Edes, Benjamin
journalist, born Oct. 14, 1732, in Charlestown, Mass.
In 1755 he was the editor and proprietor of the Boston Gazette and Country Journal, a patriotic newspaper that exerted a powerful influence before the revolution and during that struggle. He was one of the Sons of Liberty. In his house the patriots comprising the Boston tea party assembled on the afternoon of Dec. 16, 1773, and drank punch from a bowl that was subsequently given by Mr. Edes's family to the Massachusetts Historical society, afterward disguising themselves as Indians in the Gazette office. During the siege of Boston, Mr. Edes escaped to Watertown, where he continued the publication of the Gazette. After forty-three years of editorship he discontinued it in 1798. He died Dec. 11, 1803, in Boston, Mass.