Paul Revere's Ride (78 page)

21
. Amelia Forbes Emerson (ed.),
Diary and Letters of William Emerson, 1743—1776
(Boston, 1972), 71 (April 15, 1775).

22
. Alden,
General Gage in America,
227.

23
. Barker,
British in Boston,
64.

24
. William Lincoln (ed.),
The Journals of Each Provincial Congress of Massachusetts (Colony) in 1774 and 1775, and of the Committe of Safety, with an Appendix
(Boston, 1838), 513, Wroth
et al.
(eds.),
Province in Rebellion,
doc. 592, pp. 1830-88.

25
. Revere to Belknap,
ca.
1798, RFP, microfilm edition, MHS.

26
. French,
General Gage’s Informers,
32.

27
. Galvin,
Minute Men,
123.

28
. Six of these men can be identified. The patrol included Major Edward Mitchell (5th Foot), commanding; Capt. Charles Cochrane (4th Foot), Capt. Charles Lumm (38th Foot),
Lt. Peregrine Thorne (4th Foot), Lt. Thomas Baker (4th Foot), and Lt. Hamilton (64th Foot). Some were noncommissioned officers, and others were described by Americans who observed them as servants.

29
. William Munroe, Deposition, in Elias Phinney,
History of the Battle of Lexington, on the Morning of the 19th April, 1775
(Boston, 1925), 33-35; Solomon Brown, Deposition, in Lemuel Shattuck,
History of Concord
(Concord, 1835), 341.

30
. Richard Devens, Memorandum, in Richard Frothingham, Jr.,
History of the Siege of Boston, and of the Battles of Lexington, Concord, and Bunker Hill
(Boston, 1849), 57-

31
. Hancock’s reply to Elbridge Gerry is reproduced in Frothingham,
History of the Siege of Boston,
57:

Lexington April 18, 1775

Dear Sir:

I am much obliged for your notice. It is said the officers are gone to Concord, and I will send word thither. I am full with you that we ought to be serious, and I hope your decision will be effectual. I intend doing myself the pleasure of being with you tomorrow. My respects to the Committee.

I am your real friend,

John Hancock

32
. Munroe, Deposition, Phinney,
Lexington,
33—35.

33
. Eljah Sanderson, Depositions, Phinney,
Lexington,
31—33; Solomon Brown, Jonathan Loring, and Elijah Sanderson, Depositions, April 25, 1775,
AA4,
II, 490.

34
. Sanderson, Deposition, Phinney,
Lexington,
31—33.

35
. John C. Maclean,
A Rich Harvest: The History, Buildings and People of Lincoln, Mass.
(Lincoln, 1907), 264—65; citing Abram E. Brown,
Beneath Old Roof Trees
(Boston, 1896); Hurd,
Middlesex County,
II, 619.

6.
The Warning

1
. Some versions of this event report that the stable boy ran to William Dawes, who carried the news to Revere. In other accounts, the stable boy ran directly to Revere himself. Cf. Forbes,
Revere,
252; Holland,
Dawes,
9; Ellen Chase,
The Beginnings of the American Revolution,
3 vols. (New York, 1910), II, 342.

2
. Jeremy Belknap, “Journal of my tour to the camp and the observations I made there,” Oct. 25, 1775,
MHSP
4 (i860): 77-86.

3
. Jane Van Arsdale (ed.),
Discord and Civil Wars, Being a Portion of a Journal Kept by Lieutenant Williams of His Majesty’s Twenty-Third Regiment While Stationed in British North America During the Time of the Revolution
(Buffalo, 1954), 5 (June 12, 1775).

4
. Mackenzie,
Diary,
I, 18 (April 18, 1775).

5
. Jeremy Belknap, “Journal of my tour to the camp…,” 77-86; Samuel A. Drake,
Historic Fields and Mansions of Middlesex
(Boston, 1873), 354; French,
Day of Concord and Lexington,
76; Winsor,
Memorial History of Boston,
III, 68.

