2026 is an important time for reflection and celebration as we come together to celebrate the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. It is a fitting moment in our history to reflect upon the events and people that made America’s independence a reality. Many of those great men were also Masons celebrated in our Masonic Museum and Library.
It was not until the mid-1700s that the colonies in North America started to yield profits for Britain and France. The colonies had population growth, a diversification of their economies, and trade expansion to become more attractive markets for goods. The land between the colonies was largely dominated by Indian tribes. On May 28, 1754, the battle over land and trade in the colonies would begin a global conflict — the French and Indian War (known in Europe as the Seven Years’ War). Initially, the war did not go well for the British. In fact, an early attempt by Lieutenant Colonel George Washington to defeat the French in the Ohio River Valley failed. For several years, the war settled into a relative stalemate while the British and French fought each other abroad. In 1757, the war turned toward the British. The French and Indian War would end with the signing of the Treaty of Paris on February 10, 1763.
Colonial Taxation
Following the war, Britain gained large swaths of French territory but found governance over this broad expansion difficult. Britain was also facing significant debts at the end of the war. In addition, Britain left an army in the colonies to deal with issues, which added to the expenses of the debt-riddled nation. Eventually, Britain felt it was time for the colonists to pay for their protection.
On April 5, 1764, the British Parliament imposed the Sugar Act, or the American Revenue Act, in the Thirteen Colonies. The Sugar Act enforced taxes on molasses and imposed new taxes on refined sugar, wine, coffee, and other goods. This new act also made stricter rules around smuggling on all goods imposed with taxes.
The Sugar Act impacted smugglers and merchants, but it did not generate widespread anger from the citizens of the Thirteen Colonies. In many ways, it was seen as a way to reduce smuggling and stop illegal trading, particularly of molasses, which was used to make rum.
A year later, the British government implemented the Stamp Act. The Stamp Act of 1765 imposed a new tax on most print materials. It impacted the cost of newspapers, books, pamphlets, legal documents, etc. This new tax sparked widespread anger because it impacted almost all colonists. At this time, most colonists were still loyal to the British Crown and viewed themselves as British. They did not understand why there were still troops stationed in the colonies, and they did not understand why they were being singularly taxed without a say in what was taxed or how the money was spent. Due to the fury it caused, the British government repealed the tax a year later.
Tensions quieted temporarily in the colonies until the British passed the Townshend Acts in 1767, which imposed taxes on items such as glass, lead, paint, paper and tea. This caused renewed concern and resistance in the colonies, leading to boycotts and harassment of customs commissioners, especially in Boston. James Otis, Jr., Samuel Adams, and others argued that their rights were being infringed upon by Parliament. They decried, “no taxation without representation.” Conflict increased between Bostonians and royal customs officials. British soldiers were sent to occupy Boston in 1768.
The British occupation did not have the intended effect. In fact, it caused anger to rise on March 5, 1770, the colonists turned out into the cold night taunting and throwing things at the British soldiers around town. King Street, site of the Custom House, would become the site of greatest conflict that night. Ultimately, the British troops opened fire, killing five colonists.
Samuel Adams, a member of the Sons of Liberty, would become a distinctive figure and leader after what became known as the Boston Massacre. He led the funeral procession for the victims of the massacre and urged colonial unity over British oppression. News of the Boston Massacre spread across the other twelve colonies.
The British Parliament passed the Tea Act in May 1773 to help give the East India Company a monopoly on the transport of tea. This meant that the tea traders in the colonies could no longer be competitive in the market. The East India Company sent several ships to the colonies, but they did not unload in Philadelphia or New York, fearing the anger in the colonies.
On December 16, 1773, a group of Bostonian colonists, dressed as Indigenous people to hide their identity, boarded the ships sitting in the Boston Harbor. They dumped 342 chests of tea into the harbor. This would become known as the Boston Tea Party. In response, an angry Parliament passed the Coercive Acts (called the Intolerable Acts by Americans) to reassert its authority in Massachusetts. The Acts closed the Boston Harbor to trade, limited free elections in Massachusetts, and generally instituted martial law.
