revere bell foundry

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Everyone has heard of Paul Revere and his famous ride, but not many people know that Paul Revere was an incredible craftsmen. Paul was born in 1734 in Boston and as a young man apprenticed to his father in silversmithing. He was also a bell ringer and started ringing at age 15 at Christ Church (Old North Church) which had the very first peal of bells in America, cast by an English bell foundry in 1744. 

Revere was completely immersed in the revolution and the founding of our great country in most of his younger adult life but in his 40’s he was able to spend more time at his craft and began his silversmithing, goldsmithing as well as started a larger foundry, casting smaller iron castings like tools, small weights and other household items. In 1792 at age 58 Revere cast his first bell. History says that it was not so much of something he “wanted” to do but it was more a something that he took on as a challenge. Revere was the type of person that when there was a problem, he enjoyed the challenge of coming up with a solution. In 1792 the bell at Second Church of Boston, where Revere was a member, cracked. Instead of the church looking to England, where most bells in America had come from, Revere suggested that he would recast the bell for the church in his foundry. Although he had much foundry experience, he had never tried his hand at casting a bell before. Before he attempted his first bell, he had to learn how to be a bell founder. 

To become a bell founder, Revere didn’t have to look far for information. What is today known as “America’s first bell foundry” was just a few miles away in Abington, MA. This foundry had been set up by Colonel Aaron Hobart several years prior. It is said that Hobart had learned the bell foundry trade from a British soldier, known today only as Gilmore. Gilmore had helped Hobart cast some of the first large bells in the country in the 1760’s. Once learning this craft, Hobart set up his bell foundry with his son in 1769. 

It’s not known exactly if Revere visited Hobart in Abington or if Hobart and/or his son traveled up to Boston to Revere’s foundry, but there is evidence that Hobart is the one that instructed Revere in the craft, before his first attempt at casting a bell. He took the cracked bell from Second Church and melted it down, and recast it into a new “Revere Bell”. Unfortunately this first bell he cast was reported to be a very bad tone as well as contain a lot of surface imperfections, but he made history in our then young country because this was the very first bell ever cast in Boston. 

This first bell was the beginning of something that would last for many, many years. Paul Revere himself cast 84 bells between 1792 and 1804 when he brought his son Joseph Warren Revere who took over bell founding duties. This is about the time that the company changed it name to Revere & Son. In 1811 Joseph Warren Revere took on two of his sons, Paul Revere III and Thomas Eayres II as partners and continued casting bells until about 1828 until the name of the company was changed to Revere Copper Company. At this time Joseph Revere, Paul’s Great Grandson was President, and they continued casting bells until 1843. There are almost 400 bells known to have been cast in the foundry by Paul Revere and his family in those 51 years. In 1976 a list was assembled by Edward and Evelyn Stickney of Revere bells that they had been able to find that still existed bearing the Revere name. Of the nearly 400 bells known to have been cast by Paul and his family, only 134 are known to still survive.

The Revere Copper Company was operated starting in the mid 1820’s by Paul Revere III, John Sullivan & William Blake. There was also listed on advertisements, Henry N. Hooper as an agent of the foundry. In about 1830, The Revere Copper Company changed it name to Henry N. Hooper, Boston, which indicates that Hooper had purchased at least controlling shares of the company. Henry N. Hooper born in 1799 in Manchester, MA. is said to have been an apprentice to Paul Revere, but it is more likely that he was an apprentice to Paul’s son Joseph Warren Revere. Like Paul Revere, Hooper was a trained silversmith and at some point became associated with the Revere foundry.

After purchasing the foundry the name was changed to Henry N. Hooper, Boston, MA. Only a few years later the name of the company was changed again, this time to Henry N. Hooper & Company, Boston, MA. Hooper had brought on some partners to help him with the business, hence the “& Company” in the name. From 1833 to 1865 the company was owned and operated by Henry Hooper, William Blake and Thomas Richardson (Father of William Blake’s Wife). 

As soon as Hooper purchased the foundry in 1830, he expanded it and began producing lighting. One of his most famous projects was a 7,500 Lb., 13’ diameter chandelier he built for the hall of the US House of Representatives in 1840. In 1850, under the direction of Hooper, the foundry cast its first chime of bells and displayed it at the Mechanics Fair in Boston. The chime was of 11 bells and won the silver metal. This chime is probably the second chime ever cast in America. Unfortunately it’s not known what happened to the bells after the Fair. 

