by Tim McGrath
FDR Franklin Delano Roosevelt Naval Collection
GWP George Washington Papers
HCL Haverford College Library
HSP Historical Society of Pennsylvania
ISM Independence Seaport Museum
JBP John Barry Papers, Library of Congress
JPJP John Paul Jones Papers, Library of Congress
JCC Journals of the Continental Congress
LDC Letters of Delegates to Congress
MCLB Marine Committee Letter Book
NDAR Naval Documents of the American Revolution
NRAR Naval Records of the American Revolution
NYHS New York Historical Society
NYPL New York Public Library
PMHB Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography
PRO Public Records Office, Kew Gardens, England
RDC Revolutionary Diplomatic Correspondence
RIHS Rhode Island Historical Society
RMP Robert Morris Papers
SCHS South Carolina Historical Society
USNAM United States Naval Academy Museum
UVL University of Virginia Library
CHAPTER ONE “REBELLIOUS FANATICKS”
1 Naval Documents of the American Revolution (NDAR), 1:77, Major Adam Stephens to Richard Henry Lee, 2/1/75.
2 Benjamin Woods Labaree, The Boston Tea Party (New York: Oxford University Press, 1964), 235.
3 William M. Fowler, Jr., The Baron of Beacon Hill: A Biography of John Hancock (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1980), 160; Benjamin L. Carp, Defiance of the Patriots: The Boston Tea Party and the Making of America (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012), 130–131; Bruce C. Lancaster, The American Revolution (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1971), 68.
4 Library Company of Philadelphia, Tea Ship Broadside, 11/27/73; Boston Gazette, 10/25/73; Pennsylvania Gazette, 11/10/73; Tinkcom, “The Revolutionary City,” 108.
5 Boston Gazette, 12/20/73; Carp, 130; Labaree, 144.
6 Labaree, 145.
7 Boston Gazette, 12/20/73; Carp, 130, 139.
8 South Carolina Gazette, 11/21/74; NDAR, 1:628–669, John Adams to Elbridge Gerry, 6/7/75; Lancaster, 70; Franklin Delano Roosevelt Library, FDR Collection, John Adams to Elbridge Gerry, 6/7/75 (approx.).
9 Benjamin Pinkas, “The Vindication of John Adams: Rex v. Corbet and the Battle for the Heritage of the American Revolution, 1760–1816,” Tempus: The Harvard College History Review 11:1–13; John F. Kennedy, Profiles in Courage (Inaugural ed.; New York: Harper and Row, 1961), 235–236.
10 L. H. Butterfield, ed., Adams Family Correspondence, 1:107.
11 Interview with William Ward, retired director of education, Independence Seaport Museum, Philadelphia, April 2004; Gary B. Nash, First City (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002), 31.
12 David McCullough, John Adams (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2001), 82.
13 Joseph E. Illich, Colonial Pennsylvania—A History (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1976), 281.
14 McCullough, 22–23.
15 Historical Society of Pennsylvania (“HSP”), Christopher Marshall Diaries, 5/6/75; Pennsylvania Evening Post, 5/6/75.
16 Frederick Wagner, Robert Morris: Audacious Patriot (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1973), 26; John Kessler, “Life of John Kessler” (Pennsylvania Archives, John Kessler Papers), 1.
17 Deborah Mathias Gough, Christ Church, Philadelphia: The Nation’s Church in a Changing City (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995), 137, 142.
18 Independence Hall Collections, Information for Independence Hall; HABS Drawing 9.
19 McCullough, 178.
20 NDAR, 1:628–629, John Adams to Elbridge Gerry, 6/7/75.
21 Ibid., 1:964, John Adams to James Warren, 7/24//75.
22 McCullough, 95.
23 NDAR, 1:916, Journals of the Continental Congress, 7/18/75.
24 Ibid., 1:205–6, Samuel Graves to Philip Stephens, 4/22/75.
25 Ibid., 1:372, Graves to Lord Dunmore, 5/20/75.
26 Ibid., 1:503, Journal of His Majesty’s Sloop Falcon, John Linzee, commanding, 5/22/75; 819, Mercy Warren to John Adams, 7/5/75; Massachusetts Spy, 5/24/75.
