No doubt the principals in this transaction pledged one another to keep their connection with it a profound secret, and they did so, but the young apprentices and volunteers, who, without premeditation, joined the party on its way to the wharf, were under no such restraint, and we can only wonder that they made no revelation concerning an event of such importance. It was not until a very late period of their lives that any of them opened their lips publicly about it, and when more than half a century had elapsed since it occurred.
The names of fifty-eight of these men, given below, are taken from Thatcher's "Traits of the Tea Party," published in 1835, while nine or ten of them were yet living, the source whence all later lists have been derived. Possibly this list is identical with that mentioned as having once been in the possession of Peter, the son of Benjamin Edes, the printer. Of this list it is safe to say that, while far from being complete, it is correct as far as it goes. The names that follow the list of 1835, have been gleaned from a great variety of sources, principally family tradition.
"List of the tea party, furnished in 1835, by an aged Bostonian, well acquainted with the subject, of the persons generally supposed, within his knowledge, to have been more or less actively engaged." Those starred were then living:
*George R.T. Hewes. Joseph Shed. John Crane. Josiah Wheeler. Thomas Urann. Adam Collson. S. Coolidge. Joseph Payson. James Brewer. Thomas Bolter. Edward Proctor. Samuel Sloper. Thomas Gerrish. Nathaniel Green. *Benj. Simpson. Joseph Eayres. Joseph Lee. William Molineux. Paul Revere. John Spurr. Thomas Moore. Samuel Howard. Matthew Loring. Thomas Spear. Daniel Ingoldson. Richard Hunnewell. John Hooton. *Jonathan Hunnewell. Thomas Chase. Thomas Melvill. *Henry Purkitt. Edward C. Howe. Ebenezer Stevens. Nicholas Campbell. John Russell. Thomas Porter. William Hendley. Benjamin Rice. Samuel Gore. Nathaniel Frothingham. Moses Grant. *Peter Slater. James Starr. Abraham Tower. *William Pierce. William Russell. T. Gammell. ---- McIntosh. Dr. Thomas Young. Joshua Wyeth. Edward Dolbear. ---- Martin. Samuel Peck. Lendall Pitts. *Samuel Sprague. Benjamin Clarke. Richard Hunnewell, Jr. *John Prince.