17 Interesting Facts About Paul Revere That You Won't Believe

A craftsman, engraver, early businessman, Sons of Liberty activist, and an American Revolutionary War patriot, Paul Revere has many accolades to his name.

He is well remembered for his famous midnight ride in April 1775 to warn the colonial army that British forces were approaching before the battles of Lexington and Concord. 'Paul Revere's Ride', a poem written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in 1861, depicted this historical moment.

He was born on January 1, 1735, in Boston, Massachusetts, and passed away on May 10, 1818. Paul Revere was a Boston-based initial patriot who developed a lot of significant contacts with Loyal Nine as well as the Sons of Liberty.

While he is most known for his midnight ride, his copper etchings as well as other advertising depicted Boston as a downtrodden and poor city under the control of a cruel set of British forces.

He continued on to become a successful businessman after wartime, building an iron factory and subsequently copper mills that created useful commodities for the native community.

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The Education Of Paul Revere

Paul Revere dropped out of school at the age of 13 to work as a trainee for his father. His occupation as a silversmith provided him ties to a wide range of Boston elite, something he would need once he became involved in the American Revolution.

Revere was attracted to the Church of England, despite his father's attendance at Puritan ceremonies. Revere was among the first team of changing callers to swing the great bells at Christ Church in the north of Boston in 1750 when he was 15 years old.

Revere later started visiting the West Church services of the social and outspoken Jonathan Mayhew.

His father did not take this well, and in one instance, Revere and his father got into a fight. Revere eventually gave in and rejoined his father's religion, although he did remain acquainted with Mayhew, and he did so in the later 1760s.

Revere was happy to study alongside oral physician John Baker once he got to the city. He figured out how to make fake teeth from ivory and wire them into people's mouths. Revere began to gain confidence in his talents.

Dr. Joseph Warren was interred in an unidentified tomb after being murdered at the Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775. The corpse was excavated and inspected 10 months later.

Warren's dentist was Revere, who recognized him by his teeth. Revere had fitted Warren with a wire-tied fake molar. It was the first time in known history that a person's teeth were used to identify a person.

The Family Of Paul Revere

Apollos Rivoire, his father, had been a Huguenot immigrant who had arrived in Boston as a kid and was trained to be a silversmith. At the age of 13, Apollos travelled to Boston under the instruction of his uncle in Guernsey to work as a silversmith and goldsmith trainee to John Coney.

This was a skill he passed down to his son, Paul Revere, who became one of the country's biggest silversmiths.

Paul's father had anglicized his surname to Paul Revere by the time he wedded Deborah Hitchbourn, a child of a long-standing Boston household who operated a modest trading dock, in 1729. Paul Revere, the third of 12 children, grew up to be the oldest living son.

Revere was raised by the Hitchbourn family's distant relatives and never learned his father's original tongue.

Paul's father passed away when Paul was 19, leaving Paul as the family's sole means for an income. Revere was appointed as a second lieutenant in the Massachusetts Committee two years later, in 1756, and was dispatched to face the French in upstate New York. Once he arrived in the autumn of 1756, he grew the household silver industry.

Revere had eight children with each of his two spouses, Sarah Orne and Rachel Walker. Revere was a devoted parent who called his children 'little lambs'. Despite the fact that 10 of Revere's kids died early, he had 52 grandkids.

Paul Revere married Sarah Orne on August 4, 1757, and their first baby was born eight months later. He and Sarah Orne raised eight children, two of whom died very young. Only one of them, Mary, lived past her father. Revere's second wife was Rachel Walker following Sarah's demise in 1773. With Sarah he had eight children.

Paul Revere withdrew from business in 1811 at age 76, leaving his successful copper company to his son Dr. Joseph Warren Revere along with two of his grandchildren. Despite the known grief caused by the loss of his spouse Rachel and child Paul in 1813, Revere appears to have stayed well later in his life.

Revere passed away on May 10, 1818, when he was 83 years old, leaving behind five children, numerous grandchildren, and a number of great-grandchildren. Revere perished as a reasonably established entrepreneur and a well-known local character. He attained such heights even though was the son of an immigrant craftsman and was not born into money or fortune.

The Biography Of Paul Revere

Revere got adequate training as a child to enable him to study challenging metallurgy texts when he was an adult. Despite doing the majority of his labor in metals, Revere's drive and expertise, as well as the need to feed an ever-growing household, led him in various directions.

He not only manufactured silver items, but also surgical devices, glasses, partial tooth replacements, and etched copper panels, the most renowned of which showed his depiction of the Boston Massacre.