27 Ibid., 1:337, General Thomas Gage to Vice Admiral Samuel Graves, 5/15/75; 655–656, Pilot Nathaniel Godfrey’s Report of Action between the Schooner Margaretta and the Rebels of Machias, 6/11/75; Nathan Miller, Sea of Glory: The Naval History of the American Revolution (Charleston: Nautical and Aviation Publishing Company, 1974), 30.
28 NDAR, 1:676–677, James Lyons, Chairman of the Machias Committee, to the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, 6/14/75.
29 Ibid., Miller, 32.
30 Ibid., 655–56, “Pilot Nathaniel Godfrey’s Report of Action between the Schooner Margueretta and the Rebels at Machias,” 6/11/75.
31 Ibid.; Miller, 31–35.
32 NDAR, 1:997, Vice Admiral Samuel Graves to Philip Stephens, 7/28/75; NDAR, 1:1108, Lieutenant John Knight, R.N. to Vice Admiral Samuel Graves, 8/10/75.
33 Ibid., 1:737–738, Walter Livingston to Robert Livingston, Jr., 6/21/75; 818, George Washington in Account with the United States, 7/5/75; Butterfield, Adams Family Correspondence, Portia (Abigail Adams) to John Adams, 7/16/75; Lancaster, 100.
34 Ibid., 1057–1058, George Washington to Nicholas Cooke, Deputy Governor of Rhode Island, 8/4/75; Papers of the Continental Congress, 7/14/75.
35 Ibid., 851, George Washington to Richard Henry Lee, 7/10/75; Miller, 60–61; Walter Isaacson, Benjamin Franklin: An American Life (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2003), 302.
36 Ibid., 1114–1115, George Washington to a Committee of the General Court of Massachusetts Bay, 8/11/75.
37 D. Appleton: Cyclopedia of American Biography (New York, Appleton, 1900); George Athan Billias, General John Glover and His Marblehead Mariners (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1960), 21.
38 NDAR, 1:1287–1289, George Washington’s Instructions for Captain Nicholas Broughton, 9/2/75.
39 Ibid., 2:36, Captain Nicholas Broughton to George Washington, 9/17/75.
40 Ibid., 2:36, 2:56–57, Captain Nicholas Broughton to George Washington, 9/9/75; 169 Washington to John Langdon, 9/21/75; Miller, 62–63.
41 Ibid., 436, George Washington to Nicholas Cooke, 10/13/75; 1082, Washington to Colonel Joseph Reed, 11/20/75; Miller, 67–69; William M. Fowler, Jr., Rebels Under Sail: The American Navy During the Revolution (New York: Scribner’s, 1976), 28–43.
42 NDAR, 1:47, Disposition of the Squadron under Vice Admiral Samuel Graves, 1/1/75; pp. 255–256; Some of the Principal Inhabitants of Falmouth to Lieutenant Henry Mowat, R.N., 5/2/75; p. 1 Major General John Burgoyne to Lord George Germain, 8/10/75; Miller, 22–27.
43 Ibid., 2:324–326, Vice Admiral Samuel Graves to Lieutenant Henry Mowat, H.M. Armed Vessel Canceaux, 10/6/75.
44 HSP, Christopher Marshall Diaries, 8–10/75; James C. Bradford, ed., Command under Sail: Makers of the American Naval Tradition (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1985): William M. Fowler, Jr., “Esek Hopkins: Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Navy,” 5.
45 NDAR, 1:517, Portia (Abigail Adams) to John Adams, 5/24/75.
46 Ibid., 1:894–895, Portia to John Adams, 7/10/75.
47 Denise Kiernan and Joseph D’Agnese, Signing Their Lives Away: The Fame and Misfortune of the Men Who Signed the Declaration of Independence (Philadelphia: Quirk Books, 2009), “Samuel Chase,” 155–159.
48 Miller, 18–20; Fowler, Rebels, 101.
49 John F. Millar, American Ships of the Colonial and Revolutionary Periods (New York: Norton, 1978), 35–36; Pennsylvania Packet, 6/19/75.
50 NDAR, 1:1236, Journal of the Rhode Island Assembly, 8/26/75.
51 Ibid., 1:1163–1164, Minutes of the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety, 7/6/75; 2:234–235, Diary of John Adams, 9/28/75.
