" When the citizens of Boston began to evince a determination to resist the arbitrary , offensive and onerous exactions of the British government , Melvill was conspicuous among the ardent and gallant young men of the capital , for his zeal and intrepidity , during that momentous advent of ... national independence . " Melvill participated in the Boston Tea Party , " that immortal band which in December , 1773 , in presence of the Royal fleet , boarded the tea ships in Boston harbor , and threw their rich cargoes into the ocean . " In March 1776 , when " the British fleet was driven from Boston harbor , Captain Melvill discharged the first guns at the hostile ships , from his battery , at Nantasket . " During the war he " served in the Rhode Island campaigns of 1777 and 1779 . " After the war , he worked as a naval officer ( 1786 – 1820 ) , and Surveyor ( ca. 1796 ) of the Port of Boston at the Boston Custom House on State Street . ( Customs houses were administered by three political appointees : the collector , naval officer and surveyor . These individuals supervised a staff which received cargo manifests from incoming ships , inspected cargoes , assessed customs duties , collected the amounts due for remittance to the United States Department of the Treasury , and fined those who attempted to evade paying the duties . The collector , naval officer and surveyor were paid a portion of the duties and fines they collected , making them lucrative and sought after positions . ) " When the custom house was established in Boston , in 1786 , he was appointed surveyor ; in 1789 was made inspector , and ... in 1814 , he was appointed naval officer of the port . " He served as a town fireward ( 1779 – 1825 ) ; , and for twenty-five years was chairman of the board ; an incorporator of Boston 's Scots Charitable Society ( 1786 ) ; a founder of the Massachusetts General Hospital ( est. 1811 ) ; and president of the Massachusetts Charitable Society ( ca.1825-1826 ) ; " He was in the state legislature in 1832 . " Melvill lived in Boston 's West End " in an old wooden house on the south side of Green Street , between Staniford Street and Bowdoin Square . ... It was a wooden house of two stories . " In 1830 , Oliver Wendell Holmes , Sr. published a poem entitled " The Last Leaf " , which was inspired in part by Melvill , " the last of the cocked hats . " Holmes would later write that Melvill had reminded him of " a withered leaf which has held to its stem through the storms of autumn and winter , and finds itself still clinging to its bough while the new growths of spring are bursting their buds and spreading their foliage all around it . " When Major Melvill retired from the fire department , the '' Columbian Centinal '' for 31 October 1832 wrote , " his associates presented him with a Silver Pitcher , as a token of personal respect , and a public testimonial of his faithful services . " In addition , the younger firemen named an engine for him . When a fire broke out at noon on 7 September 1832 , in a brick building on Green Street , opposite the Melvill house , the eighty-one-year-old major responded in character . He was active by " furnishing the firemen with refreshments , having an open house to all of them , " wrote the '' Firemen 's Advocate '' . But in the events he " took a violent cold , which terminated in the diarrhea ; and owing to his advanced age , and the violence of the disorder , medicine had no effect in checking its progress . " The major died on Sunday evening , 16 September . One of the city 's most prominent and colorful citizens , he was mourned and eulogized for weeks . Firemen paid him a meaningful tribute , the Boston '' Evening Gazette '' reported on 22 September . " The members of the ' Melville Fire Association , ' attached to the Melville Engine , No. 13 , met at their Engine House - attended the funeral - and voted to wear the usual badge of mourning for thirty days . " In 1774 , Melvill married Priscilla Scollay ( 1755 – 1833 ) , the daughter of prominent Boston merchant John Scollay , and sister of William Scollay ( 1756 – 1809 ) , a developer and militia officer . Together , Thomas and Priscilla were the parents of 11 children , including : Melvill 's portrait was painted by Francis Alexander in the 1780s . It is now in the collection of the Bostonian Society , along with a portrait attributed to Benjamin Blyth , and the tricorn hat " said to have been worn by Major Melvill at the Boston Massacre . "
Boston Massacre
Boston Massacre
Thomas Melvill (American patriot)