Paul Revere Paul Revere ( December 21 , 1734May 10 , 1818 ) was an American silversmith , early industrialist , and a patriot in the American Revolution . He is most famous for alerting the Colonial militia to the approach of British forces before the battles of Lexington and Concord , as dramatized in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ' s poem , " Paul Revere ' s Ride . " Revere was a prosperous and prominent Boston silversmith , who helped organize an intelligence and alarm system to keep watch on the British military . Revere later served as a Massachusetts militia officer , though his service culminated after the Penobscot Expedition , one of the most disastrous campaigns of the American Revolutionary War , for which he was absolved of blame . Following the war , Revere returned to his silversmith trade and used the profits from his expanding business to finance his work in iron casting , bronze bell and cannon casting , and the forging of copper bolts and spikes . Finally in 1800 he became the first American to successfully roll copper into sheets for use as sheathing on naval vessels . Early years . Paul Revere was born in the North End of Boston on December 21 , 1734 , according to the Old Style calendar then in use , or January 1 , 1735 , in the modern calendar . His father , a French Huguenot born Apollos Rivoire , came to Boston at the age of 13 and was apprenticed to the silversmith John Coney . By the time he married Deborah Hitchborn , a member of a long - standing Boston family that owned a small shipping wharf , in 1729 , Rivoire had anglicized his name to Paul Revere . Their son , Paul Revere , was the third of 12 children and eventually the eldest surviving son . Revere grew up in the environment of the extended Hitchborn family , and never learned his father ' s native language . At 13 he left school and became an apprentice to his father . The silversmith trade afforded him connections with a cross - section of Boston society , which would serve him well when he became active in the American Revolution . As for religion , although his father attended Puritan services , Revere was drawn to the Church of England . Revere eventually began attending the services of the political and provocative Jonathan Mayhew at the West Church . His father did not approve , and as a result father and son came to blows on one occasion . Revere relented and returned to his father ' s church , although he did become friends with Mayhew , and returned to the West Church in the late 1760s . Revere ' s father died in 1754 , when Paul was legally too young to officially be the master of the family silver shop . In February 1756 , during the French and Indian War ( the North American theater of the Seven Years ' War ) , he enlisted in the provincial army . Possibly he made this decision because of the weak economy , since army service promised consistent pay . Commissioned a second lieutenant in a provincial artillery regiment , he spent the summer at Fort William Henry at the southern end of Lake George in New York as part of an abortive plan for the capture of Fort St . Frédéric . He did not stay long in the army , but returned to Boston and assumed control of the silver shop in his own name . On August 4 , 1757 , he married Sarah Orne ( 1736 – 1773 ) ; their first child was born eight months later . He and Sarah had eight children , but three died young , and only one , Mary , survived her father . 1765 – 1774 : the gathering storm of revolution . Revere ' s business began to suffer when the British economy entered a recession in the years following the Seven Years ' War , and declined further when the Stamp Act of 1765 resulted in a further downturn in the Massachusetts economy . Business was so poor that an attempt was made to attach his property in late 1765 . To help make ends meet he even took up dentistry , a skill set he was taught by a practicing surgeon who lodged at a friend ' s house . One client was Doctor Joseph Warren , a local physician and political opposition leader with whom Revere formed a close friendship . Revere and Warren , in addition to having common political views , were also both active in the same local Masonic lodges . Although Revere was not one of the " Loyal Nine " — organizers of the earliest protests against the Stamp Act — he was well connected with its members , who were laborers and artisans . Revere did not participate in some of the more raucous protests , such as the attack on the home of Lieutenant Governor Thomas Hutchinson . In 1765 , a group of militants who would become known as the " Sons of Liberty " formed , which Revere was a member of . From 1765 on , in support of the dissident cause , he produced engravings and other artifacts with political themes . Among these engravings are a depiction of the arrival of British troops in 1768 ( which he termed " an insolent parade " ) and a famous depiction of the March 1770 Boston Massacre ( see illustration ) . Although the latter was engraved by Revere and he included the inscription , " Engraved , Printed , & Sold by Paul Revere Boston " , it was modeled on a drawing by Henry Pelham , and Revere ' s engraving of the drawing was colored by a third man and printed by a fourth . Revere also produced a bowl commemorating the Massachusetts assembly ' s refusal to retract the Massachusetts Circular Letter . ( This letter , adopted in response to the 1767 Townshend Acts , called for united colonial action against the acts . King George III had issued a demand for its retraction . ) In 1770 Revere purchased a house on North Square in Boston ' s North End . Now a museum , the house provided space for his growing family while he continued to maintain his shop at nearby Clark ' s Wharf . Sarah died in 1773 , and on October 10 of that year Revere married Rachel Walker ( 1745 – 1813 ) . They had eight children , three of whom died young . In November 1773 the merchant ship " Dartmouth " arrived in Boston harbor carrying the first shipment of tea made under the terms of the Tea Act . This act authorized the British East India Company to ship tea ( of which it had huge surpluses due to colonial boycotts organized in response to the Townshend Acts ) directly to the colonies , bypassing colonial merchants . Passage of the act prompted calls for renewed protests against the tea shipments , on which Townshend duties were still levied . Revere and Warren , as members of the informal " North End Caucus " , organized a watch over the " Dartmouth " to prevent the unloading of the tea . Revere took his turns on guard duty , and was one of the ringleaders in the Boston Tea Party of December 16 , when colonists ( some disguised as Indians ) dumped tea from the " Dartmouth " and two other ships into the harbor . From December 1773 to November 1775 , Revere served as a courier for the Boston , traveling to New York and Philadelphia to report on the political unrest in Boston . Research has documented 18 such rides . Notice of some of them was published in Massachusetts newspapers , and British authorities received further intelligence of them from Loyalist Americans . In 1774 , his cousin John on the island of Guernsey wrote to Paul that John had seen reports of Paul ' s role as an " express " ( courier ) in London newspapers . In 1774 , the military governor of Massachusetts , General Thomas Gage , dissolved the provincial assembly on orders from Britain . Governor Gage also closed the port of Boston and all over the city forced private citizens to quarter ( provide lodging for ) soldiers in their homes . During this time , Revere and a group of 30 " mechanics " began meeting in secret at his favorite haunt , the " Green Dragon " , to coordinate the gathering and dissemination of intelligence by " watching the Movements of British Soldiers " . Around this time Revere regularly contributed politically charged engravings to the recently founded Patriot monthly , " Royal American Magazine " . He rode to Portsmouth , New Hampshire in December 1774 upon rumors of an impending landing of British troops there , a journey known in history as the Portsmouth Alarm . Although the rumors were false , his ride sparked a rebel success by provoking locals to raid Fort William and Mary , defended by just six soldiers , for its gunpowder supply . " Midnight Ride " . When British Army activity on April 7 , 1775 , suggested the possibility of troop movements , Joseph Warren sent Revere to warn the Massachusetts Provincial Congress , then sitting in Concord , the site of one of the larger caches of Patriot military supplies . After receiving the warning , Concord residents began moving the military supplies away from the town . One week later , on April 14 , General Gage received instructions from Secretary of State William Legge , Earl of Dartmouth ( dispatched on January 27 ) , to disarm the rebels , who were known to have hidden weapons in Concord , among other locations , and to imprison the rebellion ' s leaders , especially Samuel Adams and John Hancock . Dartmouth gave Gage considerable discretion in his commands . Gage issued orders to Lieutenant Colonel Francis Smith to proceed from Boston " with utmost expedition and secrecy to Concord , where you will seize and destroy . . . all Military stores . . . But you will take care that the soldiers do not plunder the inhabitants or hurt private property . " Gage did not issue written orders for the arrest of rebel leaders , as he feared doing so might spark an uprising . Between 9 and 10 p . m . on the night of April 18 , 1775 , Joseph Warren told Revere and William Dawes that the king ' s troops were about to embark in boats from Boston bound for Cambridge and the road to Lexington and Concord . Warren ' s intelligence suggested that the most likely objectives of the regulars ' movements later that night would be the capture of Adams and Hancock . They did not worry about the possibility of regulars marching to Concord , since the supplies at Concord were safe , but they did think their leaders in Lexington were unaware of the potential danger that night . Revere and Dawes were sent out to warn them and to alert colonial militias in nearby towns . In the days before April 18 , Revere had instructed Robert Newman , the sexton of the North Church , to send a signal by lantern to alert colonists in Charlestown as to the movements of the troops when the information became known . In what is well known today by the phrase " one if by land , two if by sea " , one lantern in the steeple would signal the army ' s choice of the land route while two lanterns would signal the route " by water " across the Charles River . Revere first gave instructions to send the signal to Charlestown . He then crossed the Charles River by rowboat , slipping past the British warship HMS " Somerset " at anchor . Crossings were banned at that hour , but Revere safely landed in Charlestown and rode to Lexington , avoiding a British patrol and later warning almost every house along the route . The Charlestown colonists dispatched additional riders to the north . Riding through present - day Somerville , Medford , and Arlington , Revere warned patriots along his route , many of whom set out on horseback to deliver warnings of their own . By the end of the night there were probably as many as 40 riders throughout Middlesex County carrying the news of the army ' s advance . Revere did not shout the phrase later attributed to him ( " The British are coming ! " ) : His mission depended on secrecy , the countryside was filled with British army patrols , and most of the Massachusetts colonists ( who were predominantly English in ethnic origin ) still considered themselves British . Revere ' s warning , according to eyewitness accounts of the ride and Revere ' s own descriptions , was " The Regulars are coming out . " Revere arrived in Lexington around midnight , with Dawes arriving about a half hour later . They met with Samuel Adams and John Hancock , who were spending the night with Hancock ' s relatives ( in what is now called the Hancock - Clarke House ) , and they spent a great deal of time discussing plans of action upon receiving the news . They believed that the forces leaving the city were too large for the sole task of arresting two men and that Concord was the main target . The Lexington men dispatched riders to the surrounding towns , and Revere and Dawes continued along the road to Concord accompanied by Samuel Prescott , a doctor who happened to be in Lexington " returning from a lady friend ' s house at the awkward hour of 1 a . m . " Revere , Dawes , and Prescott were detained by a British Army patrol in Lincoln at a roadblock on the way to Concord . Prescott jumped his horse over a wall and escaped into the woods ; he eventually reached Concord . Dawes also escaped , though he fell off his horse not long after and did not complete the ride . Revere was captured and questioned by the British soldiers at gunpoint . He told them of the army ' s movement from Boston , and that British army troops would be in some danger if they approached Lexington , because of the large number of hostile militia gathered there . He and other captives taken by the patrol were still escorted east toward Lexington , until about a half mile from Lexington they heard a gunshot . The British major demanded Revere explain the gunfire , and Revere replied it was a signal to " alarm the country " . As the group drew closer to Lexington , the town bell began to clang rapidly , upon which one of the captives proclaimed to the British soldiers " The bell ' s a ' ringing ! The town ' s alarmed , and you ' re all dead men ! " The British soldiers gathered and decided not to press further towards Lexington but instead to free the prisoners and head back to warn their commanders . The British confiscated Revere ' s horse and rode off to warn the approaching army column . Revere walked to Rev . Jonas Clarke ' s house , where Hancock and Adams were staying . As the battle on Lexington Green unfolded , Revere assisted Hancock and his family in their escape from Lexington , helping to carry a trunk of Hancock ' s papers . The ride of the three men triggered a flexible system of " alarm and muster " that had been carefully developed months before , in reaction to the colonists ' impotent response to the Powder Alarm of September 1774 . This system was an improved version of an old network of widespread notification and fast deployment of local militia forces in times of emergency . The colonists had periodically used this system all the way back to the early years of Indian wars in the colony , before it fell into disuse in the French and Indian War . In addition to other express riders delivering messages , bells , drums , alarm guns , bonfires , and a trumpet were used for rapid communication from town to town , notifying the rebels in dozens of eastern Massachusetts villages that they should muster their militias because the regulars in numbers greater than 500 were leaving Boston with possible hostile intentions . This system was so effective that people in towns from Boston were aware of the army ' s movements while they were still unloading boats in Cambridge . Unlike in the Powder Alarm , the alarm raised by the three riders successfully allowed the militia to confront the British troops in Concord , and then harry them all the way back to Boston . War years . Because Boston was besieged after the battles of Lexington and Concord , Revere could not return to the city , which was now firmly in British hands . He boarded in Watertown , where he was eventually joined by Rachel and most of his children ( Paul Jr . , then 15 , remained in Boston to mind the family properties ) . After he was denied a commission in the Continental Army , he tried to find other ways to be useful to the rebel cause . He was retained by the provincial congress as a courier , and he printed local currency which the congress used to pay the troops around Boston . Since there was a desperate shortage of gunpowder , the provincial congress decided in November 1775 to send him to Philadelphia to study the working of