Benjamin Cutter, William R. Cutter, History of the town of Arlington, Massachusetts, ormerly the second precinct in Cambridge, or District of Menotomy, afterward the town of West Cambridge. 1635-1879 with a genealogical register of the inhabitants of the precinct.

1 At the beginning of the Revolution, on account of the unpopular tax imposed by the British government on tea, it was voted a duty to abstain wholly from the use of that ‘detestable herb,’ and committees were appointed in all neighborhoods, to see that this patriotic resolve was faithfully adhered to. It was hard for the old ladies to refrain constantly from the use of their accustomed refreshing beverage. Mrs. Anna Russell, mother of the late Col. Thomas Russell, though one of the most loyal of women, ‘having a bad head-ache,’ was once tempted to break the rule, and make a strong cup of tea for supper; but, to prevent detection, it was made in her coffee-pot. During the repast, the late Deacon John Adams, the committee-man for that neighborhood, dropped in officially, and was invited (though probably not urged), to ‘take a cup of coffee,’ which, fortunately, was declined, and he left. Years after the Revolution, in talking over their youthful days with the deacon, she rallied him on the ruse she had played; he retorted, by saying that he knew at — the time, by the fragrance, that her coffee-pot was filled with tea, but he did not wish to expose so good a woman. I have often heard my late grandmother, the woman referred to, relate this anecdote of her early life.—Letter of J. B. Russell.