6
. “The Boats of the Squadron, by desire of the General, were ordered to assemble alongside the Boyne by 8 o’clock in the evening, and their officers were instructed to follow Lt. Bourmaster’s direction.” See “The Conduct of Admiral Graves,” British Museum, add. ms., 14038, 81; French,
General Gage’s Informers,
36; E. E. Hale, in Winsor,
Memorial History of Boston,
III, 68n; Alden,
Gage,
244, 249, uses this story in attempting to prove that Margaret Gage could not have been the informer, but it is certainly false. Alden has no other evidence to support him on this question. It should be remembered that “evening” was used to indicate afternoon in 18th-century speech.

7
. John Cary,
Joseph Warren, Physician, Politician, Patriot
(Urbana,
111.,
1961), 182—83.

8
. Jeremy Belknap, “Journal of my tour to the camp…,” 77—86.

9
. Richard A. Roberts (ed.),
Calendar of Home Office Papers of the Reign of George III, 177 3-177 5
(London, 1899), 4795 Alden,
Gage,
249; Shakespeare,
King John,
III, i, 326. In
an earlier speech, Blanche says to her husband: “Upon my knees, I beg, go not to arms.” Ill, i, 308.

10
. Hutchinson,
Diary and Letters of Thomas Hutchinson,
I, 497—98.

11
. William Gordon,
History of the Independence of the United States,
4 vols. (London, 1788), I, 321; quoted in Alden,
Gage,
247.

12
. Henry Clinton, note, n.d., Clinton Papers, WCL; quoted in Alden,
Gage,
244.

13
. Charles Stedman,
History of the Origin, Progress, and Termination of the American War,
2 vols. (London and Dublin, 1794), I, 119; Frothingham,
Warren,
456.

14
. Hutchinson,
Diary and Letters of Thomas Hutchinson,
I, 476; Alden,
Gage,
249—50. Historians have divided on this question. Alden, Gage’s biographer, asserts that “only the strongest evidence should lead us to suspect that the wife betrayed her husband.” But he does not hesitate to convict the spouse of a private soldier of having conveyed the same information! As we shall see, Gage’s soldiers had no secrets to betray. Even company and field-grade officers were kept ignorant of the mission’s purpose and destination until they reached Lexington Common.

Others have argued that the source was an agent who worked for money. The only evidence is a passage in Jeremy Belknap’s diary that Dr. Warren’s informer was “a person kept in pay for that purpose.” But this was merely a rumor he heard in the American camp six months later. Cf. Belknap, “Journal of my tour to the camp…,” 77-86.

On the other side there is no direct proof, but much circumstantial evidence in Gage’s cry to Percy that he had confided to one person only; testimony of Gordon, Clinton, Stedman, and Wemyss; Margaret Gage’s own statement of divided loyalties, her husband’s decision to send her away from him after the battles, and the failure of their marriage.

15
. Revere’s Draft Deposition,
ca.
April 24, 1775, RFP, MHS, was more specific: “I was sent for by Doctor Joseph Warren about 10 o’clock that evening, and desired, ‘to go to Lexington and inform Mr. Samuel Adams and the Hon. John Hancock Esqr. that there was a number of Soldiers composed of Light troops and Grenadiers marching to the bottom of the Common, where was a number of boats to receive them, and it was supposed, that they were going to Lexington, by the way of Watertown to take them, Mess. Adams and Hancock or to Concord.’” Probably, Revere went to Doctor Warren a little before 10, given the chronology of events that followed; hence the estimate in the text of 9 to 10.

16
. Revere’s three accounts differed in detail on this question. In his first draft of a deposition, recorded immediately after the ride, he wrote: “I was sent for by Doctor Joseph Warren about 10 O’Clock that evening, and desired, ‘to go to Lexington and inform Mr. Samuel Adams, and the Hon. John Hancock Esqr. that there was a number of Soldiers composed of the Light troops and Grenadiers marching to the bottom of the Common, where was a number of boats to receive them, and it was supposed, that they were going to Lexington, by the way of Watertown to take them, Mess. Adams and Hancock, or to Concord.”

The revised deposition was modified in the last sentence to read, “that they were going to Lexington, by way of the Cambridge River, to take
them,
or go to Concord, to distroy the Colony Stores.”

