The Paul Revere Bell in the Congregational Meetinghouse

IN 1817, AT A COST OF $400.00, THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH of Topsfield purchased a bell, bearing the words “Revere & Company, Boston, 1817,” weighing 938 pounds, from the Paul Revere bell foundry.  The bell is listed in the Revere Company stock book as having been manufactured in 1817 and sold to the Congregational Church of Topsfield.

The Revere Company began the manufacture of bells at its North End foundry in 1792 and continued their manufacture until 1828 with the last bell of 708 pounds sold to the Congregational Church of Benton Falls, Maine.  One of the largest bells, at 2,437 pounds, was cast for the King’s Chapel in Boston in 1816.  The largest bell, at 2,488 pounds, was sold to the First Congregational Church in Providence, Rhode Island, also in 1816.  Other bells of note:  Merrimack Valley Textile Museum, North Andover, Massachusetts, 692 pounds, in 1804; Natural History Museum, Los Angeles, California, 932 pounds, in 1811; Christ Episcopal Church, Savannah, Georgia, 1,969 pounds, in 1819; Knox Mansion “Montpelier,” Thomaston, Maine, 727 pounds, in 1822; St. John’s Episcopal Church, Washington, District of Columbia, 964 pounds, in 1822; and, First United Methodist Church, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, 455 pounds, in 1828.

In a memorandum written in 1817 by the Topsfield Town Clerk, Jacob Towne, concerning the Topsfield Meetinghouse bell, he recorded the following sequence of events:

“June 10, 1817.  Tuesday.  The spire of the steeple taken down.

 14, Saturday.  The lantern of the steeple raised.

19, Thursday, A.M.  The bell arrived.

26, The bell raised.

July 6, First rung on the Sabbath.

16, The weathervane put on.

18, Stage round the top of the steeple taken down.

26, Finished painting the Meeting house.”

[The Memorandum from: The Collections of the Topsfield

Historical Society, Vol. XII, pg. 108].

The town voted at its annual town meeting that the Revere bell be rung on “all public days and tolled for funerals.”  It is now also tolled at 11:00 A.M. on each November 11th, Veterans Day.  

The cradle for the 1817 Revere bell, of original timber frame mounting, was one of the finest examples of its type of construction; it was fully revealed in 2006 during the complete reconstruction of the bell steeple of the 1842 Topsfield Meetinghouse [“The Meetinghouse Restoration Project,” 2006]. The typical composition of Revere & Company bells:  75% copper, 21% tin, and 4% “other metals.”  The tongue was made of iron. [Revere Bells, HMdb.org].

The Revere bell was first installed in the 1759 Congregational Meetinghouse, which was torn down in 1842 to make way for the construction of the 1842 Meetinghouse.  In 2006, the bell steeple was completely removed and replaced with a newly constructed steeple and the bell was installed in it behind the louvres. 

A rope descends from the bell apparatus through the steeple floor, and the church balcony floor, and emerges in the narthex where it is accessible.  It requires some measure of strength to pull on the rope to start the motion to toll the bell and an equal measure of strength to maintain the tolling.  The bell’s weight is 938 pounds which was near average in weight for all of the Revere bells cast.

Photo at left shows the Revere bell on display in 2006 on the Topsfield Town Common.

For over two hundred years the Revere bell has pealed its bronze voice across the Town commons and into the community beyond.  It has withstood the vagaries of the elements and the rigors of time, beginning its existence in the bell steeple of the old 1759 Meetinghouse, and reused and reclaimed for use in the 1842 Meetinghouse.  It is now housed in a newly built steeple where it serves as a testament to the skill of Paul Revere in fashioning a bell that summons people to worship or tolls for those who are no longer living.  It is a bell of the ages and for the ages.

John Kinhan

Author            

October 25, 2024