https://www.bostonteapartyship.com/participants-in-the-boston-tea-party
Today, Dec 16, 2023, is the 250th Anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. You have likely seen some references to it recently. In reading about it, the name of Capt. Hezekiah Coffin will be mentioned. He was a Nantucket Quaker and Captain of the ship "Beaver". The Beaver was one of three ships involved in the Boston Tea Party. Whenever the family name of Coffin is involved, it prompts me to do a little research.
Hezekiah Coffin was born Aug 21, 1741 on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts, a great great grandson of Tristram Coffin, our ancestor and one of the founders of Nantucket. Hezekiah married Abigail Coleman in 1762. The Coffins were a seafaring and whaling family. Hezekiah's son, Hezekiah Jr, died at sea in 1815 and Hezekiah Jrs son Owen Coffin was lost in 1821 in the wreck of the whaleship Essex (which I have shared the story of previously).
Replica of the Beaver in Boston
https://www.bostonteapartyship.com/history-brig-beaver
The Beaver was built in 1772 and her maiden voyage was to deliver whale oil to London from Nantucket. Apparently, the Beaver and another ship, the "Dartmouth", were in London waiting for a return cargo when they "unwittingly agreed to transport the British East India Company tea to Boston". Captains were responsible to find return cargo, so 112 chests of British tea, each weighing about 350 pounds, arrived in Boston on Dec 15, 1773 on board the Beaver. The Dartmouth and the Eleanor held the remaining 230 chests of tea that were dumped into Boston Harbor the following evening, Dec 16. I'm sure the Captain was a witness to the event and wonder what his thoughts were.
In February 1774, Capt Coffin and the Beaver returned to London with another cargo of whale oil and a passenger who was to report on the events of the Boston Tea Party to the British East India Company. While in England, Hezekiah Coffin died and the Beaver was sold. He was our 3rd cousin 6 times removed ( removed is how many generations away from us). We may have a few other distant cousins who participated, but it is a long list to sift thru. A project for another day perhaps.
I won't even try to explain the intricacies of the cause of the Boston Tea Party, but here are several places to read about it.
SOURCES:
https://nha.org/research/nantucket-history/history-topics/ships-of-the-boston-tea-party-eleanor-beaver-and-dartmouth/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Tea_Party
https://www.bostonteapartyship.com/history-brig-beaver
https://www.bostonteapartyship.com/participants-in-the-boston-tea-party
https://billofrightsinstitute.org/essays/the-boston-tea-party
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-many-myths-of-the-boston-tea-party-180983399/