While Britain exerted control over Massachusetts, the other colonies saw the measures as extreme. It generated sympathy, but it also created fear that this “tyranny” would befall all of the colonies. Rather than extinguishing the unrest, it merely fueled the flames of the revolution.
From September 5 to October 26, 1774, the First Continental Congress met. It was attended by twelve of the thirteen colonies. They met in Philadelphia to denounce the Intolerable Acts and taxation without representation. They did not demand independence at that time, but they agreed to meet again in May 1775 unless Parliament addressed their concerns. By the spring of 1775, the colonists knew that Britain had no intention of addressing their grievances.
The War Begins
By April 1775, British General Thomas Gage, appointed Royal Governor of Massachusetts, worried they were on the cusp of an outright rebellion in Massachusetts. He received orders to arrest Sam Adams and John Hancock, who were thought to be near Lexington, and he had heard that colonists were stockpiling guns and powder in Concord. He decided to march into Lexington and Concord. American spies learned of the plan, and riders, such as Paul Revere, spread the word ahead of the British troops’ arrival. Colonial militiamen met the British force, and a bloody encounter ensued. The war began.
A few weeks later, delegates met in Philadelphia for the Second Continental Congress, and John Hancock was elected President of Congress. On June 14, Congress voted to create the Continental Army. On June 15, the Second Continental Congress unanimously appointed George Washington as commander-in-chief of the newly created Continental Army. On July 3, 1775, General Washington arrived in Cambridge to take command of the militiamen and turn them into an army.
July 5, 1775, Congress approved the Olive Branch Petition as a final attempt to reconcile with Britain. The king refused to see the colonist who brought the petition to England, and he issued a proclamation that America was in a state of “open and avowed rebellion.”
In January 1776, England-born political philosopher and writer Thomas Paine wrote and published his most famous work: Common Sense. This 47-page pamphlet was the first to advocate for American independence. The Second Continental Congress was meeting in Philadelphia in the spring of 1776, and it was caught between being the operating government of the colonies at war, but not yet separated from Britain. Washington was keeping Congress updated on the progress of the war and requesting supplies and money, while there continued to be growing sentiment that independence from Britain must happen.
Declaration of Independence from Britain
Virginia Representative Richard Henry Lee submitted a formal resolution for independence on June 7, 1776. A committee composed of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Roger Sherman, Robert Livingston, and Benjamin Franklin was formed to draft a declaration to that effect. Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence and submitted it to the Continental Congress for approval. On July 2, 1776, Congress voted in favor of independence. On July 4, the final draft of the Declaration of Independence was approved.
Fifty men from thirteen states signed the document on August 2, 1776. The other six men signed over the next year and a half. John Hancock, as President of the Second Continental Congress, signed first. All those who signed the document did so knowing they were risking their lives.
The day after Christmas, December 26, 1776, Washington rallied his troops to cross the Delaware River to surprise Hessian mercenaries fighting for Great Britain. Washington’s attack was successful despite the struggles of the beleaguered colonial army.
The strongest resistance to Britain was found in the New England colonies, so the British planned a strategy to isolate New England from the rest of the colonies. In 1777, British General Burgoyne’s army marched south from Canada, and British General Barry St. Leger drove his army down from upstate New York to join with General Howe’s forces. However, Howe stayed in Philadelphia for the winter, while Washington’s Continental Army withdrew to quarters near Valley Forge.
The French had been secretly aiding the colonists since 1776. During the long winter, Washington’s troops received training and discipline from Prussian military officer Baron Friedrich von Steuben, sent by the French, and the leadership of Marquis de Lafayette, a French aristocrat.
The Turning Point
In October 1777, the Second Battle of Saratoga near Saratoga, New York, ended with a decisive American victory over Burgoyne and St. Leger’s army. This became a turning point in the Revolutionary War. On February 6, 1778, France signed the Treaty of Alliance and the Treaty of Amity and Commerce with the United States. This recognized American independence and officially brought France into the war.
