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For the British astronomer, see William Rutter Dawes

William Dawes (1745 - 1799) was one of three men who alerted colonial Minutemen of the approach of British army troops with the intent of seizing munitions stores prior to the Battle of Lexington and Concord.

Dawes and Paul Revere were assigned by Doctor Joseph Warren to ride separately from Boston, Massachusetts to Lexington. Though Revere's importance would later be exaggerated and Dawes overlooked in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem eulogizing the event, The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, Dawes nevertheless did have a major role in organizing the manufacture and storage of gunpowder for the militia and the alert system used during the Powder Alarm raids.

Dawes avoided a group of British guards by jumping over a wall. He reached Lexington at about 12:30 a.m on the April 19, 1775, about half an hour after Revere arrived, where he alerted the Minute Men as well as colonial leaders John Hancock and Samuel Adams, who were spending the night at the Hancock-Clarke House. At 1:00 a.m. they rode on together toward Concord, joined by another messenger, Samuel Prescott. Soon after departure from Lexington, they were caught by British guards. Dawes and Prescott escaped, though Dawes's horse bucked him off and ran away; Dawes had to walk back to Lexington. Prescott made it to Concord. Revere was detained and like Dawes returned to Lexington on foot.

The alert that Dawes and Revere sounded succeeded in mustering a sufficient force for the first open battle of the revolution, and the first colonial victory. British military objectives were blocked, and the Redcoats were forced to retreat under guerrilla fire.

Dawes was born in Boston in 1745. He became a tanner. He may have fought in a Bay war. He died in 1799. His great-grandson, Charles Gates Dawes, would serve as Vice President.

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