It used to ring from St Andrew’s from 1843-1874 to warn American sailors about the curfew and residents about the danger lurking in the dark in the early years of the settlement.
Revere Bell
Bronze | Revere Foundry, Boston (1843) | National Museum of Singapore collection
This bell was cast in the Revere foundry in Boston in the tradition of the American patriot, Paul Revere. His daughter, Maria, was married to Joseph Balestier, the first American consul in Singapore (1837-52).
Maria Revere Balestier presented the bell to the Church of St Andrew (the predecessor to St Andrew’s Cathedral). Her condition was that it sounded the curfew every night at 8 p.m. This would remind sailors in the town to return to their ships and to alert residents to be watchful after dark for robberies and assaults.
The curfew bell rang until 1855 when the church was demolished, and was resumed when the second church (which became St. Andrew’s Cathedral later) was constructed in its place in 1861 until it was permanently discontinued in 1874.1
This is the only bell cast by the Revere foundry that is outside the United States. For a time, it was displayed behind velvet ropes in the foyer of the United States Embassy in Singapore.2
Paul Revere (1735-1818) is widely credited with being a participant and possibly a leader in the Boston Tea Party of December 16, when colonists dumped tea from the Dartmouth and two other ships into the harbour.3
After mastering the iron casting process and realising substantial profits from this new product line, Revere identified a burgeoning market for church bells in the religious revival known as the Second Great Awakening that followed the war. Beginning in 1792 he became one of America’s best-known bell casters, working with sons Paul Jr. and Joseph Warren Revere in the firm Paul Revere & Sons. This firm cast the first bell made in Boston and ultimately produced hundreds of bells, a number of which remain in operation.4
Joseph Balestier (1788-1858) left from Philadelphia 27 December 1833 on the ship Arno with his wife Maria Revere and their son Joseph Warren Revere Balestier, arriving in Singapore 16 May 1834. Although he was the Consul to Rhio, he resided in Singapore and became the US Consul to Singapore in 1836 once American ships were given equal trading rights with the East India Company. In Singapore, he had a large house on a 1,000 acre sugar-cane and cotton plantation, with a plant to manufacture sugar and rum. He served until 1852, although he actually left the country due to ill-health on 7 May 1848, leaving Joseph Harvey Weed as acting US Consul. The area of Balestier in Singapore is named after him and is the site of his sugar plantation.
Maria Revere Balestier (1785-1847) married Joseph Balestier on 8 May 1814. Their son Revere was born on 15 May 1819. Joseph Balestier, a merchant and plantation owner until his business failed in 1830, procured a position as the American Consul at Rhio (now known as the Riau Islands, Indonesia) “and such other places as are nearer thereto than to the Residence of any other Consul or Vice Consul of the United States.”
At this time Singapore, a valuable location for trade, was under the jurisdiction of the British East India Company. American trade in the area was nearly nonexistent due to the HMS Larne incident of 1825, in which a British ship mistakenly seized an American trading vessel en route to Singapore, but Balestier recognised Singapore as a valuable trading port and requested a post there rather than the quieter port at Rhio. The Balestiers arrived at their new post in Singapore on 16 May 1834. After some negotiation, Joseph Balestier was able to reopen Singapore to American trading ships. He was officially appointed as Consul of Singapore by 1837.6
Joseph Balestier’s work as Consul primarily involved the fostering of American trade, as well as overseeing the welfare of American seamen and shipwrecked citizens and handling legal matters relating to American affairs with surrounding peoples. He also participated in local politics and continued work on the side as a merchant and planter, selling a variety of goods from ships to sugar to French wine. These satellite ventures were meant in part to assist the Balestier family in maintaining a comfortable home as well as upholding the manifold and often expensive duties of an American Consul, which the American government’s annual stipend could not fully cover.
The family was shocked by the death of Revere Balestier, whose health was always fragile, on 2 March 1844 at only 24 years old. The Balestier family remained in Singapore until shortly after Maria’s death on 22 August 1847. Joseph Balestier continued his diplomatic work as a Presidential Envoy from 1849 to 1851, followed by a brief return to his work as Consul in Singapore before retiring in 1852. He remarried that year but died only six years later on 12 November 1858.
History of Singapore
Singapore’s history is a journey from ancient settlement to modern metropolis. Initially known as Temasek, it was a 14th-century trading post, later falling under the influence of various empires. Sir Stamford Raffles established a British trading post in 1819, transforming the island into a thriving port. Post-World War II, Singapore gained self-governance and eventually independence, first as part of Malaysia and then as a sovereign nation in 1965.
The Singapore Treasures series focuses on the artefacts, relics and key monuments and moments that shaped this young nation. It is divided into four main parts.
- Pre-colonial before 1819
- British Colonial Rule (1819-1942), Japanese Occupation (1942-1945) and Post-War (1945-1955)
- Self government (1955-1963) and merger with Malaysia (1963-1965)
- Independence since 1965
Footnotes :
- Balestier Bell Finds A Home, The Straits Times, 17 October 1937, Page 5. In 1843 the bell was presented to the old St. Andrew’s Church-which stood on the padang exactly 100 years ago by Mrs. Marie Revere Balestier, of Boston, the wife the then American consul in Singapore. She gave it on condition that the curfew was rung every night at eight o’clock, and this was done until 1874. https://eresources.nlb.gov.sg/newspapers/digitised/article/straitstimes19371017-1.2.45 ↩︎
- Patricia L. Herbold (May 18, 2006). Revere Bell Ceremony: Remarks by Ambassador Patricia L. Herbold (Speech). National Museum of Singapore: US Embassy in Singapore. Archived from the original on April 23, 2014. ↩︎
- Martello, Robert (2010). Midnight Ride, Industrial Dawn: Paul Revere and the Growth of American Enterprise. Johns Hopkins Studies in the History of Technology. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Revere ↩︎
- Paul Revere’s church bell from “Religion in Early America” By Peter Manseau, June 19, 2017. It was in the reception of his church bells, however, that the final rehabilitation of Revere’s reputation can be seen. When his bells were considered for purchase, their shortcomings apparently mattered less to some than who their maker was, and what he soon came to represent.
“Mr. Revere has not yet learned to give sweetness and clearness to the tone of his bells. He has no ear and perhaps knows nothing of the laws of sound,” wrote Reverend William Bentley of the Second Congregational Church in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1807. Like others, however, Bentley made a point of purchasing a bell from Revere rather than an imported model. The reason? Many Americans “venture to prefer it to any imported bell & so did we,” the minister explained, “but from patriotism.” https://americanhistory.si.edu/explore/stories/paul-reveres-church-bell-religion-early-america ↩︎ - This collection consists of one box of letters written by Maria Revere Balestier, daughter of Paul Revere, to her sister Harriet Revere (1783-1860) and brothers Joseph Warren Revere (1777-1868) and John Revere (1787-1847). The letters span 1834 to 1847. Also included are letters by Joseph Warren Revere Balestier and Joseph Warren Revere (1812-1880). https://www.masshist.org/collection-guides/view/fa0175 ↩︎
- Balestier Heritage Trail A Companion Guide © June 2020 National Heritage Board. https://www.sysnmh.org.sg/en/-/media/sys/trail-booklet.pdf ↩︎
- https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/865/paul-revere ↩︎
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