Chesterfield Revere/Hooper Bell

The history of the chesterfield NH Revere/Hooper bell

Possibly recast of the 1815 Revere Chesterfield Bell by Hooper & Co., an apprentice of Paul Revere.

After a fire Hooper recast the 1815 bell in 1851

Joseph Warren Revere's memoranda replacing the first Chesterfield Bell with the 1815 Revere Bell.

Hi Mitch,

I think the answers you seek may be found in the pages of a pamphlet titled “Chesterfield Town Hall, Our Heritage, Our Centerpiece”,written by our Historian, Audrey Ericson, and published by CHS in 2014. I’ve included copies of the pertinent pages here, along with an image of the ‘current’ bell, probably circa 1970s.

There is more information on the pages (outlined with blue boxes), but here is a summary relating more directly to your inquiry:

• Our original meetinghouse was built in 1770. A description in the History of Chesterfield (which seems to correspond with the 1815 sales records you reference) indicates a belfry was added to the building and efforts were undertaken to purchase a bell during that time frame. There is no specific reference that the bell purchased came from the Revere foundry, but it seems likely.

• That meetinghouse was unfortunately destroyed in an arson fire on March 1, 1851. The original bell would have crashed to the ground during that event, and was probably fire damaged (and possibly cracked).

• In June 1851, as the new town hall was being quickly reconstructed of stone, records indicate that the original bell was incorporated into a new bell recast by the Hooper Bell Company of Boston (Hooper apparently was an apprentice of Paul Revere earlier). I’ve included a photo of the Hooper bell, which certainly bears a resemblance to known Revere bells.

Hope this helps -
Jeffrey W. Titus
CHS Board Member