Editing William Dawes

{{Short description|American militiaman (1745–1799)}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2025}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = William Dawes
| image              = William Dawes.jpg
| caption            = Portraits of William Dawes and his wife, Mehitabel Dawes, are in the Evanston History Center in Evanston, Illinois.
| birth_date         = {{birth-date|April 6, 1745}}
| birth_place        = [[Boston, Massachusetts|Boston]], [[Province of Massachusetts Bay]]
| death_date         = {{death date and age|1799|2|25|1745|4|5}}
| death_place        = [[Marlborough, Massachusetts]], U.S.
| occupation         = Tanner
| spouse             = Mehitable May (1768–1793; divorce)<br>Lydia Gendall
| parents            = William and Lydia Dawes
| children           = 3 with Mehitable May <br> and with Lydia Gendall
}}

'''William Dawes Jr.''' (April 6, 1745 – February 25, 1799) was an American soldier, and was one of several men who, in April 1775, alerted [[Minutemen (militia)|minutemen]] in [[Massachusetts]] of the approach of [[British Army|British regulars]] prior to the [[Battles of Lexington and Concord]] at the outset of the [[American Revolution]].<ref name="midnight">{{cite web|url=http://www.history.com/news/the-midnight-ride-of-william-dawes?linkId=23506843|title=The Midniight Ride of William Dawes|last=Klein|first=Christopher|date=April 18, 2012|publisher=History.com|access-date=October 24, 2017}}</ref> For some years, [[Paul Revere]] had the most renown for his ride of warning of this event.<ref>''Paul Revere's Ride'' by David Hackett Fischer</ref>

==Childhood==
Dawes was born in [[Boston]], [[Province of Massachusetts Bay]], on April 6, 1745, to William and Lydia Dawes ([[née]] Boone), and baptized at Boston's [[Old South Meeting House|Old South Church]]. He became a [[Tanning (leather)|tanner]] and was active in Boston's militia. On May 3, 1768, Dawes married Mehitable May, the daughter of Samuel and Catherine May (née Mears). The ''[[Boston Gazette]]'' noted that for his wedding, he wore a suit entirely made in North America. At the time, [[Radical Whigs|Whigs]] were trying to organize a boycott of British-made products in order to pressure the [[Parliament of Great Britain]] into repealing the [[Townshend Acts]].<ref>{{Cite web|date=February 17, 2014|title=William Dawes: The Forgotten Midnight Rider|url=https://historyofmassachusetts.org/william-dawes/|access-date=September 8, 2021|language=en-US}}</ref>

==Role in Boston's militia==

On April 8, 1768, Dawes was elected as a member of the [[Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts]].  He was appointed as the company's second sergeant in 1770.  When the company was revived in 1786, after becoming dormant during the American Revolution, he was appointed as the Company clerk.  His father, William Dawes Sr., was also a member of the company. It is likely that in September 1774, Dawes was instrumental in helping Boston's militia artillery company secure its four small cannons from being confiscated by the British. The [[Massachusetts]] [[Provincial Congress]] certainly sent word to him in February 1775 that it was time to move two of those weapons out of Boston.

On another occasion, Dawes and some others stole two cannons which were in a building that was under guard by a British grenadier at the time.  They sneaked the cannons out through a window in the back of the building then hid them in a woodbox in a schoolhouse next door for retrieval later.  Upon discovery of the loss, the British authorities closely questioned the schoolmaster, who coolly denied any knowledge of the affair, while keeping his feet casually propped up on the woodbox.  Dawes hurt his wrist in the escapade, and some days later, went to a fellow member of the Sons of Liberty, Dr. [[Joseph Warren]], for treatment.  Warren asked Dawes how he hurt himself.  Dawes demurred, and Warren (who probably knew about the cannon incident) wisely responded by saying that it was best that he did not know.<ref>Dawes, C. Burr.  ''William Dawes: First Rider for Revolution,'' pp 175–181, Historic Gardens Press, Newark, Ohio, 1976.</ref><ref>Tourtellot, Arthur Bernon.  ''William Diamond's Drum,'' p 91, Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, New York, 1959.</ref>

===Midnight ride===
Dawes, who was known and trusted by Sons of Liberty leader Dr. [[Joseph Warren]], was assigned by Warren to ride from [[Boston]] to [[Lexington, Massachusetts]], on the night of April 18, 1775, when it became clear that a British column was going to march into the countryside. Dawes' mission was to warn [[John Hancock]] and [[Samuel Adams]] that they were in danger of arrest. Dawes took the land route out of Boston through the [[Boston Neck]], leaving just before the British sealed off the town.<ref name="DWDWRA">{{cite web|url=http://www.wmdawes.org/ride.html|title=The Ride|publisher=The Descendants of William Dawes Who Rode Association|access-date=December 1, 2012}}</ref>

