(born , Jan. 1, 1735, Boston, Mass.—died May 10, 1818, Boston) American patriot and silversmith. He entered his father's trade as a silversmith and engraver. An ardent supporter of the colonists' cause, he took part in the Boston Tea Party. As the principal rider for Boston's Committee of Safety, he arranged to signal the British approach by having lanterns placed in Boston's Old North Church steeple: “One if by land and two if by sea.” On April 18, 1775, he set off to ride to Lexington to alert colonists that British troops were on the march and to warn Samuel Adams and John Hancock to flee.
Though he was stopped by a British patrol, he was able to alert the patriot leaders; because of his warning, the minutemen were prepared for the Battle of Lexington and the start of the American Revolution. His ride was celebrated in a famous poem by Henry W. Longfellow (1863). During the war, Revere constructed a powder mill to supply colonial arms. After the war he discovered a process for rolling sheet copper and opened a rolling mill that produced sheathing for ships such as the USS Constitution. He continued to design handsome silver bowls, flatware, and utensils that are museum pieces today.
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