1778 TEENAGER AT BOSTON TEA PARTY. Now a Soldier Under Sherburne and in Need of a Hospital.

A superb 1778 Revolutionary War manuscript document with the handwriting of two Continental Army soldiers; one who fought at Lexington and Concord, and the other perhaps the youngest participant in the Boston Tea Party

In full:

Harford. January 21th 1778

This May satisfy that I left John Hunnewell soldier belonging to the Continental Army in Cornel Heny Sherwens Ridgment In the cear of the Sileck  men of the town till he can be send to Some Continental Hospetell.

Seth Chapin Lieut.

These certify that I the Subscriber was left *** at Hartford from Jany 19th to the 16th of Febry and was taken care of by the Selectmen of sd Hartford during that time.

John Hunnewell Souldier
in Capt Webb's Company in Coln Sherburn's
Regt.

Seth Chapin (1746-1833) was a corporal in Captain John Albee's 1st Company, which answered the Lexington alarm and marched from Mendon, MA to Lexington on April 19, 1775. As part of Albee's Company, Chapin likely also would have fought at Bunker Hill, Where Albee's unit was heavily involved.

On July 19, 1777 Chapin was assigned to Sherburne's Rhode Island battalion, where he was serving when he wrote this note. He also served as an American spy during under General Horatio Gates.

But John Hunnewell is the interesting one on this already significant Revolutionary War document. 

In 1773, Hunnewell had been just 14-year-old. He was working as a mason’s apprentice when he is said to have joined his father and brother on Griffin’s Wharf to dump East India Company tea into Boston Harbor, making him perhaps the youngest actual participant in the powder keg event of the American Revolutionary War. 

And here he is, just 5 years later, 19 years old, fighting for American Liberty and apparently wounded in action. Like Chapin, Hunnewell also served in Sherburne's Regiment, eventually rising to the rank of a very young Captain.