, and pressured consignees to resign. The tactic was effective, and consignees in New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston resigned before receiving the tea. Those ships returned to England with the tea. In Boston, however, Royal Governor Thomas Hutchinson refused to allow the tea to be returned to England and convinced the consignees, two of whom were his sons, not to back down. On December 16, a group of from thirty to 130 men, some dressed in Mohawk warrior disguises, boarded the Dartmouth, the Eleanor, and the Beaver and dumped all 342 chests of tea into Boston harbor.

 

The protest was not a dispute over high taxes, as the Tea Act of 1773 actually reduced the price of tea to consumers. The issue was Parliament’s authority to tax the colonies without colonists having any representation in Parliament. The Act also left in place the hated Townshend duties implemented to raise revenue to pay the salaries of some colonial governors and judges. Finally, colonists resented the monopoly the British East India Company enjoyed, giving them a competitive advantage over other colonial tea importers.

 

Bohea, sometimes called Bohea Souchong or Lapsang Bohea, was the largest tea import in colonial times. It was so popular that “bohea” (pronounced “boo-hee”) became slang for “tea.” Hyson Green tea was made from young leaves thinly rolled into furls and was named for English tea merchant Phillip Hyson. It was highly prized by colonial Americans, and the tax on Hyson was higher than for other teas. During the Boston Tea Party, 70 chests of Hyson were destroyed.  Lapsang Souchong was a strong black tea that the British East India Company commonly imported into colonial America. Colonists destroyed 35 chests of Souchong in the Boston Tea Party.

 

Additional Content

This issue also includes a lengthy letter by “Zuinglius” defending the Anglicans’ desire for an American bishop, maintained with public funds, which many opposed as contrary to Congregationalist interests (p1/c1-2); the dying speech of Gilbert Belcher, executed in Albany for counterfeiting New York currency (p2/c2); and numerous notices and other advertisements.

 

The Boston Evening-Post (1735-1775) was a weekly newspaper published in Boston by Thomas Fleet (1685-1758) that developed a reputation for being the best in Boston at the time. After his death, Fleet’s sons Thomas Fleet (1732-1797) and John Fleet (1734-1806) published the Evening-Post until April 1775, when the Revolutionary War brought it to an end.

 

 



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