The Boston Committee of Communications and the Massachusetts Council of Security hired Paul Revere as a courier messenger in 1774 and 1775 to transport information, letters, and duplicates of relevant documentation as far as New York and Philadelphia. This was after the Boston Tea Party.

In 1773, he accompanied 50 fellow colonists in protesting parliamentary representation without taxation in the Boston Tea Party. In 1776, he was sent to Castle William, the main defense of Boston Harbor, although his military record as a lieutenant colonel was rather unremarkable.

The patriotic information service in Boston learned in December 1774 that the British were planning to fortify Fort William and Mary in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The British had a significant stockpile of weaponry there and were worried that the Americans would try to take it.

Paul Revere was dispatched from Boston to Portsmouth to notify the Americans that soldiers were on their way. As a result, patriots in the area overran the fort and seized the armaments.

This was the first time the colonies utilized violence against the British. The ammo was eventually utilized by the patriots at the Battle of Bunker Hill against the British.

Joseph Warren dispatched Paul Revere and William Dawes on their legendary journey to Lexington and Concord to alert native loyalists that British forces were on their way.

Dubbed by Longfellow as Paul Revere's famous midnight ride, Revere traveled to neighboring Concord on April 16, 1775, to persuade the Americans to relocate their artillery stocks that were threatened by planned British force moves. As well, he planned for lights to be set in Boston's North Church tower to warn the Americans of the British strategy. 

He started out from Boston two days later during his most renowned mission to warn his compatriots that British soldiers were on their way, namely in pursuit of revolutionary war heroes, John Hancock and Samuel Adams. He rowed across the Charles River to reach his destination.

Revere rented a horse off John Larkin, a Charlestown trader and patriotic sympathizer, after notifying Colonel Conant as well as other local Sons of Liberty about the latest happenings in Boston and confirming that they had seen his messages in the North Church tower.

A committee member communicated with Richard Devens and told Revere that there were a handful of British policemen in the neighborhood who might attempt to capture him whilst the horse was being prepared. He, with his fellow countryman William Dawes, arrived independently in Lexington and they were able to inform and warn John Hancock and Samuel Adams to evacuate.

The two patriots, along with Samuel Prescott, who was a patriarch of the Bush family, set out for Concord but were quickly intercepted by a British guard, with only Samuel Prescott making it through. Revere was freed by the British and proceeded to Lexington on foot.

The Minutemen were prepared for the historical combat that started the American Revolution the very next day on Lexington Green, thanks to Revere's caution.

Paul Revere's grave is in the Granary Burial Ground. This is Boston's third-oldest graveyard, and it was named after a granary that once stood nearby. John Hancock, Samuel Adams, James Otis, Robert Treat Paine, and the five persons slain in the Boston Killings are among the renowned revolutionaries honored here.

Quotes By Paul Revere

Some of the most famous and renowned sayings by Paul Revere are listed below.

'In Medford, I awoke the Captain of the Minute Men, and after that, I alarmed almost every house, until I got to Lexington.'

'No matter what you do, you will never run away from you.'

'There is a time for casting silver and a time for casting cannon. If that isn't in the red, it should be!'

'To arms, to arms! The British are coming, the British are coming!'

'I knew what they were after, that I had alarmed the country all the way up, that their boats were caught aground, and I should have 500 men there soon. One of them said they had 1,500 coming.'

'Out started six officers...One of them, who appeared to have the command there, and much of a gentleman, asked me where I came from; I told him. He asked what time I left. I told him; he seemed surprised, said, 'Sir, may I crave your name?' I answered 'My name is Revere.''

'In the fall of 1774 and winter of 1775, I was one of upwards of 30 chiefly mechanics, who formed ourselves into a committee for the purpose of watching the movements of the British soldiers and gaining every intelligence of the movements of the Tories.'

'He said to me, 'We are now going towards your friends, and if you attempt to run, or we are insulted, we will blow your brains out.' When we had got into the road they formed a circle, and ordered the prisoners in the center, and to lead me in the front.'

These quotes and sayings reflect the immense impact his actions had on the patriot army, and the American Revolution thereafter.

What was Paul Revere's real name?

Paul's name was Paul Revere. His father's real name was Apollos Rivoire. He was a French immigrant and Huguenot who altered his surname to Revere to blend in with the town's British inhabitants.

Paul Revere was indeed one of the patriots of the Revolutionary War who helped the colonist's revolution kick start. His famed midnight ride and actions are part of the reason the patriots finally won the war, and his actions marked a reason for the Americans to be inspired, and not give up hope.

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