The years 1779 to 1781 were difficult for the Continental Army. General Benedict Arnold defected to the British, and there were other mutinies within the troops. During this time, British troops decided to focus on the southern colonies. They occupied Georgia by 1779 and captured Charleston, South Carolina, in May 1780.
By the beginning of 1781, the colonists’ morale was very low. The Americans desperately needed a significant military victory.
In the fall of 1781, American troops had forced British General Charles Cornwallis and his men to Virginia’s Yorktown peninsula. Washington moved against them while a fleet of French warships prevented British reinforcements or evacuation. Cornwallis was forced to surrender his entire army.
Although the Americans had won the Battle of Yorktown, British troops remained in Charleston and New York. The British finally removed troops from Charleston and Savannah in late 1782. On September 3, 1783, Great Britain formally recognized the United States in the Treaty of Paris. Britain signed separate peace treaties with France and Spain (Spain had entered into war with Britain in 1779). After eight long years, the Revolutionary War was over.
Masonic Museum & Library
The Masonic Museum and Library features some of the important Masons from the Revolutionary War. In the Masonic Museum, the Patriots and Pathmakers Gallery features the Masonic founders of our country and state. In addition to featuring George Washington, panels in the Masonic Museum feature Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock, and Paul Revere.
In addition, there is an apron on display that belonged to Garrett C. Stewart. According to his family, Stewart served as a Revolutionary War engineer under General George Washington. The apron was brought over by Stewart from Scotland.
Brother Stewart was a member of the illustrious group of patriots that would become what we know today as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. In June 1775, the Continental Congress created the Continental Army. This was an attempt to coordinate military operations across the colonies. Up to this point, each colony had its own local militia consisting of citizen-soldiers. When George Washington was unanimously elected commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, Congress also called for the army to have a chief engineer and two assistants.
It was not until March 11, 1779, that Congress established the Corps of Engineers. This group of civilians, members of the Continental Army, and French officers played a critical role in battles such as Bunker Hill, Saratoga, and Yorktown. The Corps of Engineers was reestablished in 1802 and has been in continuous existence since that time.
Revolutionary War Heroes Featured in the Masonic Museum
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on January 17, 1706, to parents Josiah and Abiah Franklin. Franklin was one of seventeen children. While his father was his first teacher, he did receive formal schooling at the age of eight years old. While he showed talent, his family could only afford for him to attend school for two years. At the age of ten, he left school to work in his father’s candle shop.
Franklin became an apprentice at his older brother’s print shop. It was there that he began working for one of the first newspapers in America: The New England Courant. In addition to learning the trade, Franklin began writing there, advocating for free speech under the pseudonym Silence Dogood. At the age of seventeen, Franklin ran away to Philadelphia and found work as a printer. After making various connections in Philadelphia, he was encouraged to go to London, where he once again found himself working as a typesetter in a print shop. After two years in London, Franklin returned to Philadelphia with the help of Thomas Denham, an English merchant who employed him as a clerk, shopkeeper, and bookkeeper.
Upon the death of Mr. Denham, Franklin returned to printing, and, in 1728, he formed a partnership with Hugh Meredith. Two years later, at the age of twenty-four, he became the sole owner of the business, which included the Philadelphia newspaper The Pennsylvania Gazette. It was here that he would also print Poor Richard’s Almanack.
According to Brother William J. Paterson’s Benjamin Franklin, the Freemason, “Early in the year 1731, we find that the young printer was Entered, Passed, and Raised to the Sublime Degree of a Master Mason in St. John’s Lodge, held at the Tun Tavern in Water St., Philadelphia. The cost of his entrance fee was three pounds sterling…” Thus began Franklin’s journey in Freemasonry. In 1734, at his own expense, he published The Constitutions of Freemasons by James Anderson. Franklin was an active Mason. He served as Secretary of St. John’s Lodge and was Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania in 1734. On June 10, 1749, he was appointed Provincial Grand Master by Thomas Oxnard, making him the first Mason born in America to hold the position. The minutes of the 1760 Grand Lodge of England in London show that Franklin was in attendance at their session as “Provincial Grand Master.”
