约翰·安德鲁斯于1743年出生于波士顿，是约翰·安德鲁斯和汉娜·安德鲁斯的儿子. 小安德鲁斯在革命前开始了他的商人生涯，后来在波士顿的联合街经营一家五金公司. In 1771, he married Ruth (often, sometimes even in official documents, “Ruthy”) Barrell, born in 1749. 露西和约翰在革命期间和之后生了四个孩子. John Andrews’s correspondence with Ruthy’s brother William, 他出生在波士顿，但一开始在朴茨茅斯做商人, New Hampshire, and later in Philadelphia, extended from 1771 until William’s death in 1776.

A more particular account

John Andrews’s engaging letters to William Barrell, rediscovered in Philadelphia during the Civil War, 详细描述了革命前和革命期间波士顿的政治和军事事务以及日常生活. 这些信件已被公开报道引用，最近也出现在网站上, 而是经常从马萨诸塞州历史学会在它们被发现后不久出版的“摘要”中摘录.

The destruction of the “banefull herb”

In his 18 December letter, 约翰·安德鲁斯(John Andrews)向他的姐夫(以及现代读者)详细描述了19世纪著名的波士顿倾茶事件. 他在12月16日晚上的“这件事”中写道，“处理得非常有规律” & dispatch.他估计那天在老南聚会所“召集”聚会的人数(五、六千人)似乎很神奇，但比塞缪尔·亚当斯估计的七千人要少. Ironically, Andrews reported that he was at home having tea 当他听到公众会议解散时的嘈杂声，就去看看“接下来会发生什么”,但回到家后，他“心满意足”地完成了自己的晚餐，然后前往格里芬码头，观察那些“不幸的”货物被摧毁的过程. “Before nine O Clock in ye eveng,” he wrote, “every Chest, from on board the 3 vessells, was knocked to pieces and Flung over ye sides.安德鲁斯推测，破坏茶叶的“演员”的“印第安”伪装是当地纳拉甘塞特部落成员的伪装, 他们的“行话除了他们自己谁也听不懂”，并隐瞒了他们的计划和准备.

他还描述了对一名爱尔兰移民的粗暴审判, “one Capt Conner,他试图把从货物中偷来的茶叶藏在他外套的“破”衬里里——这是一个令人难忘的场景, with other details of the Tea Party, 融入了埃斯特·福布斯历史小说的情节, Johnny Tremaine.

"The weather as yet, continues wth us very mild & at the same time very unhealthy"

约翰·安德鲁斯的信以更多来自波士顿的国内和个人消息结束, 在政治和公共事件的描述中经常遗漏的东西. An inflammatory fever “prevailed much” in Boston, 殴打和杀害年轻和健康的人, but after three weeks of illness, Andrews’s wife (Bill Barrell’s sister) “dear Ruthy,” was deemed on the path to recovery.

安德鲁斯12月18日写给巴瑞尔的信的全文一直难以破译. It is filled with the author’s idiosyncratic contractions, abbreviations, and underlining of names and words, 也许是匆忙写的，把“特别帐户”写在一张纸的两面，然后邮寄到费城. If so, 安德鲁斯的计划并没有完全成功，他有时间和空间在信纸上加了两个附言(与原文成直角).

In the addenda, Andrews reported the wreck of a fourth tea ship on Cape Cod, 制造的茶叶箱一共销毁了400个, but also reported that the brig William, the tea ship that never arrived, 也一直在运送路灯照亮波士顿(灯和茶叶的货物后来都被打捞出来了). In a second addenda about business matters, 安德鲁斯注意到已经从费城收到的有关和平的消息, but successful resistance to the importation of tea there.

Phillis Wheatley and dinner for General Washington

约翰·安德鲁斯继续向威廉·巴勒尔描述革命前和第一年波士顿的生活. 两人(还有露西·安德鲁斯)都对菲利斯·惠特利感兴趣, the young Black poet who lived in Boston. 约翰和威廉迫不及待地想看到惠特利的诗歌出版, while Ruthy was a poet in her own right. 虽然12月18日的信中没有提到，惠特利的新出版的副本 Poems on Various Subjects Religious and Moral were part of the cargo of the Dartmouth, one of the ships that brought East India tea to Boston.

约翰·安德鲁斯在围攻期间(1775-1776)留在波士顿，以保护他自己和其他商人的财产, 但当英国军队和效忠者撤离该镇时，他并没有随他们一起离开，而是相反, as he related to William Barrell, 1776年4月，他临时邀请乔治·华盛顿将军及其随行人员(包括玛莎·华盛顿)共进晚餐.

After the Revolution, 安德鲁斯一家住在波士顿公园附近冬天街的一栋雅致的房子里, surrounded by gardens that were a “public benefaction.约翰·安德鲁斯是一家五金公司的老板，曾担任市政委员和镇官员. John and Ruthy later moved to Jamaica Plain, a countrified neighborhood of Roxbury, outside of Boston. John Andrews died there in 1822 at the age of eighty; Ruthy lived on at their country home until her death in 1831.