BARNEY, JOSHUA, a distinguished naval commander, was born at Baltimore, Maryland, in 1759. He went to sea at a very early age, and when the war commenced between Great Britain and the colonies, Barney offered his services to the latter, and obtained the situation of master’s mate in the sloop of war Hornet. During the war, he was several times taken prisoner by the enemy, and displayed, on numerous occasions, great valor and enterprise. In 1795, he received the commission of captain in the French service, but in 1800 resigned his command, and returned to America. In 1812, when war was declared against Great Britain, he offered his services to the general government, and was appointed to the command of the flotilla for the defence of the Chesapeak. While in this situation, during the summer of 1814, he kept up an active warfare with the enemy; and in the latter part of July, he was severely wounded in a land engagement near Bladensburg. In the following year, he was sent on a mission to Europe. He died at Pittsburg, in 1818, in the sixtieth year of his age.
BARRY, JOHN, a distinguished naval officer, was born in Ireland, in 1745. He arrived in America when only fourteen or fifteen years old, and obtained employment from some of the most respectable merchants of the day, until the commencement of hostilities between the colonies and the mother country. Embracing the cause of the colonies, his reputation for skill and experience procured for him one of the first naval commissions from congress. During the war, he served with great benefit to his country, and credit to himself, and after the cessation of hostilities, he was appointed to superintend the building of the frigate United States, in Philadelphia, which was designed for his command. He was highly respected in private life, and died, much lamented and honored, in 1803.
BARTRAM, JOHN, one of the most distinguished of our botanists, was born in Pennsylvania, in 1701. He was a simple farmer, self taught in the science of botany, and in the rudiments of the learned languages, medicine, and surgery. So great was his progress in his favorite pursuit, that Linnæus pronounced him the ‘greatest natural botanist in the world.’ He contributed much to the gardens of Europe, and received honors from several foreign societies and academics. At the time of his death, which happened in 1777, he held the office of American botanist to George III. of England.
BARTRAM, WILLIAM, a celebrated naturalist, son of the preceding, was born in Pennsylvania, in 1739. In early life, he was occupied with mercantile pursuits, but an attachment to natural science induced him to relinquish them, and, in 1773, he embarked for Charleston, with the intention to visit the Floridas and the western parts of Georgia and Carolina, to examine their natural productions. In this employment he was engaged nearly five years; and in 1790, he published an account of his travels and discoveries, in one volume, octavo. After his return from his travels, he devoted himself to science, and was elected a member of several learned societies, both at home and in Europe. His contributions to the natural history of our country have been highly valuable. He died suddenly, in 1823.
BAYARD, JAMES A., an eminent lawyer and politician, was born in Philadelphia, in 1767, and educated at Princeton college. In the year 1784, he engaged in the study of the law, and on admission to the bar, settled in the state of Delaware, where he soon acquired practice and consideration. He was elected to a seat in congress towards the close of the administration of Mr. Adams, and first particularly distinguished himself in conducting the impeachment of senator Blount. In 1804, he was elected to the senate of the United States, by the legislature of Delaware, and remained for several years a conspicuous member of that assembly. In 1813, he was appointed by president Madison one of the ministers to conclude a treaty of peace with Great Britain, and assisted in the successful negotiations at Ghent, in the following year. He then received the appointment of minister to the court of St. Petersburgh, but an alarming illness induced him to return immediately to the United States. He died soon after his arrival home, in July, 1815.
BELKNAP, JEREMY, an eminent historian and divine, was born at Boston, Massachusetts, in 1744, and was graduated at Harvard college, in 1762. He was first settled in the Christian ministry at Dover, New Hampshire, and afterwards in his native town. He was one of the founders of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and devoted much of his time to the promotion of its objects and interests. His published works are, the History of New Hampshire, American Biography, and a number of political, literary and religious tracts. His writings are characterized by great research, clear arrangement, and perspicuity of style. He died at Boston, in 1798.
