The Paul Revere & Sons bell that resides now at Grace United Methodist Church is originally from First Methodist Church, Lynn Commons.
The Paul Revere & Sons bell that resides now at Grace United Methodist Church is originally from First Methodist Church, Lynn Commons. The Bell was made by Joseph Warren Revere (Paul Revere's son) in Boston, Ma. 1818.
For almost a century the "Old Lynn Common" Church bell rang not only on Sundays but also on weekdays at noon and at 9 pm. The Lynn bell sounded for the visit of President Monroe in 1817, the welcome for Lafayette in 1824 and for the visits of Presidents Andrew Jackson and James K. Polk. When General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox, the bell rang for six hours by six men relieving one another at the bell ropes. When Abraham Lincoln was buried, the bell signaled the sorrow of the nation. It also rang for the Armistice at the end of World War One and also on VE and VJ days. Longfellow immortalized it in his "Bells of Lynn" which he could hear from his summer home in Nahant.
The bell measures two feet, seven inches from mouth to ear and three feet across the mouth. It is said to be B flat tone. The wheel that drives it is six feet in diameter and the bell weighs 1,064 pounds. The weight mark is chiseled on the bell, which was cast Nov. 15, 1816. It is no. 165 on Paul Revere's stock book.
The "old Lynn Commons Church" had its beginnings in 1791, after it was organized by Jesse Lee, famed circuit rider. The second church building was erected on the same site in 1813 and the bell was hung probably 3 years later. When the bell was first cast for the Lynn church, the church fathers inspected it in Revere's backyard on Charter Street Boston where they hit it with a hammer to hear its tone.