In 1798, Revere wrote Belknap. “Dr. Warren sent in great haste for me, and begged that I would immediately set off for Lexington, where Messrs Hancock and Adams were, and acquaint them of the Movement, and that it was thought they were the objects.” Cf. Revere, Draft Deposition,
ca.
April 24, 1775; Deposition,
ca.
April 24, 1775; Revere to Belknap,
ca.
1798, all in Revere Family Papers, microfilm edition, MHS.

17
. Most historians believe that Warren sent only two messengers: Revere and Dawes. But Jeremy Belknap found evidence of a third who has never been identified. He wrote, “Two expresses were immediately dispatched thither, who passed by the guards on the Neck just before a sergeant arrived with orders to stop passengers. Another messenger went over Charlestown ferry.” See Belknap, “Journal of my tour to the camp…,” 77-86. For Dorr’s role, see C[atherine] C[urtis],
NEHGR
10(1853): 139; W.H. Holland,
William Dawes and His Ride with Paul Revere
(Boston, 1878). Long after the event, several historians
suggested that the third messenger was Ebenezer Dorr, a leading citizen of Roxbury, and a Whig committeeman in that town. But this is an error that arose in the late 19th century, when a Boston journalist mistakenly wrote “Dorr” for “Dawes.”

18
. Sanderson, Deposition; Jonas Clarke, “Narrative of the Events of April 19,” ms., LHS.

19
. The same source reports that Col. Josiah Waters of Boston “followed on foot on the sidewalk at a short distance behind him until he saw him safely through the sentinels.” Francis S. Drake,
The Town of Roxbury: Its Memorable Persons and Places
(Roxbury, 1878), 74.

20
.
Ibid.

21
. Revere to Belknap,
ca.
1798, RFP, microfilm edition, MHS.

22
.
Ibid.

23
. For 18th-century distances, see Lt. [Thomas Hyde] Page,
A Plan of the Town of Boston with the Intrenchments, &c. of His Majesty’s Forces in 1775
(London, 1777); reproduced with other contemporary maps of less accuracy in Kenneth Nebenzahl (ed.),
Rand McNally Atlas of the American Revolution
(New York, 1974), 42.

24
. In the late 19th century, the identity of the church was called into question. Revere called it the “North Church.” But there were several steeples in the North End. One was the present Old North Church, an opulent structure then also known as Christ Church, or the Seven Bell Church after the carillon that Paul Revere had rung as a child. Another was a Congregational meetinghouse in North Square, often called the North Meeting, or Old North Meeting. This building no longer stands; it was pulled down for firewood by British troops during the siege of Boston. Richard Frothingham argued in
The Alarm on the Night of April 18, 1775
that the lanterns were displayed from this building, and not the Old North Church. Frothingham was mistaken. An old inhabitant of Boston, Joshua Fowle, remembered long after the event, “There is no dispute, or ought not to be, in regard to the display of lights at the North Church by your father. The Seven Bell Church was always called by that name; the others were always called meeting houses, old Puritanic names, and by no other.” Joshua B. Fowle to Samuel H. Newman, July 28, 1875; Aug. 1876; also Jeremiah Loring to Wheildon?, Oct. 1876, William W. Wheildon,
History of Paul Revere’s Signal Lanterns
(Boston, 1878), 34-36.

Further, the North Meeting at North Square had a low steeple on the south side of the North End, and could barely be seen from Charlestown.

Moreover, the identity of the men who displayed the lanterns was known in Boston soon after the event. Both were associated with North Church, not North Meeting. For all of these reasons, we may safely conclude that that the lanterns were displayed from Christ Church, now known as Old North Church.

The prominence of the Old North Church in the city’s skyline may be seen in Paul Revere’s “A View of Part of the Town of Boston in New England and British Ships of War Landing their Troops, 1768” (Boston, 1770), in Brigham,
Paul Revere’s Engravings,
60.

25
. Wheildon,
Paul Revere’s Signal Lanterns;
John L. Watson,
Paul Revere’s Signal
(Cambridge, 1877); Goss,
Revere,
I, 247-58.

26
. Robert Newman Sheets,
Robert Newman; His Life and Letters in Celebration of the Bicentennial of His Showing of Two Lanterns in Christ Church, Boston, April 18,1775
(Denver; Newman Family Society, 1975).