Franklin held many political positions in colonial America. One of these positions was acting as an agent to Great Britain. On November 7, 1764, Franklin traveled to England. It was during this trip that Franklin spoke with Britain’s Prime Minister over concerns surrounding Britain’s significant debt. Prime Minister George Grenville expressed concern about the colonies needing to help Britain financially following the Seven Years’ War and pay for the British Army that remained in the colonies. Franklin suggested that issuing bills of credit with a 6% annual rate of interest would both generate income and stimulate trade. Grenville rejected this idea, and instead, the Stamp Act of 1765 was implemented.
Initially, colonists thought that Franklin was in support of the Stamp Act, but this issue was clarified and resolved a year later. Under a new Prime Minister, a committee of the whole House of Commons was established to consider whether the Act should remain or be repealed. Franklin testified against the Act, and it was repealed. While Franklin enjoyed living in England and his travels around the British Isles and Europe, he recognized the growing tensions, particularly after the implementation of the Townshend Acts.
Franklin sought to bring peace between the colonies and the British government. However, each action by the British government only escalated tensions in the colonies. Following the Boston Tea Party, Franklin was brought before the British Government’s Privy Council. His relationship with Britain was now clearly strained. Yet Franklin continued to work to find a way toward peace. In early 1775, Franklin and William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, the man often credited with Britain’s victory in the Seven Years’ War, tried to put forth an initiative to bring peace. It was rejected by the government. Franklin escaped on a ship to America shortly before the warrant was issued for his arrest.
By the time Franklin returned to Philadelphia, the American Revolution had begun with the shots fired at Lexington and Concord the previous month. Franklin was unanimously chosen by the Pennsylvania Assembly to represent them at the Second Continental Congress. He was then chosen by the Congress to be on the Committee of Five that drafted the Declaration of Independence. While the document was written by Thomas Jefferson, Franklin acted as an editor and made small changes prior to it being sent to the full Congress. Franklin was one of the fifty-six signers of the Declaration of Independence.
In October 1776, Franklin went to France, charged with the task of diplomacy. Franklin was seen as a scientist and intellectual, and he was embraced by the French aristocrats and intellectuals as the embodiment of the New World Enlightenment.
Franklin was not only an ardent Freemason in the Americas, but he also attended Lodges abroad when he was in France and the British Isles. In 1777, he was made a member of Loge des Neuf Soeurs, in Paris (sometimes called the Lodge of the Nine Muses). In 1778, he was elected Venerable (Worshipful Master) and helped initiate Voltaire into the Lodge. The following year, he was reelected Venerable.
Franklin’s popularity and diplomatic skills, along with the first American battlefield success at Saratoga, would convince France to recognize American Independence and support the colonists in their war against Britain. On February 6, 1778, Benjamin Franklin and two other commissioners signed the Treaty of Alliance and the Treaty of Amity and Commerce, which formally brought France into the war.
In 1779, Franklin presented his credentials to the French court. This made Franklin the first American Minister (what we know today as Ambassador) to be received by a foreign government. Thomas Jefferson succeeded Franklin in this role in 1785.
In 1782, Franklin rejected Britain’s peace overtures. He refused a settlement that kept the colonies within the British Empire or a peace settlement that was separate from France. On September 27, Franklin was joined by John Adams and John Jay in formal negotiations to end the war. The preliminary articles of peace were signed in Paris on November 30, but they did not go into effect until Britain and France signed a similar treaty on January 20, 1783. Benjamin Franklin signed the formal Treaty of Paris agreement on September 3, 1783, ending the Revolutionary War.
Franklin returned home in 1785 to the admiration of his countrymen. Although he was in poor health, he signed the U.S. Constitution in 1787. In 1790, at the age of eighty-four, Franklin passed away in his home in Philadelphia.
