Apollos Rivoire (November 20, 1702 - July 22, 1754), often known as Paul Revere I, was an American

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...

silversmith A silversmith is a metalworker who crafts objects from silver. The terms ''silversmith'' and ''goldsmith'' are not exactly synonyms as the techniques, training, history, and guilds are or were largely the same but the end product may vary great ...

, active in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

. He was father to

Paul Revere Paul Revere (; December 21, 1734 O.S. (January 1, 1735 N.S.)May 10, 1818) was an American silversmith, engraver, early industrialist, Sons of Liberty member, and Patriot and Founding Father. He is best known for his midnight ride to ale ...

, the famous American silversmith and patriot.

Biography

Rivoire was born in Riocaud,

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, and on November 21, 1715, emigrated to his uncle Simon's house on the Isle of

Guernsey Guernsey (; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; french: Guernesey) is an island in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy that is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown Dependency. It is the second largest of the Channel Islands ...

. This was recorded in a family bible: "Apollos Rivoire, or son, was born the thirtieth of November, 1702, about ten o'clock at night and was baptized at Riancaud, France, Apollos Rivoire, my brother was his Godfather and Anne Maulmon my sister-in-law his Godmother. He set out for Guernsey on the 21st of November, 1715." While there he was apprenticed to his uncle, who soon afterward sent the boy to Boston with instructions to his correspondents to have him learn the goldsmith's trade. Rivoire arrived in Boston about 1715 and was apprenticed about 1720 to John Coney. By the time Coney died in 1722, he had anglicized his name to Paul Revere. After Coney's death, Rivoire bought his freedom for about £40; the estate's inventory records "Paul Rivoire's Time abt Three Year & half as pr indenture £30/0/0," with an additional record reading "Cash received for Paul Rivoire's Time, more than it was prized at, £10." In 1723 he briefly revisited Guernsey, but returned to Boston and established himself as a gold and silversmith. At that time, his family name was variously spelled, "Reverie" and "Revear" being common. He married Deborah Hitchbourn on June 19, 1729, and with her ultimately had 11 children, of whom

was the second. He advertised his shop location in ''The Boston Weekly News-Letter'', May 21, 1730: "Paul Revere, Goldsmith is removed from Capt. Pitts at the Town Dock to North End over against Col. Hutchinson." His work is collected in the

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...

De Young Museum The de Young Museum, formally the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, is a fine arts museum located in San Francisco, California. Located in Golden Gate Park, it is a component of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, along with the Legion of Honor ...

, and

Hood Museum of Art The Hood Museum of Art is owned and operated by Dartmouth College, located in Hanover, New Hampshire, in the United States. The first reference to the development of an art collection at Dartmouth dates to 1772, making the collection among the o ...

References

External links

"Biographies: Rivoire/Revere Family of Massachusetts"
from the ''Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of the State of Massachusetts'', Cutler and Adams, 1910. * ''American Silver: The Work of Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Silversmiths, Exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts, June to November, 1906'', Richard Townley Haines Halsey, John Henry Buck, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1906, page 25. {{DEFAULTSORT:Rivoire, Apollos American silversmiths 1702 births 1754 deaths Paul Revere French emigrants to the United States Huguenots Revere family