Thomas Melvill (American patriot)

Thomas Melvill or Thomas Melville (1751–1832) of Boston, Massachusetts, was a merchant, member of the Sons of Liberty, participant in the Boston Tea Party, a major in the American Revolution, a longtime fireman in the Boston Fire Department, state legislator, and paternal grandfather of writer Herman Melville.

Born in Boston to Scottish-born merchant Allan Melvill (1728-1761) and Jean Cargill (ca. 1730-1759), Thomas Melvill attended to become a minister, and attended the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), from which he graduated in 1769. In July 1773 he was awarded an honorary master of arts degree by Harvard College. He married Priscilla Scollay in 1774. A daughter married a brother of US Senator James De Wolf. Friends included Samuel Adams.

"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." He 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."

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