A young Franklin wrote his own epitaph in 1728. This was printed in the papers owned by his grandson, William Temple Franklin:
“The Body of B. Franklin, Printer; like the Cover of an old Book, Its Contents torn out, And stript of its Lettering and Gilding, Lies here, Food for Worms. But the Work shall not be wholly lost; For it will, as he believ’d, appear once more, In a new & more perfect Edition, Corrected and amended By the Author.”
Benjamin Franklin was a man of vast talents and countless contributions. Numerous pages could be written about his inventions, scientific inquiries, political contributions, and societal contributions. For the purpose of this article, we celebrate him for the incredible patriot he was, along with his dedication to Freemasonry.
John Hancock
John Hancock was born on January 12, 1737 (according to the calendar in use at the time — now it would be January 23), in Braintree (now Quincy), Massachusetts. He was fifteen when his father, Reverend John Hancock, passed away. He was then raised by his aunt, Lydia, and uncle, Thomas. Thomas Hancock was one of the wealthiest merchants in Boston and lived in a grand mansion on Beacon Hill.
Hancock went to Boston Latin School and graduated from Harvard in 1754. Upon graduation, he returned to his uncle’s home to work in his counting house. As part of learning the business, he went to London in 1760. On January 26, 1762, he became a member of Merchants Lodge No. 277, Quebec, Canada. He affiliated with St. Andrews Lodge, Boston, on October 14, 1762. By 1763, he became a partner of Thomas Hancock and Company.
A year later, his uncle passed away. At only 27 years of age, Hancock became owner of the company and thousands of acres of land, as well the heir to his uncle’s wealth, making him one of the wealthiest men in the colonies.
As Hancock was dealing with the passing of his uncle and assuming full responsibility of the company, the British Parliament imposed the Sugar Act. While Bostonians such as Samuel Adams and James Otis decried the injustice of taxation without representation, Hancock was critical of the tax for economic reasons. In March 1765, he was elected as one of Boston’s five selectmen. Then, Parliament passed the Stamp Act, further angering Hancock. While some wanted to riot, Hancock showed his resistance by boycotting British goods. Hancock would also become a key member and leader of the Sons of Liberty.
As Parliament was repealing the Stamp Act a year later, Hancock was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives. Tensions continued to escalate when the Townshend Act was passed in 1767. In addition to taxation on imports, the new act was aimed to strengthen the customs agency by creating the American Customs Board. This newly empowered customs agency was to help prevent smuggling.
On April 9, 1768, Hancock was summoned to his ship, Lydia, in the Boston Harbor. Customs officials had boarded the ship and wanted to inspect it. Hancock refused to allow them below deck, citing their lack of appropriate paperwork (writ of assistance). A month later, Hancock’s sloop, Liberty, arrived in Boston Harbor carrying wine. Hancock would be accused of unloading a portion of the wine to avoid taxation. Although court proceedings went on for months, with Samuel Adams defending Hancock, charges were later dropped without explanation.
Following the Boston Massacre on March 5, 1770, John Hancock immediately demanded the governor remove British troops from the city. At the funeral, Hancock spoke, giving a glowing tribute of the deceased and decrying the conduct of the officers. This angered the Governor and placed Hancock and Adams at the center of his ire.
Things would continue to escalate with the passage of the Tea Act in 1773. While Hancock did not actively participate in the Boston Tea Party, he did approve of the action taken.
Hancock was not a delegate to the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia. However, he was elected to be a delegate at the Second Continental Congress. At the same time, he was serving as the president of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress. After attending the Provincial Congress, Hancock and Samuel Adams decided not to return to Boston out of fear that British officials might arrest them. Instead, they went to Hancock’s home in Lexington.
On April 14, 1775, British General Thomas Gage was sent a letter “to arrest the principal actors and abettors in the Provincial Congress.” Gage sent soldiers to Lexington and Concord. Messengers, such as Paul Revere, went to warn the colonists that the British troops were on their way.
Hancock and Adams would escape, but the battle that ensued would spark the Revolutionary War. Hancock made his way to the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia. On May 24, 1775, he was unanimously elected president. Hancock would remain president until October 1777.
