John Pulling Jr was an American captain, vestryman and Patriot who signaled Paul Revere from the

Old North Church Old North Church (officially, Christ Church in the City of Boston), at 193 Salem Street, in the North End, Boston, is the location from which the famous "One if by land, two if by sea" signal is said to have been sent. This phrase is related ...

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 ...

before Revere's midnight ride. In the days before April 18, 1775, Revere had enlisted the help of Pulling and Robert Newman, the sexton of the North Church, to send a signal by lantern to alert colonists in Charlestown as to the movements of the troops when the information became known. In what is well known today by the phrase "one if by land, two if by sea", one lantern in the steeple would signal the army's choice of the land route while two lanterns would signal the route "by water" across the Charles River (the movements would ultimately take the water route, and therefore two lanterns were placed in the steeple). Pulling was a logical choice to help signal. He was heavily involved with the church, and was a vestryman. If caught with the lanterns, he could provide a meaningful excuse for being in the church. On the evening of April 18, Pulling hung two lanterns from the steeple of the church for just under a minute, just long enough for the militia in Charlestown to see but not long enough to catch the attention of the British troops occupying Boston.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pulling, John People of Massachusetts in the American Revolution Patriots in the American Revolution People from colonial Boston 18th-century American military personnel