Robert Newman (sexton) in the context of Sexton (office)

Paul Revere's midnight ride was an alert given to minutemen in the Province of Massachusetts Bay by local Patriots on the night of April 18, 1775, warning them of the approach of British Army troops prior to the battles of Lexington and Concord. In the preceding weeks, Patriots in the region learned of a planned crackdown on the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, then based in Concord, by the British occupational authorities in the colony.

Sons of Liberty members Paul Revere and William Dawes prepared the alert, which began when Robert Newman, the sexton of Boston's Old North Church, used a lantern signal to warn colonists in Charlestown of the British Army's advance by way of the Charles River. Revere and Dawes then rode to meet John Hancock and Samuel Adams in Lexington, ten miles (16 km) away, alerting up to 40 other Patriot riders along the way. Revere and Dawes then headed towards Concord with Samuel Prescott.

The Old North Church (officially Christ Church in the City of Boston) is an Episcopal mission church located in the North End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. The church, which was built in 1723, is the oldest standing church building in the city and a National Historic Landmark.

Old North Church is notable for its role in Paul Revere's midnight ride on April 18, 1775. On that night, the church's sexton, Robert Newman, hung two lanterns in the church's steeple which alerted Revere and the other riders to British military movements prior to the battles of Lexington and Concord, the first engagements of the American Revolutionary War.