52 Ibid
., 2:149, Permit by George Washington to Procure Powder from the West Indies, 9/19/75.
53 Ibid., 1:1221–1225, actions of the ship Asia and various eyewitness accounts.
54 Thomas Fleming, Liberty (New York: Viking, 1997), 159–160.
55 Journals of the Continental Congress (“JCC”), 10/3/75.
56 JCC, 10/5/75; Pennsylvania Journal, 10/11/75; Miller, 45.
57 NDAR, 2:307–311; JCC, 10/5/75; John Adams’ Notes of Debates in the Continental Congress, 10/5/75.
58 JCC, 10/6/75.
59 HSP, Christopher Marshall Diaries, 10/7/75.
60 NDAR, 2:331, Journal of the HMS Rose, Captain James Wallace, 10/7/75; ibid., 2:337, Journal of the HM Sloop Swan, Captain James Ayscough, 10/7/75; ibid., 2:376, George Benson to Nicholas Brown, 10/9/75; Newport Mercury, 10/9/75.
61 Butterfield, Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, 2:183, 9/25/75.
62 JCC, 10/7/75.
63 NDAR, 2:393, Thomas Jefferson to Francis Eppes, 10/10/75.
64 Ibid., 2:426, John Adams to James Warren, 10/12/75; ibid., 2:427, Outline for Proposal for Procuring Powder, 10/12/75.
65 Ibid., 2:301, George Washington to John Hancock, 10/5/75.
66 JCC, 10/13/75.
67 NDAR, 2:443, John Adams to James Warren, 10/13/75.
68 Ibid., Letter from Rev. Jacob Bailey, 10/13/75.
69 Ibid., 2:471, Lieutenant Henry Mowat, R.N., to the People of Falmouth, 10/16/75; ibid., 2:487–488, Letter from Rev. Jacob Bailey, 10/17/75; ibid., 2:489, Master’s Log of H.M. Armed Vessel Canceaux, 10/17/75.
70 Ibid., 2:500–502, Letter from Reverend Jacob Bailey, 10/18/75; Narrative of Daniel Tucker of Falmouth, 10/18/75; Master’s Log of H.M. Armed Vessel Canceaux, 10/18/75; ibid., 2:513–516, Lieutenant Henry Mowat, R.N., to Vice Admiral Samuel Graves, 10/19/75; ibid., 2:590–591, Pearson Jones’ Certificate Concerning the Burning of Falmouth, 10/24/75.
71 Ibid., 2:590–591, George Washington to John Hancock, 10/24/75; Pearson Jones Certificate etc.
72 Ibid., 2:554–557, John Adams’ Notes of Debate in the Continental Congress, 10/21/75; JCC, 10/30/75.
73 Ibid., 2:896–897, John Adams to Elbridge Gerry, 11/5/75; Adams to James Warren, 11/5/75.
74 Charles R. Smith, Marines in the Revolution: A History of the Continental Marines in the American Revolution 1775–1783 (Washington, D.C.: History and Museums Division, Headquarters, US Marine Corps, 1975), 11, 88.
75 Butterfield, Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, 3:349–351.
76 NDAR, 2:907–909, Stephen Hopkins to Esek Hopkins, 11/6/75.
77 Fowler, Rebels, 59; Miller, 55.
78 Independence Seaport Museum (ISM), Barry-Hayes Papers (BHP), John Barry Memorial to Congress, 1785; Samuel Eliot Morison, John Paul Jones: A Sailor’s Biography (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1989), 60; HSP, Joshua Humphreys Collection, Letterbook.
79 NDAR, 2:1093–1094, Minutes of the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety, 11/21/75; 3:471, Lord Stormont to Count de Vergennes, 1/2/76; 3:507, M. d’Anglemont to Gabriel de Sartine, 1/14/76; Robert Weeden Neeser, ed., Letters and Papers Relating to the Cruises of Gustavus Conyngham (New York, 1915), pps xxix, 159.