the only powder mill in the colonies , in the hopes that he might be able to build a second one in Massachusetts . Revere called on the mill ' s owner , Oswald Eve , armed with a letter from Continental Congressmen Robert Morris and John Dickinson asking Eve to " Chearfully & from Public Spirited Motives give Mr . Revere such information as will inable him to Conduct the business on his return home . " Eve showed Revere around the mill , but refused to give him detailed drawings unless he was first paid a substantial bribe . Despite this chilly reception , Revere was able to discern useful information from the visit . He also acquired , through the work of Samuel Adams , plans for another powder mill . This information enabled Revere to set up a powder mill at Stoughton ( present - day Canton ) . The mill produced tons of gunpowder for the Patriot cause . Revere ' s friend and compatriot Joseph Warren was killed in the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17 , 1775 . Because soldiers killed in battle were often buried in mass graves without ceremony , Warren ' s grave was unmarked . On March 21 , 1776 , several days after the British army left Boston , Revere , Warren ' s brothers , and a few friends went to the battlefield and found a grave containing two bodies . After being buried for 10 months , Warren ' s face was unrecognizable , but Revere was able to identify Warren ' s body because he had placed a false tooth in Warren ' s mouth , and recognized the wire he had used for fastening it . Warren was given a proper funeral and reburied in a marked grave . Militia service . Upon returning to Boston in 1776 , Revere was commissioned a major of infantry in the Massachusetts militia in that April , and transferred to the artillery a month later . In November he was promoted to lieutenant colonel , and was stationed at Castle William , defending Boston harbor . He was generally second or third in the chain of command , and on several occasions he was given command of the fort . He applied his engineering skills to maintaining the fort ' s armaments , even designing and building a caliper to accurately measure cannon balls and cannon bore holes . The service at Castle William was relatively isolated , and personality friction prompted some men to file complaints against Revere . The boredom was alleviated in late August 1777 when Revere was sent with a troop of soldiers to escort prisoners taken in the Battle of Bennington to Boston , where they were confined on board prison ships , and again in September when he was briefly deployed to Rhode Island . In August 1778 Revere ' s regiment served in a combined Franco - American expedition whose objective was to capture the British base at Newport , Rhode Island . His regiment was responsible for erecting and maintaining artillery batteries on Aquidneck Island . The attempt was abandoned by the French when their fleet was scattered in a storm , and Revere ' s regiment returned to Boston before the British sortied from Newport to force the Battle of Rhode Island . Penobscot disaster . The British in June 1779 established a new base on Penobscot Bay in present - day Maine ( which was then part of Massachusetts ) . Massachusetts authorities called out the militia , pressed into service available shipping , and organized a major expedition to dislodge the British . The expedition was a complete fiasco : its land and naval commanders squabbled over control of the expedition , and could not agree on strategy or tactics . The arrival of British reinforcements led to the destruction of the entire Massachusetts fleet . Revere commanded the artillery units for the expedition , and was responsible for organizing the artillery train . He participated in the taking of Bank ' s Island , from which artillery batteries could reach the British ships anchored before Fort George . He next oversaw the transport of the guns from Bank ' s Island to a new position on the heights of the Bagaduce Peninsula that commanded the fort . Although Revere was in favor of storming the fort , Brigadier General Solomon Lovell opted for a siege instead . After further disagreements on how to proceed between Lovell and fleet commander Dudley Saltonstall , Lovell decided to return to the transports on August 12 , a decision supported by Revere . Late the next day British sails were spotted . A mad scramble ensued , and on the 14th the fleet was in retreat heading up the Penobscot River . Revere and his men were put ashore with their stores , and their transports destroyed . At one point Brigadier General Peleg Wadsworth ordered Revere to send his barge in an attempt to recover a ship drifting toward the enemy position . Revere at first resisted , but eventually complied , and Wadsworth told him to expect formal charges over the affair . The incident separated Revere from his men . Moving overland , he eventually managed to regroup most of his troops , and returned to Boston on August 26 . A variety of charges were made against Revere , some of which were exaggerated assignments of blame made by enemies he had made in his command at Castle William . The initial hearings on the matter in September 1779 were inconclusive , but he was asked to resign his post . He repeatedly sought a full court martial to clear his name , but it was not until February 1782 that a court martial heard the issue , exonerating