Also acting under Dr. Warren, [[Paul Revere]] arranged for another rider waiting across the Charles River in Charlestown to be told of the army's route with lanterns hung in [[Old North Church]].  To be certain the message would get through, Revere rowed across the river and started riding westward himself. Later, [[Henry Wadsworth Longfellow]]'s historically inaccurate poem "[[Paul Revere's Ride (poem)|Paul Revere's Ride]]" would focus entirely on Revere, making him a composite of the many alarm riders that night.

Dawes and Revere arrived at the [[Hancock–Clarke House]] in Lexington about the same time, shortly after midnight. Revere arrived slightly earlier, despite having stopped to speak to militia officers in towns along the way, as his route was shorter and his horse faster.  After warning Adams and Hancock to leave, Revere and Dawes proceeded to [[Concord, Massachusetts|Concord]] in case that was the British column's goal.  Revere no doubt knew that the Provincial Congress had stored munitions there, including the cannons which Dawes had helped to secure.  Along the way, the two men met [[Samuel Prescott]], a local young physician, who joined them.<ref>Fischer, David Hackett.  ''Paul Revere's Ride,'' p. 129, Oxford University Press, New York and Oxford, 1994. {{ISBN|0-19-508847-6}}.</ref>

A squad of mounted British officers awaited on the road between Lexington and Concord.  They had already arrested some riders heading west with news of the troops, and they called for Dawes, Revere, and Prescott to halt. The three men rode in different directions, hoping one would escape. Dawes, according to the story he told his children, rode into the yard of a house shouting that he had lured two officers there. Fearing an ambush, the officers stopped chasing him. Dawes's horse bucked him off, however, and he had to walk back to Lexington. He later said that in the morning, he returned to the same yard and found the watch that had fallen from his pocket. Otherwise, Dawes's activity during the Battle of Lexington and Concord remains unknown.

Dawes and his companions' warnings allowed the town militias to muster a sufficient force for the first open battle of the [[American Revolutionary War]] and the first colonial victory. The British column did not find most of the weapons they had marched to destroy and sustained serious losses during their retreat to Boston while under attack by the minutemen.<ref>{{Cite web|title=William Dawes {{!}} American Experience {{!}} PBS|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/patriotsday-william-dawes/|access-date=September 8, 2021|website=www.pbs.org|language=en}}</ref>

===Service in the American Revolution===

On September 9, 1776, Dawes was commissioned second major of the Boston militia regiment. During the war, Dawes worked as a quartermaster in central Massachusetts. British [[prisoners of war]] from the [[Battles of Saratoga]] complained to Parliament that he gave them short supplies; his family countered that Dawes believed that they were stealing from farmers while being marched to Boston – as most armies on the march were prone to do.

==Later life and death==
[[File:William Dawes tomb Boston.jpg|thumb|right|280px|William Dawes tomb marker in [[King's Chapel Burying Ground]]]]
Dawes refused to join a punitive expedition against Indians ordered by Governor Phillip in December 1790.

Mehitable died on May 19, 1794<ref name=fletcher>{{cite web
|url=http://www.wmdawes.org/wmdawesburial.html
|title=Who's buried in Dawes's tomb?
|first=Ron
|last=Fletcher
|publisher=Boston Globe
|date=February 25, 2005}}</ref> but he remarried (to Lydia) two years later.

Dawes died in [[Marlborough, Massachusetts]], on February 25, 1799.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Klein|first=Christopher|title=The Midnight Ride of William Dawes|url=https://www.history.com/news/the-midnight-ride-of-william-dawes|access-date=September 8, 2021|website=HISTORY|date=April 18, 2012 |language=en}}</ref> He was believed to have been buried in the [[King's Chapel Burying Ground]], but modern research points to his resting place now being in his first wife's family plot in [[Forest Hills Cemetery]] in [[Jamaica Plain]].<ref name=fletcher/>

==Legacy==
{{Main|Paul Revere#The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere}}
[[File:1510-Cambridge Common 095.jpg|thumbnail|Memorial: William Dawes to Lexington. Location: [[Harvard Square]], Cambridge, Massachusetts]]
The poem by [[Henry Wadsworth Longfellow]], "[[Paul Revere's Ride (poem)|Paul Revere's Ride]]", has been criticized by modern historians for overstating the role of Revere in the night's events.  Revere's may have been a better story, but Dawes and Prescott were more successful in achieving their missions. In 1896 Helen F. Moore, dismayed that William Dawes had been forgotten, penned a parody of Longfellow's poem.<ref>{{cite web|url = http://www.paul-revere-heritage.com/midnight-ride-william-dawes.html | title = The Midnight Ride of William Dawes}}</ref>
[[File:William Dawes plaque, Cambridge, MA - IMG 4611.JPG|thumbnail|left|William Dawes plaque showing the route his ride. Located on [[Cambridge Common]], [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]].]]

