BOSTON TEA PARTY

England in 1773 passed a law levying a tax on all tea shipped into the American Colonies by the East India Tea Company.

Three cargoes of tea were in Boston harbor when from a meeting of citizens, December 16, 1773, held at the Old South Church, forty or fifty men disguised as Indians emerged and in two or three hours three hundred and forty-two chests of tea valued at about eighteen hundred pounds sterling were emptied into the sea (see Brother Elroy McKendree Avery's History of the United States and Its People, volume v, page 166). The secrecy and dispatch of the whole affair definitely indicates previous rehearsals under competent leadership. On that very night the records written by the Secretary state that Lodge of Saint Andrew closed until the next night “On account of the few members in attendance” and then the entire page is filled up with the letters T made large (see Centennial Memorial of Saint Andrew's Lodge, page 347, also Green Dragon Tavern).