Mini Felicity Visits the Old North Church

To review: It's spring 1775, the British have taken over Boston. They are coming for our guns! What

to do? The citizens of Massachusetts have a plan. This is where that Paul Revere fellow comes in.

Mini Felicity reviews the plan of action for rebellion against the Crown

The Sons of Liberty have come up with a plan. They will send messengers to warn the colonists the British are coming. They will send their two best riders William Dawes and Paul Revere to ride halfway to the town of Lexington. Their job is to warn Samuel Adams and John Hancock. In case they get caught, Paul Revere has come up with a backup plan. 30 extra riders will be placed across the river in Charlestown. Militia leaders should look to the steeple of the Old North Church, right above where I'm standing, every night for signal lanterns. The number of lanterns will tell the riders when the British army is leaving Boston and how. One lantern means the British will march over land and two means the British will come by sea. (a ha! So that's why he's important).

Mini Felicity studies a map of Boston

                       
See the map here? The British MAY march across Boston neck, that narrow strip of land that connects Boston to the mainland. That could take a long time. The British may choose to take a shortcut and tow across the Charles River into Cambridge saving time.

                           

The British are coming! “One if by land, two if by sea.”

 It's now the 18th of April, '75, almost Felicity's birthday.... No wait... Boston... The redcoats are coming! They're coming by sea! Paul Revere is ready to ride and sound the alarm!

He said to his friend, “If the British march

By land or sea from the town to-night,

Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch

Of the North Church tower as a signal light, —

One, if by land, and two, if by sea;

And I on the opposite shore will be,

Ready to ride and spread the alarm

Through every Middlesex village and farm,

For the country folk to be up and to arm.”

Mini Felicity sees the famous window

Paul Revere has asked two men to come to the church last night, 18th April. One is the caretaker, Robert Newman. The other man is a friend of Mr. Revere's, Captain John Pulling, Jr. The two men came into the church's front door, locked it, climbed a staircase in the back corner. Once in the upper gallery, they squeezed behind the pipe organ. Then they went through a small door in the tower. The men climbed the winding stairs and went up a ladder 8 stories. It was pitch black. At the top they used flint and steel to light two lanterns.

Mini Felicity in front of the famous window

This is the window of the bell tower. Mr. Newman and Capt. Pulling lit the two lanterns and held them out the window facing towards Charlestown for sixty seconds. That was all the time that was needed. I can fit up there no problem! They should have asked a kid.

Plaque commemorating the signal lanterns 

Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church,

By the wooden stairs, with stealthy tread,

To the belfry-chamber overhead,

And startled the pigeons from their perch

On the sombre rafters, that round him made

Masses and moving shapes of shade, —

By the trembling ladder, steep and tall,

To the highest window in the wall,

Where he paused to listen and look down

A moment on the roofs of the town,

And the moonlight flowing over all.

A plaque memorializing Robert Newman

                                              But mostly he watched with eager search

The belfry-tower of the Old North Church,

As it rose above the graves on the hill, 

Lonely and spectral and sombre and still. 

And lo! as he looks, on the belfry’s height 

A glimmer, and then a gleam of light! 

He springs to the saddle, the bridle he turns, 

But lingers and gazes, till full on his sight 

A second lamp in the belfry burns!

Behind mini Felicity is the steeple with belfry immortalized in Longfellow's poem

The riders rode off to warn the surrounding countryside the British were marching to steal their ammunition. An hour later, Paul Revere arrived in Charlestown. He borrowed a horse and began his own ride.

Following along with Paul Revere

Mini Felicity admires a drawing of the Old North Church

Even though Paul Revere was captured by the British, other men rode on. The message reached as far north as New Hampshire and south to Connecticut. The next day, when the British arrived in Concord, they found an armed and waiting militia. Oh dear, I fear what may happen next.

You know the rest. In the books you have read,
How the British Regulars fired and fled, —
How the farmers gave them ball for ball,
From behind each fence and farm-yard wall,
Chasing the red-coats down the lane,
Then crossing the fields to emerge again
Under the trees at the turn of the road,
And only pausing to fire and load.

Mini Felicity learns about the men who died in the Revolutionary War

Susanna tells me that in the future, the country will be divided over the issue of slavery. A poet by the name of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, a Bostonian, wrote a poem to create a national hero. Paul Revere was an example of the country's noble past.

Henry Wardsworth Longfellow

That poem Susanna knows is so popular people all around the country worked to have the steeple restored. We did not have time to go up.

Mini Felicity learns about the preservation of the church steeple

Here is the pew of Rev. Mather Byles

Mini Felicity learns about the Loyalist preacher Rev. Mather Byles

Rev. Byles is a preacher, poet and Loyalist! (and some sort of cousin to Susanna's guardian). He was the second rector here at the Old North Church (1768-1776). The parishioners are about to fire him on April 18, 1776. They did not like the fact he was a Loyalist. To be fair, the parishioners stopped paying him because he was a Loyalist and partly because they ran out of money after the port was closed. He considered moving to Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Later he will move to Canada.

Outside the church they have a beautiful Georgian garden. I look for signs of spring.

Mini Felicity spies signs of spring

Spring is springing. I see crocuses trying to pop up.

Mini Felicity in the Georgian garden behind the Old North Church

 I must return to my owner now and tell her what I learned. I am sure she will be back in Boston soon to tell you more about Paul Revere.