Capt. Peter Slater and Zilpah Chapin

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Husband Capt. Peter Slater ¹

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           Born: 2 May 1760 1
     Christened: 
           Died: 13 Oct 1831 - Worcester, Worcester Co, MA 2
         Buried: 

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         Father: Capt. Peter Slater (      -      ) 1
         Mother: Abigail [Unk] (1730-1814) 1

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       Marriage: 

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Wife Zilpah Chapin ¹

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           Born: 
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Children

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1 F Elizabeth Slater ¹

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         Spouse: William H. Howard (1798-1879) 1
           Marr: 10 Feb 1819 1

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General Notes: Husband - Capt. Peter Slater

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He was left an orphan at an early age; he was apprenticed to William Gray, a rope-maker, and assisted in the affray between the British soldiers and the rope-makers at Gray's ropewalk which led up to the Boston Massacre of March 5, 1770. Peter's share in the affray, being a lad of ten years, was to hand forward to the older lads the way-lay sticks used in the rope-making with which the soldiers were belaboured and worsted. He was also one of the boys who, disguised with blackened faces and as Indians, on December 17, 1773, threw the hated tea overboard in Boston harbor. His master, William Gray, had forbidden him, a lad of thirteen years, to take part in the street demonstrations of this exciting time, and on the evening in question had locked him in his room, but escaping by a window he made one of the immortal Boston Tea Party, to whom a monument is erected in Hope cemetery, Worcester, Massachusetts, where the later days of Captain Peter Slater were spent. On June 17, 1775, as afterwards related by him to his son Benjamin, Peter Slater stood on Fort Hill and witnessed the Battle of Bunker Hill. On April 6, 1777, he enlisted as matross in Captain Samuel Treadwell's company of artillery from Worcester, in the battalion of Colonel Crane, and served three years, being honorably discharged April 6, 1780. He was present at the Battle of Brandywine, spent the winter in the camp at Valley Forge, and joined in the pursuit of the British army across New Jersey, participating in the Battle of Monmouth, June 28, 1778, where the perfidy of General Lee almost lost the battle to the Americans. In June, 1779, he participated in the gallant defence of Stony Point, where he was taken prisoner and was confined at New York for five months.
After the close of the Revolutionary war he married and took up his residence in Worcester, Massachusetts. He was commissioned captain of the Worcester artillery company by Governor Caleb Strong, May 3, 1803. In the Worcester Palladium of October, 1831, was published the following obituary notice of Captain Slater:
"In this town on the 13 inst. Captain Peter Slater died in the 72d year of his age. Captain Slater was one of those persons who disguised themselves and threw the tea overboard in Boston harbor, in December 1773. He was then but a boy, an apprentice to a rope maker in Boston. He attended the meeting of the citizens of Boston, at the Old South Church, in the afternoon, where the question was agitated relative to the landing of the tea, and some communications made to Roche, the consignee of the cargoes. His master, apprehensive that something would take place, relative to the cargoes of tea then in the harbor, took Peter home and shut him up in his chamber. He escaped by the window, went to a blacksmith shop where he found a man disguised, who told him to tie a handkerchief round his frock, to black his face with charcoal and follow him. The company soon increased to about seventy persons. Captain Slater went on board the brig with five others; two of them brought the tea chests upon deck, two broke open the chests and threw them overboard and Captain Slater with one other stood with poles to push them under water. Not a word was exchanged between the parties from the time that they left Griffin's Wharf, till the cargo was emptied into the harbor, and they returned to the wharf and dispersed. This is the account of that memorable event as given by Captain Slater. He afterwards served five years as a soldier in the Revolution. He was a warm patriot, a brave soldier, a valuable citizen, and an honest man. His funeral will be attended this day at half-past two o'clock, P. M. at the Meeting House of the Second Parish."

1 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Colonial and Revolutionary Families of Pennsylvania (New York, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1911), Pg 1146.

2 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Colonial and Revolutionary Families of Pennsylvania (New York, Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1911), Pg 1147.