BENEZET, ANTHONY, a philanthropist, was born in 1713, at St. Quentin, in Picardy, of Protestant parents, who first settled in London, and afterwards at Philadelphia. He was intended for a merchant, but apprenticed himself to a cooper, and subsequently became a school-master, and a member of the society of Friends. His whole life was spent in acts of benevolence, and he was one of the earliest opponents of the atrocious slave trade. A few hours before his death, he rose from his bed, to give, from his bureau, six dollars to a poor widow. His funeral was attended by thousands; and at the grave, an American officer exclaimed, ‘I would rather be Anthony Benezet, in that coffin, than George Washington, with all his fame.’ Benezet died at Philadelphia, in 1784. He is the author of a Caution to Great Britain and her colonies; and an Historical Account of Guinea.
BIDDLE, NICHOLAS, an American naval officer, was born in Philadelphia, in 1750. He entered the British fleet in 1770, having previously served several years as a seaman on board merchant ships. On the commencement of hostilities between the colonies and the mother country, he returned to Philadelphia, and received from congress the captaincy of the Andrew Doria, a brig of fourteen guns, employed in the expedition against New Providence. Towards the close of 1776, he received command of the Randolph, a new frigate of thirty-two guns, with which he soon captured a Jamaica fleet, of four sail, richly laden. This prize he carried into Charleston, and was soon after furnished by the government of that town with four additional vessels, to attack several British cruisers, at that time harassing the commerce of the vicinity. He fell in with the royal line-of-battle ship Yarmouth, of sixty-four guns, on the seventh of March, 1778and, after an action of twenty minutes, perished, with all his crew except four, by the blowing up of the ship.
BLAKELY, JOHNSTON, a captain in the United States navy during the late war, was born in Ireland, in 1781. Two years after, his father emigrated to the United States, and settled in North Carolina. Young Blakely was placed, in 1796, at the university of North Carolina; but circumstances having deprived him of the means of adequate support, he left college, and in 1800 obtained a midshipman’s warrant. In 1813, he was appointed to the command of the Wasp, and in this vessel took his Britannic majesty’s ship Reindeer, after an action of nineteen minutes. The Wasp afterwards put into L’Orient; from which port she sailed August 27. On the evening of the first of September, 1814, she fell in with four sail, at considerable distances from each other. One of these was the brig of war Avon, which struck, after a severe action; but captain Blakely was prevented from taking possession, by the approach of another vessel. The enemy reported that they had sunk the Wasp by the first broadside; but she was afterwards spoken by a vessel off the Western isles. After this, we hear of her no more. Captain Blakely was considered a man of uncommon courage and intellect.
BOONE, DANIEL, one of the earliest settlers in Kentucky, was born in Virginia, and was from infancy addicted to hunting in the woods. He set out on an expedition to explore the region of Kentucky, in May, 1769, with five companions. After meeting with a variety of adventures, Boone was left with his brother, the only white men in the wilderness. They passed the winter in a cabin, and in the summer of 1770, traversed the country to the Cumberland river. In September, 1773, Boone commenced his removal to Kentucky, with his own and five other families. He was joined by forty men, who put themselves under his direction; but being attacked by the Indians, the whole party returned to the settlements on Clinch river. Boone was afterwards employed by a company of North Carolina, to buy, from the Indians, lands on the south side of the Kentucky river. In April, 1775, he built a fort at Salt-spring, where Boonesborough is now situated. Here he sustained several sieges from the Indians, and was once taken prisoner by them, while hunting with a number of his men. In 1782, the depredations of the savages increased to an alarming extent, and Boone, with other militia officers, collected one hundred and seventy-six men, and went in pursuit of a large body, who had marched beyond the Blue Licks, forty miles from Lexington. From that time till 1798, he resided alternately in Kentucky and Virginia. In that year, having received a grant of two thousand acres of land from the Spanish authorities, he removed to Upper Louisiana, with his children and followers, who were presented with eight hundred acres each. He settled with them at Charette, on the Missouri river, where he followed his usual course of life,—hunting and trapping bears,—till September, 1822, when he died, in the eighty-fifth year of his age. He expired while on his knees, taking aim at some object, and was found in that position, with his gun resting on the trunk of a tree.