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Illustrated Episode · Volume III, chapter 57 · 22 April 1774

The captain hid eighteen chests

By lantern light on a ship's deck at dusk, New Yorkers in shirts and round hats tip a stove-in tea chest over the rail so dark tea pours into the river, while others carry chests from an open hatch and a gentleman in a white wig looks on.
New York, 22 April 1774. Captain Chambers swears he has no tea, but word has come from Philadelphia that eighteen chests lie hidden aboard his ship, the London. That evening citizens board her unmasked, in their own clothes, and tip the tea over the rail into the river. Rothbard says the New Yorkers followed Boston's example while the treacherous captain fled to another vessel. Chapter 57 of Conceived in Liberty.

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Adapted from Murray N. Rothbard, Conceived in Liberty (Mises Institute, 2011), CC BY 3.0.

What happened

New York had prepared for the tea for months. The Sons of Liberty drew up an association in November, pressed the three tea consignees into resigning, and warned the harbor pilots off any tea ship. When the Nancy arrived in April with six hundred and ninety-eight chests, Captain Lockyer was escorted into the city and agreed to sail home without landing a leaf. A few days later the London came in under Captain Chambers, who said he carried none. But the committee had word from Philadelphia that eighteen chests of his own tea lay hidden in the hold. On the evening of 22 April a crowd boarded the ship, took out the tea, broke the cases and started the contents into the river, with several men of reputation placed below to keep tally. Unlike Boston's, this crowd came in its own clothes; the Sons had Mohawk disguises ready, but the people would not wait. Chambers escaped with some risk of his life to the Nancy, and both captains sailed for England. Rothbard's point is the same as with Boston: in New York, Philadelphia and Charleston alike, the colonists had physically kept the East India tea from reaching its consignees, and soon they shunned tea altogether.

Sources

  1. Murray N. Rothbard, Conceived in Liberty (Auburn, Ala.: Mises Institute, 2011 single-volume ed.), vol. III, ch. 57, 'The Other Colonies Resist Tea', pp. 1033-1035. CC BY 3.0. Rothbard
  2. Philipse Manor Hall State Historic Site, 'The New York Tea Party of 1774' (accessed 2026-09-30): the boarding about 8 P.M., the crowd dispersed by 10 P.M., the tea broken out and started into the river, tally-keepers placed below, the undisguised crowd, Chambers's escape; it quotes the contemporary newspaper account, which was not itself opened. Secondary source
  3. Fraunces Tavern Museum, 'The New York Tea Party' (accessed 2026-09-30): the night of 22 April 1774, the mob did not disguise itself, eighteen chests broken open and dumped into the river, word from Philadelphia, the Nancy's 698 chests, Lockyer's apology at Fraunces Tavern. Secondary source
  4. '1774 Patriots: New York's Tea Party', New York Almanack (June 2018; accessed 2026-09-30): Chambers denied carrying tea, word from Philadelphia of 18 chests hidden aboard, the tea discovered, opened and dumped into the river, the empty chests burned, Chambers and Lockyer sailing for England together. Secondary source