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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] Paul Revere Biography REVERE, Paul (1735–1818). An American patriot, born in Boston, Mass. He learned from his father the trade of a goldsmith and soon became skillful as an engraver on silverware. In 1756 he served as a lieutenant in the Crown Point expedition and, returning to Boston, established himself as a goldsmith and a copper-plate engraver. He was a member of the grand jury which in 1774 refused to serve on account of the Act of Parliament making judges independent of the Legislature as regards salary. He engraved the plates and printed the paper money ordered in 1775 by the Provincial Congress and in the same year established a powder mill in Boston. He early took an active interest in the disputes with the English ministry, participating in the Tea Party (1773) and carrying the news of it to New York and Philadelphia, and in 1774 became a member of a society organized to watch the British in Boston. On April 18–19, 1775, at the request of Joseph Warren, he made his memorable midnight ride to Lexington to warn Hancock and Samuel Adams of the approach of English troops. Then, passing on towards Concord to warn the people there, he was captured by a party of British soldiers and was brought back to Lexington, where he was released on the next day. This ride has been the theme of a celebrated poem, "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere," by Longfellow. Subsequently becoming lieutenant colonel of State artillery, Revere accompanied the unsuccessful Penobscot expedition in 1779. Consult C. F. Gettemy, True Story of Paul Revere (Boston, 1905). The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XIX (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 752. |