Since Hancock was president when Congress voted to adopt the Declaration of Independence, he was the first to formally sign the document. When it was first published, his signature as the presiding officer was the only one on the document, again placing his life in danger. As all delegates went to sign the document we see today, historic lore says that Hancock “boldly inscribed his name so the English king would not need glasses to read it.”
During Hancock’s time as President of Congress, he engaged in constant correspondence. He was writing to colonial officials, raising money, and procuring supplies and troops for Washington’s army. He was chair of the Marine Committee, and he helped to create a small fleet.
Hancock returned to Boston upon leaving Congress. While his fortune had suffered because of the war, he continued to give to the poor and support widows and orphans.
Hancock rejoined the Continental Congress in Pennsylvania in June 1778, and in July he joined the other delegates in signing the Articles of Confederation. He was a member of the convention that framed the Constitution for the State of Massachusetts, and was elected the First Governor of Massachusetts in 1780-85 and again from 1787 until his death. Hancock would govern Massachusetts through the end of the war and into the postwar period. Hancock’s backing of the federal constitution was influential in its passage at
the Massachusetts convention in 1787.
At age fifty-six, Hancock passed away with his wife at his side on October 8, 1793. Hancock had married Dorothy Quincy on August 28, 1775. They had two children, but both their daughter and son died before reaching adulthood.
Paul Revere
On December 21, 1734 (according to the calendar in use at the time – now it would be January 1, 1735), Paul Revere was born in Boston’s North End to Paul Revere (a French immigrant formerly named Apollos Rivoire) and Deborah Hichborn (daughter of a local artisan family). He was the third child born and their eldest surviving son.
Revere was educated at the North Writing School. At the age of thirteen, he left school to become an apprentice to his father, learning the art of gold and silversmithing in his father’s shop. At the age of nineteen, his father passed away, leaving Revere responsible for providing for the family. However, he was not of legal age to be master of the family silver shop.
In 1756, Revere enlisted in the provincial army and received a commission as a second lieutenant in the Massachusetts artillery. The French and Indian War had started two years prior, and he was sent to upstate New York to fight the French.
Revere did not stay long in the army, instead he returned to Boston in the fall of 1756. Upon his return, he assumed control of the family’s silver shop in his own name, and began building his business. Revere became a master craftsman, with his shop at the center of his professional life for more than forty years. He would go on to employ numerous apprentices and journeymen, and his shop produced items from simple spoons to candlesticks to magnificent tea sets. Revere’s shop even cast the first church bell in Boston. Revere expanded his business into dentistry to bolster his income when the colonial economy faced recessions due to the French and Indian War and the subsequent Stamp Act of 1765.
In August 1757, Revere married Sarah Orne. They would be blessed with eight children. After Sarah’s death in 1773, he married Rachel Walker. This union would also be blessed with eight children.
Freemasonry was organized in Massachusetts in 1783, the year before Revere’s birth. Provincial Grand Master Henry Price called an assembly of Masons and created the Provincial Grand Lodge of Massachusetts. It is believed that St. John’s Lodge of Boston was created that day.
In 1752, something occurred within Freemasonry in Massachusetts that caused a split among the members. In 1754, a petition for a charter was sent to the Grand Lodge of Scotland. The Charter was issued November 30, 1756, for St. Andrew’s Lodge. This would become a rivalry between the “Antients” (Ancients) and the “Moderns” in the New World, just as it had back in the Old World.
It was during this tumultuous period that Revere joined Freemasonry, becoming part of St. Andrew’s Lodge. Revere joined this Lodge in 1760 at the age of twenty-five, where he remained active in his Masonic membership for nearly forty years. He would serve as an officer in his Lodge and for the Massachusetts Grand Lodge.
As tensions between the colonies and Britain grew, a rebellious group of colonists came together in 1765 called the Sons of Liberty, a group Revere would join. Revere used his talents as a master craftsman to create political engravings. For example, he created an engraving with the arrival of British troops in 1768 noting it as “an insolent parade.” His most famous work followed the Boston Massacre. Revere created an engraving from Henry Pelham’s drawing, without permission, which was used to widely distribute the image of British troops taking aim at unarmed and falling colonists.
