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