In 1859, Hooper cast another chime of bells, this time for Christ Church in Cambridge. This chime was 13 bells with the largest being over 3,000 Lbs. This chime was and still is incredibly unique as 8 of the 13 bells were swinging bells, set up to operate like an English change ring or full circle ringing. This is likely the very first change ring ever cast and installed by an American bell foundry. The bells could also be played with the other 5 stationary bells by ropes, that were strung into a “playing stand” several levels of the tower below the bells. This playing stand was known as the Ellecombe method of ringing, which is an English way of ringing the bells when they bells are stationary. The player stands in front of the playing stand and pulls the rope attached to the clapper of the bells which he wants to play. In this playing method, the player could play a melody or simple song on the bells or ring them like a change ring.

Hooper, like Revere was very knowledgeable about many things. Bells were just a part of what he manufactured in his foundry. During the Civil War his foundry was the largest producer of the 6 foot long, 1,200 pound bronze cannon known as the Napoleon for the Northern Army. He supplied 1,156 barrels over the course of the war. Today over 100 of these barrels are known to have survived. 

Another amazing achievement of Hooper was the creation of the very first full scale bronze statue ever made in America. The statue was of the “Father of Modern Maritime Navigation” Nathanial Bowditch. The statue was placed in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, MA. but unfortunately was deposed of in 1886, so it doesn’t survive.

In 1860, only a year after creating the Cambridge chime Hooper cast another chime of bells, this time a larger set of bells for Arlington Street Unitarian Church in Boston. This chime was 15 bells with the largest bell being the same size as the Christ Church large bell. They later added a sixteenth bell to the chime.

Hooper would cast one chime, this time a chime of 16 bells for Grace Church in Providence, RI. One interesting note about the chimes that Hooper was casting during this period is that they were very large chimes. There were only (2) other bell foundries in America capable of creating chimes in the 1850’s and 1860’s and both of these foundries were making chimes of 9 or 10 bells. Hooper started with a chime of 11 bells in 1850, then made a chime of 13 bells in 1859, 15 bells in 1860 and finally 16 bells in 1861. Each of these chimes were essentially the same set of bells, with each one adding a bell or several basically expanding the capability of the music that could be played on it.

On September 19, 1865 Henry Hooper died at age 66 in Roxbury, Boston. The following year the company would be reorganized but the name would not change. For the next two years it would be run by William Blake, Isaac H. Hooper (Henry’s son) and William P. Thurston. Under this management team they would create another chime of bells, a set of 16 bells for The First Church in Charleston in Boston. These bells were cast and installed in 1868. Unfortunately they were later lost to fire in mid 1900’s.

Blake didn’t waste time after taking ownership of the foundry and sold his first chime in 1869. This chime would be the smallest chime that the company had created in its nearly 20 years of history in making chimes, this one being only 9 bells, with the largest being and F1, weighing about 1,800 Lbs. This chime was installed in Trinity Episcopal Church in Haverhill, MA. An interesting side note on these bells is that cast onto the shoulder of the bell, where the founder and year cast is usually placed, Blake put “William Blake & Co. Boston, Formerly Henry Hooper & Co.” 

William Blake would cast one more chime in his life, this one a 9 bell chime starting on a 2,500 Lb. E1 for Amherst College in Amherst, MA. in 1871. William would die that same year on December 5. Blake’s son, William S. Blake then took over management of the company, essentially continuing exactly as his father had taught him. Over the next ten years William S. would cast many more bells and four more chimes. 

Sometime in 1888, the firms name would change, this time to C.T. Robinson & Co. The advertisements during this time claimed that the company was the successor of William Blake & Co. Charles T. Robinson is almost unknown to history but the Boston City Directories list him as a “brass founder”. There are two bells that have been discovered under his name. Both are inscribed “CT ROBINSON & CO. FORMALLY WILLIAM BLAKE & CO.”. One of the bells is listed as cast in 1888 and the other 1889. It appears that CT Robinson only headed the company for about 2 years as the Boston City Directory of 1890 lists the company as being back under the control of William S. Blake. The new company name was Blake Bell Company.

Even though William S. would continue making and installing bells, it would be over ten years before he created another chime. This chime would be his last one, cast only a year before his death. The chime was an 11 bell instrument and was installed in the Mission Church of Christ in Somerville, MA. 

William S. Blake died the following year, 1893 on August 27 in Enfield, NH. After William passed, a gentleman by the name of Walter S. Grueby took over management of the company. Only a few years later, in 1896 it was reported that the operator of the foundry was Bay State Brass Foundry. The foundry continued casting bell only for a few years once Bay State Brass Foundry took over operations, ultimately closing in about 1900. 

The legacy of this foundry cannot be overstated. Starting in 1791 when Paul Revere cast his first bell to 1900, 109 years later, hundreds and hundreds of bells were cast as well as a dozen chimes and one monstrous bell in the early 1890’s weighing approx. 23,000 Lbs.