The Green Dragon Tavern was the meeting place of several organizations, including the North End Caucus and the “Antient” Grand Lodge and its member lodges. Many of the members of the North End Caucus were members of St. Andrew’s Lodge, including Revere. While there is nothing in the records of St. Andrew’s Lodge to indicate they were responsible for the Boston Tea Party, their membership crossed over to the Sons of Liberty and the North End Caucus. Revere and fellow Mason Joseph Warren organized a watch over the ships in the Boston Harbor so they could not be unloaded; Revere himself served as one of the guards. Then, Revere and fifty other patriots participated in the Boston Tea Party. Revere was known to be one of the leaders responsible for the defiant act of dumping the tea into the harbor.
Following the Boston Tea Party, General Gage dissolved the provincial assembly, closed the port of Boston, and forced private citizens to provide lodging for soldiers. Revere and his fellow patriots continued to meet at the Green Dragon to gather and disseminate intelligence.
On April 18, 1775, fellow Masonic Brother Dr. Joseph Warren instructed Revere to ride to Lexington. Revere contacted a friend, most likely Robert Newman, the sexton of Christ Church in Boston’s North End, to place two lit lanterns in the tower (now called the Old North Church) to signal the other Sons of Liberty across the Charles River. Revere then went to his house to gather his boots and overcoat, made his way to Boston’s North End waterfront where he met two friends, and they rowed across the river to Charlestown.
Revere borrowed a horse from John Larkin, a merchant and patriot. While there, Richard Devens warned him of British patrols in the area. Revere took one path to Lexington while William Dawes traveled another longer route. As they went, they alerted additional riders along the way. After delivering their message to Hancock and Adams that troops were coming to arrest them, Revere and Dawes set out for Concord to warn them that troops were coming. Along the way, Dr. Samuel Prescott joined them.
A British army patrol stopped the trio in Lincoln. Prescott and Dawes escaped. Revere was released, but they took his horse. Revere returned to Lexington on foot arriving just in time to see the end of the battle on Lexington Green.
The riders had done their job. Hancock and Adams left before the British troops arrived, and the Minutemen were able to prepare for the arrival of the British. The Battle of Lexington and Concord sparked the beginning of the Revolutionary War.
Revere could not return to Boston, so he lived in Watertown. He was eventually joined there by Rachel and most of his children. Although he was not given a commission in the Continental Army, he was retained by the Provincial Congress as a courier. He also printed local currency for the Congress to pay the troops around Boston.
Due to the war, there was a shortage of gunpowder. The Provincial Congress sent Revere to Philadelphia to study a powder mill there in the hope he could build one in Massachusetts. While the visit did not go particularly well, he gained enough knowledge along with his own expertise to build a powder mill at Stoughton (now Canton), Massachusetts, to supply the colonial army. Revere returned to Boston in April 1776, and he served as an officer in the Massachusetts militia for a month before he was transferred to artillery. In November, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel.
After the war, Revere returned to his business and Freemasonry. He opened an iron foundry in Boston’s North End in 1788, and he was one of the first in his industry to hire wage laborers. In the 1790s, his business included casting church bells, cannons, and other copper products. Revere Copper Company provided the copper that was used to cover the original wooden dome of the Massachusetts State House in 1802.
In 1795, Brother Revere facilitated the merger between the two Grand Lodges in Boston. He also served a three-year term as the second Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts from 1795 to 1797, chartering twenty-three lodges.
Revere passed away on May 10, 1818, at the age of eighty-three in his home in Boston. Paul Revere was not famous in his lifetime. He would not receive notoriety until about one hundred years later because of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s 1861 poem “Paul Revere’s Ride.” While the poem has some inaccuracies, it highlights the risk Revere and his fellow patriots were willing to take. The poem’s now-famous lines start with:
“Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five:
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.”
