William Dawes: The Forgotten Midnight Rider
Posted on February 17, 2014 by Rebecca Beatrice Brooks
William Dawes was a Boston tanner and one of the riders sent by Dr. Joseph Warren to
alert John Hancock and Samuel Adams of the approaching British army on the night of
April 18th, 1775.
The following are some facts about William Dawes:
Dawes was born in Boston on April 6, 1745. He was the second of twelve children born
to William Dawes and Lydia Boone. Dawes married twice, first to Mehitable May, who
died in October of 1793, and then to Lydia Gendall.
On October 28, 1767, Dawes was one of 650 Boston citizens who signed a
“nonimportation agreement,” promising not to buy goods imported from Britain, which
included furniture, clothes, nails, anchors, gauze, shoe leather, malt liquors, loaf sugar,
starch and glue. To further support this cause, the Boston Gazette states that Dawes also
wore a suite made entirely in America on his wedding day.
In April of 1768, Dawes joined the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, a private
training organization for militia officers, and was also promoted to second major of the
regiment of the Boston militia.
Dawes was also a member of the patriotic group the Sons of Liberty and was a
Freemason, although it is not clear which Boston lodge he belonged to.
William Dawes, oil painting by John Johnston, circa 1785-95
According to the book “History of the Military Company of the Massachusetts,” as an
ardent patriot, Dawes often rode throughout the colony trying to find recruits for the
colonial cause:
“He scoured the country, organizing and aiding in the birth of the Revolution. His
granddaughter wrote: ‘During these rides, he sometimes borrowed a friendly miller’s
hat and clothes and sometimes he borrowed a dress of a farmer, and had a bag of meal
behind his back on the horse. At one such time a British soldier tried to take away his
meal, but grandfather presented arms and rushed on. The meal was for his family. But
in trying to stir up recruits, he was often in danger.’”
In October of 1774, Dawes planned and led a daring break-in at the gun house on Boston
Common.
While the guards were at roll call, Dawes and several members of his artillery company
stole two small brass cannons, sneaking them out the back window, and hid them in a
large box under the desk in a nearby school house.
When a British sergeant later discovered the cannons were missing, he exclaimed: “They
are gone. These fellows will steal the teeth out of your head while you are keeping
guard.” The guards searched the yard, gun-house and school house but never found the
hidden cannons.
The cannons remained hidden in the school house for two weeks until Dawes had them
removed one night in a wheelbarrow and hid them under a pile of coal in a blacksmith
shop.
On January 5, 1775, the Committee of Safety voted to move the stolen cannons to
Waltham. The cannons remained in active service throughout the revolutionary war.
Dawes also injured his arm during the break-in and was attended to by fellow patriot Dr.
Joseph Warren but, due to the illegal nature of the event, Dawes thought it best not to
tell Warren how the injury happened.
It was Warren who later sent both Dawes and Paul Revere on their famous midnight
ride on April 18th, according to the book “History of the Military Company of the
Massachusetts:
“For some days before the 19th of April, 1775, it had been known the British were
preparing to move. It was suspected that the destination of the troops would be
Concord, where stores of war material were gathered, and in the vicinity of which
were Hancock, Adams and other Revolutionary leaders. On the afternoon of the day
before the attack, Gen. Warren learned that the British were about to start. He waited
until they had begun to move their boats, and then sent out William Dawes, Jr, by the
land route, over the [Boston] neck, and across the river at the Brighton Bridge to
Cambridge and Lexington; and directly after, ‘about ten o’clock,’ he ‘sent in great
haste’ for Paul Revere, and sent him by the water route through Charlestown to
Lexington to arouse the country, and warn Hancock and Adams.”
Revere and Dawes took different routes during their rides. Revere crossed the Charles
river by boat and rode from Charlestown through Somerville, Medford, Arlington and
Lexington.
Dawes traveled a longer distance than Revere, going south across Boston neck to
Roxbury, then west and north through Brookline, Brighton, Cambridge and Lexington,
covering a total of 17 miles in three hours.
Dawes’ route also required passing through a guarded gate at Boston neck, which was on
high alert at the time, according to the History Channel website:
“Dawes set off around 9 p.m., about an hour before Warren dispatched Revere on his
mission. Within minutes, he was at the British guardhouse on Boston Neck, which was
on high alert. According to some accounts, Dawes eluded the guards by slipping
through with some British soldiers or attaching himself to another party. Other
accounts say he pretended to be a bumbling drunken farmer. The simplest explanation
is that he was already friendly with the sentries, who let him pass. However Dawes did
it, he made it in the nick of time. Shortly after he passed through the guardhouse, the
British halted all travel out of Boston.”
Unlike Revere, Dawes didn’t stop to alert colonial minutemen during his ride and
instead rode straight on to Lexington. It’s not clear why Dawes did this but it is possible
that he believed his mission was only to alert John Hancock and Samuel Adams of the
approaching British army. As a result, the militia took longer to respond to the British
army’s approach on Dawes route than on Revere’s.
Dawes finally met up with Revere at the Hancock-Clarke house in Lexington, where
Hancock and Adams were staying, around 12:30 am. After warning Hancock and Adams
of the approaching army, Revere and Dawes mounted their horses again and set off for
Concord, running into Dr. Samuel Prescott along the way.
