William Dawes was born on April 6, 1745 in Boston, Massachusetts, United States; the descendant of a William Dawes who was born in Sudbury, England, in 1620 and emigrated to Massachusetts in 1635, was the second of the nine children of Williarn and Lydia (Boone) Dawes of Boston. His father was tailor, grocer, and goldsmith by turns, and owing to the fact that he survived his son the latter was always referred to as “Junior. ”
Dawes learned the tanner’s trade and had a tan-yard for some years.
Tradesmen had been active in the Revolutionary movement and in some way he had been brought to the attention of its leaders.
It had been thought possible that a messenger might not be able to get out of Boston, so Paul Revere was staying on the mainland side of the Charles River and the well-known signal displayed from the North Church tower was for him. As soon as it became necessary to arouse the country, however, Joseph Warren sent for Dawes and started him by way of Brighton Bridge and the Cambridge Road.
He slipped through the British lines and met Revere at Parson Clark’s at Lexington where Hancock and Samuel Adams were staying. Having warned the two leaders and made a short stop for refreshments, Revere, Dawes, and a new recruit, Dr. Prescott, went on toward Concord, rousing the men at all the houses on the way. Revere was captured and never reached Concord but either Prescott or Dawes, it is not known which, got through and gave the alarm.
After the siege of Boston began, Dawes joined the Continental Army and is thought to have fought at Bunker Hill. Before long, however, he moved his family to Worcester, where he was appointed by Congress a commissary to the army.
While there he became a partner of his brother-in-law Coolidge in the grocery business, and when he returned to Boston after the war, he continued in the same business.
On May 3, 1768 Dawes married Mehitable May, by whom he had seven children. His first wife died on October 28, 1793, and on November 18, 1795, he was married to Lydia Gendall.