him . Business and social connections . During the Revolutionary War , Revere continued his efforts to move upwards in society into the gentry . After his failed efforts to become a military officer he attempted to become a merchant , but was hindered by a number of factors : while he was a fairly well - off member of the artisan class , he did not have the resources to afford the goods he would have sold as a merchant , nor were lenders in England willing to lend him the required startup capital . Other American merchants of the time collaborated with colleagues in England . However , Revere ' s inexperience as a merchant meant that he had not yet established such relationships and was not able to communicate as effectively on unfamiliar matters . Another factor preventing Revere ’ s success as a merchant was the economic climate of the time period after the war known as the Critical Period ; while the colonies had seen a time of economic growth before the war , the colonies experienced a severe post - war depression , constraining the overall success of his business . While Revere struggled as a merchant , his success as a silversmith enabled him to pursue and leverage more advanced technological developments for the purposes of mass production . For example , rolling mills greatly improved the productivity of his silver shop and enabled his business to move further away from manufacturing high - end customized products in order to focus instead on the production of a more standardized set of goods . In the 18th century , the standard of living continuously improved in America , as genteel goods became increasingly available to the masses . Revere responded particularly well to this trend because his business was not solely manufacturing custom , high end purchases . Smaller products like teaspoons and buckles accounted for the majority of his work , allowing him to build a broad customer base . Revere ' s increased efficiency left financial and human resources available for the exploration of other products , which was essential to overcoming the fluctuating post - war economic climate . In addition to increasing production , the flatting mill enabled Revere to move towards a more managerial position . Later years : entrepreneurship , manufacturing , and politics . After the war , Revere became interested in metal work beyond gold and silver . By 1788 he had invested some of the profits from his growing silverworking trade to construct a large furnace , which would allow him to work with larger quantities of metals at higher temperatures . He soon opened an iron foundry in Boston ' s North End that produced utilitarian cast iron items such as stove backs , fireplace tools , and window weights , marketed to a broad segment of Boston ' s population . Many of Revere ’ s business practices changed when he expanded his practice into ironworking , because he transitioned from just being an artisan to also being an entrepreneur and a manager . In order to make this transition successfully , Revere had to invest substantial quantities of investment capital and time in his foundry . Technological practices . The quasi - industrialization of his practice set Revere apart from his competition . “ Revere ’ s rapid foundry success resulted from fortuitous timing , innate technical aptitude , thorough research , and the casting experience he gained from silverworking . ” This technical proficiency allowed Revere to optimize his work and adapt to a new technological and entrepreneurial model . Revere ’ s location also benefited his endeavors . Revere was entering the field of iron casting in a time when New England cities were becoming centers of industry . The nature of technological advancement was such that many skilled entrepreneurs in a number of fields worked together , in what is known by Nathan Rosenberg as “ technological convergence ” , by which a number of companies work together on challenges in order to spur advances . By accessing the knowledge of other nearby metal workers , Revere was able to successfully explore and master new technologies throughout his career . Labor practices . One of the biggest changes for Revere in his new business was organization of labor . In his earlier days , Revere primarily utilized the apprenticeship model standard for artisan shops at this time , but as his business expanded he hired employees ( wage laborers ) to work for his foundry . Many manufacturers of the era found this transition from master to employer difficult because many employees at the onset of the Industrial Revolution identified themselves as skilled workers , and thus wanted to be treated with the respect and autonomy accorded to artisans . An artisan himself , Revere managed to avoid many of these labor conflicts by adopting a system of employment that still held trappings of the craft system in the form of worker freedoms such as work hour flexibility , wages in line with skill levels , and liquor on the job . Manufacturing : church bells , cannon , and copper products . After mastering the iron casting process and realizing substantial profits from this new product line , Revere identified a burgeoning market for church bells in the religious revival known as the Second Great Awakening that followed the war . Beginning in 1792 he became one of America ' s best - known bell casters , working with sons Paul Jr . and Joseph Warren Revere in the firm Paul Revere & Sons . This firm cast the first bell made in Boston and ultimately produced hundreds of bells , a number of which remain in operation to this day . In 1794 , Revere decided to take the next step in the evolution of his business , expanding his bronze casting work by learning to cast cannon for the federal government , state governments , and private clients . Although the government often had trouble paying him on time , its large orders inspired him to deepen his contracting and seek additional product lines of interest to the military . By 1795 , a growing percentage of his foundry ' s business came from a new product , copper bolts , spikes , and other fittings that he sold to merchants and the Boston naval yard for ship construction . In 1801 , Revere became a pioneer in the production of rolled copper , opening North America ' s first copper mill south of Boston in Canton . Copper from the Revere Copper Company was used to cover the original wooden dome of the Massachusetts State House in 1802 . His copper and brass works eventually grew , through sale and corporate merger , into a large corporation , Revere Copper and Brass , Inc . Steps towards standardized production . During his earlier days as an artisan , especially when working with silver products , Revere produced “ bespoke ” or customized goods . As he shifted to ironworking , he found the need to produce more standardized products , because this made production cheaper . To achieve the beginnings of standardization , Revere used identical molds for casting , especially in the fabrication of mass - produced items such as stoves , ovens , frames , and chimney backs . However , Revere did not totally embrace uniform production . For example , his bells and cannons were all unique products : these large objects required extensive fine - tuning and customization , and the small number of bells and cannon minimized the potential benefits of standardizing them . In addition , even the products that he made in large quantities could not be truly standardized due to technological and skill limitations . His products were rarely ( if ever ) identical , but his processes were well systematized . “ He came to realize that the foundry oven melded the characteristics of tools and machines : it required skilled labor and could be used in a flexible manner to produce different products , but an expert could produce consistent output by following a standard set of production practices . ” Politics and final years . Revere remained politically active throughout his life . Revere ' s business plans in the late 1780s were often stymied by a shortage of adequate money in circulation . Alexander Hamilton ' s national policies regarding banks and industrialization exactly matched his dreams , and he became an ardent Federalist committed to building a robust economy and a powerful nation . He continued to participate in local discussions of political issues even after his retirement in 1811 , and in 1814 circulated a petition offering the government the services of Boston ' s artisans in protecting Boston during the War of 1812 . Revere died on May 10 , 1818 , at the age of 83 , at his home on Charter Street in Boston . He is buried in the Granary Burying Ground on Tremont Street . Legacy . After Revere ' s death , the family business was taken over by his oldest surviving son , Joseph Warren Revere . The copper works founded in 1801 continues today as the Revere Copper Company , with manufacturing divisions in Rome , New York and New Bedford , Massachusetts . Revere ' s original silverware , engravings , and other works are highly regarded today , and can be found on display in museums including the Museum of Fine Arts , Boston and the Metropolitan Museum of Art . The communities of Revere , Massachusetts and Revere , Minnesota bear his name , as do Revere Beach in Revere , Massachusetts , Revere Avenue in The Bronx , New York City , and Paul Revere Road in Arlington Heights in Arlington , Massachusetts . A 25 - cent 1958 U . S . postage stamp in the Liberty Series honors Paul Revere , featuring the portrait by Gilbert Stuart . He also appears on the $ 5 , 000 Series EE U . S . Savings Bond . Longfellow ' s poem . In 1861 , over 40 years after Revere ' s death , Henry Wadsworth Longfellow made the midnight ride the subject of his poem " Paul Revere ' s Ride " which opens : Longfellow ' s poem is not historically accurate , but the inaccuracies were deliberate . Longfellow had researched the historical event , using such works as George Bancroft ' s " History of the United States " , but he manipulated the facts for poetic effect . The poem was one of a series in which he sought to create American legends ; earlier examples include " The Song of Hiawatha " ( 1855 ) and " The Courtship of Miles Standish " ( 1858 ) . Longfellow was successful in creating a legend : Revere ' s stature rose significantly in the years following the poem ' s publication . Parts of the ride route in Massachusetts are now posted with signs marked " Revere ' s Ride " . The route follows Main Street in Charlestown , Broadway and Main Street in Somerville , Main Street and High Street in Medford , Medford Street to Arlington center , and Massachusetts Avenue the rest of the way through Lexington and into Lincoln . Revere ' s ride is reenacted annually .