Hancock-Clarke House, Lexington, Mass, in 2014. Photo Credit: Rebecca Brooks
Prescott decided to join them on their trip but the three riders soon encountered a
British patrol around 3 a.m.
According to Revere’s account of the ride, Dawes and Prescott managed to get away but
Revere was captured:
“After I had been there [at the Hancock-Clarke house] about half an hour, Mr. Dawes
came; after we refreshed our selves, we and set off for Concord, to secure the stores,
&c. there. We were overtaken by a young Doctor Prescott, whom we found to be a high
Son of Liberty. I told them of the ten officers that Mr. Devens met, and that it was
probable we might be stopped before we got to Concord; for I supposed that after
night, they divided them selves, and that two of them had fixed themselves in such
passages as were most likely to stop any intelligence going to Concord. I likewise
mentioned, that we had better alarm all the inhabitants till we got to Concord; the
young Doctor much approved of it, and said, he would stop with either of us, for the
people between that & Concord knew him, & would give the more credit to what we
said. We had got nearly half way. Mr Dawes & the Doctor stopped to alarm the people
of a house: I was about one hundred rod a head, when I saw two men, in nearly the
same situation as those officer were, near Charlestown. I called for the Doctor &
Dawes to come up; – were two & we would have them in an Instant I was surrounded
by four; – they had placed themselves in a straight road, that inclined each way; they
had taken down a pair of bars on the North side of the road, & two of them were under
a tree in the pasture. The Doctor being foremost, he came up;and we tried to get past
them; but they being armed with pistols & swords, they forced us in to the pasture; –
the Doctor jumped his horse over a low stone wall, and got to Concord.”
Dawes, tried to outrun the patrol but knowing his horse was too tired, he scared off the
two soldiers chasing him by riding up to a nearby farm house and shouting “Halloo,
boys, I’ve got two of ‘em!” The soldiers feared it was an ambush and rode away.
Unfortunately, Dawes had halted his horse so suddenly that he was bucked off it. His
whereabouts for the rest of the night are unknown.
Dawes reportedly later joined the Continental army in Cambridge and some sources
state he fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill in June, 1775. He also moved his family to
Worcester, sometime during the ongoing Siege of Boston, where he was later appointed
commissary.
According to the book “History of the Military Company of the Massachusetts” when a
group of captured British and Hessian soldiers that had been looting Worcester along
their march were brought to Dawes for their daily rations, Dawes deliberately
shortchanged them out of revenge:
“The Germans stole and robbed houses, as they came along, of clothing and everything
on which they could lay their hands to a large amount. When at Worcester, indeed,
they themselves were robbed, though in another way. One Dawes, the issuing
commissary, upon the first company coming to draw their rations, balanced the scales
by putting into that which contained the weight of a large stone. When that company
was gone (unobserved by the Germans, but not by all present), the stone was taken
away before the next came: and all the other companies except the first had short
allowance.”
Illustration of Paul Revere’s ride published in “Paul Revere’s Ride” by Longfellow circa 1905
Despite the fact that Dawes played a pivotal role in the midnight ride of April 18th, 1775,
he has been almost entirely forgotten by historians and completely overshadowed by
Paul Revere.
One reason is because Revere wrote a personal account of his ride, which has been
widely circulated, yet very few records exist of Dawes’ participation in the ride.
Another reason is because of the publication of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem
“The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere” in 1861, which wrote Dawes and Prescott out of the
event entirely.
In an attempt to remedy this, Century Magazine published a parody of the poem, titled
“The Midnight Ride of William Dawes” by Helen F. Moore, in 1896:
I am a wandering, bitter shade,
Never of me was a hero made;
Poets have never sung my praise,
Nobody crowned my brow with bays;
And if you ask me the fatal cause,
I answer only, “My name was Dawes”
‘Tis all very well for the children to hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere;
But why should my name be quite forgot,
Who rode as boldly and well, God wot?
Why should I ask? The reason is clear —
My name was Dawes and his Revere.
When the lights from the old North Church flashed out,
Paul Revere was waiting about,
But I was already on my way.
The shadows of night fell cold and gray
As I rode, with never a break or a pause;
But what was the use, when my name was Dawes!
History rings with his silvery name;
Closed to me are the portals of fame.
Had he been Dawes and I Revere,
No one had heard of him, I fear.
No one has heard of me because
He was Revere and I was Dawes.
Sadly, not only have historians forgotten about Dawes but even some of his own peers
forgot his name, according to an article on the History Channel website:
“Contemporaries couldn’t even recall his [Dawes] name. William Munroe, who had
stood guard at the Hancock-Clarke House, later reported that Revere arrived along
with a ‘Mr. Lincoln.’ In a centennial commemoration, Harper’s Magazine called Dawes
‘Ebenezer Dorr.’”
Dawes died on February 25, 1799. Even the real location of his grave has been forgotten.
For years it was believed that Dawes was buried in King’s Chapel Burying ground, where
he has a headstone. Yet, in 2007, it was discovered that Dawes might be buried in his
wife’s family plot in Forest Hills Cemetery instead.