Paul Revere made his historic ride to warn the countryside that the British Regulars were coming on April 18, 1775. Revere had a big family (8 kids) and was an astute businessman who had an engraving business, was a silversmith, a printer, and had several other enterprises. So when he had to take time off from those repsonsiblities to deliver messages, he wanted to be compensated for his time. He had kids to feed!
The day after his infamous ride, the Sons of Liberty (then called the Committee of Safety) worked out a deal with Revere to compensate him for his messenger services which they would be needing more of since the fight with the British had begun. The bill below is the first bill on record for Revere charging for his services and covers the night of his infamous ride.
This image sourced from the book
"The True Story of Paul Revere: His Midnight Ride, His Arrest and His Court Marial"
by Charles Ferris Gettemy
Here is a translation of the bill:
The comments on the bottom indicate there were some adjustments made to the bill by the saftey committee and the amount of the bill paid to Revere was reduced to 10 4 0, or 10 pounds, 4 shillings and zero sixpence. A rough extrapolation of that into today's value would be somewhere betweetn £1,200 ( $1,800) and £17,880 ($26,000).
On the back of the bill was the note: In the House of Representatives, August 22d 1775. Resolve that Mr. Paul Revere be allowed & paid out of the publicly treasury of his colony ten pound four shilling in full discharge of the within account."