Plate 10.
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W. L. Ormsby, sc.
CAPTAIN JACOB JONES.
Jacob Jones was the son of an independent and respectable farmer, near the village of Smyrna, in the county of Kent, in the state of Delaware, and was born in the year 1770. His mother, who was an amiable and interesting woman, died when Jacob was two years old. Some time afterwards his father married a second time to a Miss Holt, granddaughter of the Hon. Ryves Holt, formerly Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Delaware, or, as it was then denominated, “the lower counties on Delaware.” Shortly after this second marriage his father died, when this, his only child, was scarcely four years of age. It was the happiness of our hero to be left under the care of a step-mother who possessed all the kind feelings of a natural parent. The affection which this excellent woman had borne towards the father, was, on his death, transferred to his child. By her he was nurtured from infancy to manhood, with a truly maternal care and tenderness. At an early age he was placed at school, where his proficiency exceeded her most anxious expectations. He was soon transferred to a grammar school at Lewes, in Sussex county, where he read the classics with much assiduity, and became well acquainted with the Latin and Greek languages. At the age of eighteen he left school and commenced the study of medicine at Dover, in the county of Kent, where he remained four years, after which he attended the usual courses of medical lectures of the University of Pennsylvania, and returned to Dover to commence the practice of his profession. He did not, however, continue long in the practice. Discouraged by the scanty employment that is commonly the lot of the young physician, and impatient of an inactive life, he determined to abandon it for a more lucrative occupation. Governor Clayton, who was a personal friend of his father, conferred upon him the clerkship of the Supreme Court of the State of Delaware, for the county of Kent. In this situation he remained some time, but the sedentary nature of its duties caused it to become irksome to him, and possessing a spirit of enterprise, and not content with the tranquil ease of common life, he resolved upon a measure as indicative of the force of his character, as it was decisive of his future fortunes. This was to enter the navy of the United States. Jones, it appears, had weighed all the inconveniences and sacrifices incident to his determination, and had made up his mind to encounter and surmount them all. The only consolation to his friends was the reflection, that if courage, activity and hardihood could ensure naval success, Jacob Jones was peculiarly fitted for the life he had adopted; and it is probable they felt some degree of admiration for that decision of character which, in the pursuit of what he conceived a laudable object, could enable him to make such large sacrifices of personal pride and convenience. Through the exertions of his friends, he obtained a midshipman’s warrant and joined the frigate United States, Commodore Barry, from whom he derived great instruction in the theory and practice of his profession, blended with the utmost kindness and civility. He was a midshipman on board of the United States, when she bore to France Chief Justice Ellsworth and General Davie, as envoys extraordinary to the French Republic. He was next transferred to the Ganges, where he remained till the breaking out of the war with Tripoli, when he was stationed on board of the frigate Philadelphia, under the command of the gallant Bainbridge. The disaster which befel that ship and her crew before Tripoli, forms a solemn page in our naval history; atoned for, however, by the brilliant achievements to which it gave rise.
Twenty months of severe captivity among a barbarous people, and in a noxious climate, neither broke the spirit nor impaired the constitution of our hero. Blest by nature with vigorous health and an invincible resolution, when relieved from bondage by the bravery of his countrymen, he returned home full of life and ardor. He was soon after promoted to a lieutenancy, which grade he merited before his confinement in Tripoli, but older warrant officers had stood in the way of his preferment.