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Paul Revere's House, Boston, Massachusetts

WHERE THE MERCURY OF THE REVOLUTION LIVED AND TOILED "Take three fourths of a Paine that makes Traitors Confess (RAC) With three parts of a place which the Wicked don't Bless Joyne four sevenths of an Exercise which shop-keepers use Add what Bad Men do, when they good actions refuse These four added together with great care and Art Will point out the Fair One that is nearest my Heart." (HEL) (WALK) (ER) Thus wrote Paul Revere, the Boston goldsmith, on the back of a bill to Mr. Benjamin Greene for "Gold buttons," "Mending a Spoon," and "Two pr. of Silver Shoe Buckles," which was made out one day in 1773 in the old house in North Square, built in 1676. Το this house he planned to lead as his second wife Rachel Walker; his eight children needed a mother's care, and he wanted some one to share the joys and the burdens of his life.

Before his first marriage, in 1757, he had served as a second lieutenant in a company of artillery, in the expedition against Crown Point. Soldiering was succeeded by work at his trade of goldsmith and silversmith, learned from his father. He was a skilled engraver; most of the silverware made in Boston at this period testified to his ability. Later, when the rising patriotic tide seemed to call for lithographs and broadsides, he engraved these on copper with eager brain and active hand.