Books › Ayars, Contributions to the Art of Music in America by the Music Industries of Boston (1937) — the Squier, Farley, Rettberg, Rockwell and Elias Howe matter, 1937 › scan 210
Scan 210
Ayars, Contributions to the Art of Music in America by the Music Industries of Boston (1937) — the Squier, Farley, Rettberg, Rockwell and Elias Howe matter, 1937
13 lines. Read by computer on 27 September 2026. Printed page 184. See the scan on archive.org.
1C. Bells and Bell Chimes Cast by Paul Revere and His Firm's Successors
3In the field of bell chimes Boston has had a notable history beginning with the importation in 1745 of the famous first peal of bells brought into the country for Christ Church, Boston. A well known firm of bell chime casters, which carried on an important line of activities started by Paul Revere, was in business in Boston for over one hundred years through its various successors. One of the earliest concerns in the series, the Boston Copper Co., cast the first chimes in America in 1825.
5The Boston News Letter described the Christ Church peal thus in its issue of July 25, 1745—"Last week a fine set of 8 bells were brought hither in a vessel from Bristol designed for Dr. Cutler's Church at the North Part of the Town. We hear the largest of them is near 1500 Weight, and the whole set about 7000." These were in the Key of F and cast in 1744 by Rudhall of Gloucester, England. The largest weighed 1545 pounds, the smallest 620 pounds, and the aggregate total was 7272 pounds. They cost £560 in England. The first bells bore the inscription, "This peal of bells is the gift of a number of generous persons to Christ Church in Boston, N. E. A. 1744 A. R."1 In 1874 Mr. Elbridge Goss, who made a study of "Early Bells of Massachusetts," wrote "It has been the practice for many years to chime these bells for several nights at Christmas time 'ringing the Old Year out and the New Year in.'"2
7This peal was changed first to a chime action, later by R. A. Cram again made a peal, then finally a chime once more.
9The remarkably beautiful tonal quality of these bells doubtless interested Paul Revere, who became an experienced ringer as a member of the guild, "Order of Bell Ringers," which had charge of these bells. He was described by Dr. Waterhouse, the first teacher of the science of mineralogy in the United States, as "the only man in 1794 who appeared to have known anything of the
111 New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Elbridge H. Goss, Vol. 28, 1874 p. 181.
122 Ibid pp. 181 & 182.
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