80 Butterfield, Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, 3:350, 12/6/75.
81 NDAR, 2:1255, Journal of John Trevett, 12/3/75; JCC, 12/2/75.
82 HSP, Joshua Humphreys Shipyard Accounts, December 1775; Pennsylvania Gazette, 1/4/76; JCC, 12/13/75.
83 HSP, Miscellaneous Collection, “First Commission in the Continental Marine Corps,” 11/28/75; Smith, 12–14.
84 HSP, Christopher Marshall Diaries, 12/3/75.
85 Morison, 49–53; Thomas, 34–40; Noland Van Powell, The American Navies of the Revolutionary War (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1974), 28.
86 Butterfield, Diary and Autobiography of John Adams, 3:348–350.
CHAPTER TWO “IF THE REBELS SHOULD PAY US A VISIT . . .”
1 NDAR, 3:1263–1364, Autobiography of Joshua Barney.
2 John F. Watson, Annals of Philadelphia, vol. 1 (Philadelphia: Edwin Stuart, 1887).Hereafter cited as Watson’s Annals.
3 NDAR, 3:266, “Letter from Philadelphia,” 12/27/75; Fowler, Rebels Under Sail, 248.
4 JCC, 11/28/75.
5 HSP, Christopher Marshall Diaries, December 1775–January 1776; NDAR, 3:636–638, Naval Committee to Commodore Esek Hopkins, 1/5/76. No American naval officer was awarded the rank of admiral until the Civil War.
6 Alverda S. Beck, The Correspondence of Esek Hopkins, Commander-in-Chief of the United States Navy 1775–1777 (Providence: Rhode Island Historical Society, 1932), 12–13; Bradford, Command Under Sail; Fowler, “Esek Hopkins: Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Navy,” 4–5; William Bell Clark, Captain Dauntless: The Story of Nicholas Biddle of the Continental Navy (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1949), 88.
7 NDAR, 3:213–214, Silas Deane to Elizabeth Deane, 12/27/75; NDAR, 3:641–642, Minutes of the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety, 1/5/76.
8 JCC, 12/22/75; PA Archives, Colonial Records, 1:425–426, Minutes of the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety, 12/11/75.
9 NDAR, 3:259, Dr. Benjamin Rush to Owen Biddle, 12/26/75; ibid., 3:615, Intelligence from Philadelphia, Transmitted by Captain Hyde Parker, Jr., R.N.; ibid., 3:721, Gilbert Barkly to Sir Gray Cooper 1/10/76. The Providence joined the squadron later.
10 Pennsylvania Evening Post, 1/8, 1/13, 1/18, and 1/20/76.
11 NDAR, 2:1251, Major General William Howe to Lord Dartmouth, 12/3/75; ibid., 3:209, John Hancock to George Washington, 12/22/75; ibid., 3:1193, Washington to Colonel Joseph Reed, 2/10/76; ibid., 3:1234–1236, Francis Lightfoot Lee to Landon Carter, 2/12/76; King, Hattendorf, and Estes, Sea of Words, 255–256; Miller, 71.
12 University of Virginia Library, Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation.
13 Virginia Gazette, 12/30/75; Thomas Fleming, Liberty! (New York: Viking, 1997), 160–163.
14 NDAR, 2:258–260, Common Hall of the Borough of Norfolk to Lord Dunmore, 9/20/75; and Lord Dunmore to the Town Hall of the Borough of Norfolk, 9/30/75.
15 Pennsylvania Gazette, 12/22/75, 1/17/76; NDAR, 3:617–619, Lord Dunmore to Lord Dartmouth, 1/4/76.
16 NDAR, 3:636–637, Naval Committee to Commodore Esek Hopkins, 1/5/76.
17 Ibid., 3:637–638, Naval Committee to Commodore Esek Hopkins, 1/5/76.
18 Ibid., 2:678–679, Edmund Burke to Charles O’Hara, 8/17/75; ibid., 3:371–372, Richard Champion to Willing, Morris, and Co., 11/17/75; Miller, 135.
19 NDAR, 3:366–367, Rear Admiral George Brydges Rodney to Lord George Germain, 11/12/75 and Lord Germain to the Lord Commissioners, Admiralty, 11/13/75; Miller, 138–140.
20 Miller, 140–143; NDAR, 3:460–461, Lord Sandwich to Lord George Germain, 12/28/75; NDAR, 4:1081–1083, Lord George Germain to George III and Instructions to the Commanders of Ships and vessels in the British Navy, 5/2/76; David Syrett, The Royal Navy in European Waters During the American Revolutionary War (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1998), 2–3.