The difference in Revere's and Dawes's achievement and legacy is examined by [[Malcolm Gladwell]] in his book ''[[The Tipping Point]]'', where he concludes that Revere would be classified as a [[Connector (social)|connector]] whereas Dawes was an "ordinary man."

Dawes's ride is commemorated on a traffic island in [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]], heavily travelled by pedestrians, at the intersection of Garden Street and [[Massachusetts Avenue (Boston)|Massachusetts Avenue]] in [[Harvard Square]], and known as ''[[Dawes Island]]''.  Dawes's passage through the area is represented by bronze horseshoes embedded in the sidewalk, as hoofprints, accompanied by an inscription giving his name and the date (inaccurately stated as April 19, 1775), and by historical displays.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wmdawes.org/dawesisland.html|title=Dawes Island|publisher=The Descendants of William Dawes Who Rode Association|access-date=December 1, 2012}}</ref><ref>"The American Revolution Comes to Cambridge, Part II: Sounding the Warning: 18–19 April 1775", Note 3, {{Cite web |url=http://www2.cambridgema.gov/Historic/april1.html |title=The American Revolution Comes to Cambridge |access-date=December 1, 2012 |archive-date=May 7, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110507044401/http://www2.cambridgema.gov/Historic/april1.html |url-status=bot: unknown }} Retrieved May 1, 2016.</ref>

In the film ''[[Knowing (film)|Knowing]]'', the early events take place in [[Lexington, Massachusetts]], at William Dawes Elementary School.

===Descendants===
William Dawes' great-grandson, [[Rufus Dawes]], was a [[American Civil War|Civil War]] military officer and congressman; Rufus Dawes' children included [[Charles G. Dawes]], who served as [[Vice President of the United States]] under [[Calvin Coolidge]], [[Rufus C. Dawes]], a businessman, [[Beman Gates Dawes]], a businessman and congressman, and [[Henry M. Dawes]], a businessman and banker. A brother of Congressman Rufus Dawes was Major [[Ephraim C. Dawes]]. Television personality [[Bill Schulz (television personality)|Bill Schulz]] (William Dawes Schulz) is another descendant of Dawes, as the grandson of Henry M. Dawes' daughter Mary.<ref>{{cite web | title=Mary Dawes is Wed in Ceremony at Parents' Home | last=Cass | first=Judith | work=Chicago Sunday Tribune | date=September 24, 1933 | url=http://archive.lib.msu.edu/DMC/tribune/trib09241933/trib09241933003.pdf }}</ref>

William Dawes was also a first cousin of [[Thomas Dawes]], who was a Revolutionary War colonel, a noted architect/builder, and held numerous government positions; another cousin<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FM8UAAAAYAAJ&q=William+dawes+born+1730&pg=PA2110|title=Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of the State of Massachusetts|first=William Richard|last=Cutter|date=September 22, 1910|publisher=Lewis historical Publishing Company|via=Google Books}}</ref> twice removed was Congressman [[Henry L. Dawes]] (1812–1903).

==See also==
* The [[Charles G. Dawes House]] has portraits of William Dawes and his wife, Mehitable May, in its collection.
* The [[Dawes Arboretum]] also has a portrait of William Dawes in its collection.
* [[Israel Bissell]]
* [[Sybil Ludington]]

==References==
<references />

==Further reading==
* [[David Hackett Fischer]], ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=knC-kTFI9_gC Paul Revere's Ride]'', Oxford University Press, 1994, {{ISBN|0-19-508847-6}}.

== External links ==
*[https://www.history.com/news/the-midnight-ride-of-william-dawes Additional information regarding the legendary midnight ride] can be found on history.com.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Dawes, William}}
[[Category:1745 births]]
[[Category:1799 deaths]]
[[Category:American Congregationalists|Dawes,William]]
[[Category:Massachusetts militiamen in the American Revolution]]
[[Category:People from colonial Boston]]
[[Category:Dawes family]]