Jacob Jones, USN-- Part 1: The Oldest Midshipman and Capture at Tripoli

From the August 14, 2021, Delmarva ""War of 1812 hero, Jacob Jones found a home in the United States Navy" by Michael Morgan.

Master Commandant (a rank in the early U.S. Navy, now called commander) Jacob Nicholas Jones had weathered the storm.  In October 1812, the U.S. and Britain were at war.  He had guided his 18 gun sloop USS Wasp past Cape Henlopen and out into the Atlantic in search of enemy warships.

The Delaware native and resident of Lewes was born near Smyrna, Delaware in 1768.  His mother had died when he was an infant; and his father married Penelope Holt, the granddaughter of Ryves Holt of Lewes.  When he father passed away, Penelope raised the boy in Lewes, where he lived at the Ryves-Holt House at Second and Mulberry streets.

After he completed his elementary education in Lewes, Jones studied medicine and hung out his shingle as a doctor; but had few patients.  He considered a legal career, worked as a store keeper and took up farming.  But nothing seemed to satisfy him.

In 1799, ate the age of 31, Jones joined the fledgling U.S. Navy as one of the service's oldest midshipmen.  (Midshipmen were usually in their early to mid teens).

In 1803, Jacob Jones was now a lieutenant and on board the frigate USS Philadelphia, when the ship ran aground in the harbor of Tripoli in what is now Libya.  The American crew was captured and imprisoned  for twenty months.

--Brock-Perry

Fisher's Paradise in Lewes, Delaware: Revolutionary War, War of 1812 For Sale, $2.3 Million

From the September 27, 2017, Delaware Online  "Fisher's Paradise: Lewes home to Revolutionary spy."

It is on the canal in Lewes.  Major Henry Fisher, the local "eyes and ears" of the Continental Congress during the American Revolution lived here at 624 Pilottown Road from his boyhood to death in 1792 at age 57.

During the Revolution, Fisher "monitored and bedeviled British ships by removing navigation buoys and erecting underground wooden "spike strips" and darkening the Cape Henlopen Lighthouse.

The home was then sold to Colonel Samuel Boyer Davis, who lived there while he headed the defense of Lewes during the War of 1812.

And the 2,800 square foot home on an acre of land is on sale for $2.3 million.

Got $2.3 Million Lying Around?  --Brock-Perry

Delaware in the War of 1812-- Part 1

From the June 6, 2012, Delaware First Media News:  "The War of 1812: Dealware's Role in 'America's Second War for Independence'" by Larry Nagengast.

Lewes,Delaware has a sign on a house reading "The CANNONBALL HOUSE."  This is the last remaining Lewes home bearing a mark from that long-ago war.  A patch on the foundation shows where a cannonball struck it on April 6th or 7th in the year 1813.  It was restored by the Lewes Historical Society.

Chuck Fithian, curator of archaeology for the Delaware Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs, says the declaration of war by the United States on June 18, 1812 "was not one of our better moments."  The two main reason s for it was British impressment of American sailors and their support of the Indians in the Northwest Terrotory.

In December 1812, the British fleet began its blockade of the Chesapeake Bay (which I've been writing about).  In February 1813, some of those ships moved to the Delaware Bay.  Lewes had some 800 residents at the time.  In March, the British fleet appeared off Cape Henlopen.

And, that's when the war really came to Delaware.

British Ships in Delaware!!  --Brock-Perry