21 Ibid., 2:250, General Thomas Gage to Vice Admiral Samuel Graves, 9/30/75; ibid., 2:983–984, Graves to Captain James Wallace, 11/11/75; ibid., 3, Graves to Vice Admiral Molyneux Shuldham, 1/15/76.
22 NDAR, 3, Continental Naval Committee to Commodore Esek Hopkins, 1/18/76; King, Hattendorf, and Estes Sea of Words, 144.
23 NDAR, 2:1163–1164, Caesar Rodney to Thomas Rodney, 11/27/75; HSP, Minutes, Meetings of the Committee of Safety, 9/20/75; John W. Jackson, The Delaware Bay and River Defenses of Philadelphia 1775–1777 (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Maritime Museum, 1977), 7.
24 LOC, John Barry Collection, ship’s log, Industry, 11/4–10/71.
25 NDAR, 2:220, Henry Fisher and Delaware Bay Pilots to the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety, 9/27/75; ibid., 2:484, Pennsylvania Committee of Safety to Henry Fisher, 11/28/75. Fisher’s papers at t
he Delaware Historical Society are a remarkable read of a pilot’s lot during the war.
26 Portfolio Magazine 2 (1809), “Biographical Memoirs of the Late Captain Nicholas Biddle”; Clark, Captain Dauntless, 98–99; Miller, 97–98.
27 Roger Knight, The Pursuit of Victory: The Life and Adventures of Horatio Nelson (New York: Basic Books, 2005), 449; Michael J. Crawford, ed., The Autobiography of a Yankee Mariner: Christopher Prince and the American Revolution (Dulles, VA: Brassey’s, 2002), 15.
28 Wilbur, Patriots and Pirates, 15–24.
29 Ibid., 51; Morison, 95.
30 Ibid.
31 Miller, 86–87; King, Sea of Words, 189, 290–291.
32 King, Sea of Words, 99, 248, 393–394; Miller, 89.
33 Miller, 91.
34 LOC, John Paul Jones Papers (“JPJP”), Jones to Joseph Hewes, 5/19/76.
35 Wilbur, 70–71, 74, 90; Morison, 63–64; Barbara Tuchman, The First Salute (New York: Knopf, 1988), 118.
36 NDAR, 3:1287–1289, Commodore Esek Hopkins’ Signals for the First Continental Fleet, 2/14/76.
37 Ibid., 3:1306–1307, Biddle to Lydia McFunn, 2/14/76.
38 Ibid., 3:1287–1289, Hopkins’s signals.
39 HSP, Nicholas Biddle Papers, Commodore Esek Hopkins to Captain Nicholas Biddle, 2/14/76.
40 Ibid., Captain Nicholas Biddle to his Brother James Biddle, 2/15/76; NDAR, 3:637–638, Congress’s orders to Hopkins, 1/5/76.
41 Ibid.
42 Van Powell, 30; PA Archives, 1st Series, 769–770, Henry Fisher to the Pennsylvania Committee of Safety, 6/7/76.
43 NDAR, 5:639–640, John Paul Jones to David Tillinghast, 6/20/76; Morison, 64, 75; Thomas, 48; Fowler, Rebels, 94, 101–103, 245.
44 NDAR, 4:1458–1459, Court Martial of John Hazard, Commander of the Sloop Providence, 5/9/76; ibid., 3:718–720, portrait and Naval Committee to Captain William Stone, 1/10/876; ibid., 3:1263–1264, Autobiography of Joshua Barney, 10/23/75–2/13/76.
45 Louis A. Norton, Joshua Barney: Hero of the War of 1812 (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2000), 96; NDAR, 3:302, Command Officers of the Continental Fleet, 12/30/75; ibid., 3:888–891, Articles of Enlistment for the Continental Navy, 1/20/76; Morison, 67.
46 James S Biddle, ed., Autobiography of Charles Biddle (Philadelphia, 1883), 241–242, “Memorandum of Mrs. Mary Biddle”; Christ Church Marriage Records; William Bell Clark, Captain Dauntless: The Story of Nicholas Biddle of the Continental Navy (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1949), 5–7.