The Humphreys family in America - citizen hylbom blog

"Tlic Cnn-tilulinn llu-u went into llic liaiiils of Captain liainbridyc, and saiiol willi llic llurnut on tlic 26th
of October, 1812. On the 26th of December she captured tlie British frigate Java. When Bainbridge gave up tlie
command of the Constitution in 1813, she was found to be in a very decayed condition; and then began those repairs
to which she has been so often subjected. When she sailed again she was under the command of Captain Charles
Stewart. Before he came back, after a cruise in the West Indies, he captured a few ])rizes and the man-of-war
schooner Pictou, 14. Captain Stewart sailed again from Boston in December, 1814. The luck of the ship did not
desert her. Captain Stewart, February 20, 1815, captured H. B. M. ship Cyane, 34, and the sloop-of-war Levant,
21. These were famous naval actions in their day, and are not yet forgotten. They are the last exploits of the
Constitution, of whom Americans began already to speak affectionately as 'Old Ironsides.' When there was a talk
of running Commodore Stewart for the Presidency, they gave the name to him. Her service during the war may
be summed up as follows: In the course of two years and nine months she had been in three actions, had been
twice dangerously pursued, and had taken five vessels of war. Sailors boasted of her, as they told how she had
never been ashore and never dismasted. She had been fighting all her life, with constant success and with a minimum
of loss. Naval historians explain her good fortinie by the fact that she had always been well commanded. Most of
her crews, during her last two cruises, were hardy New Kngland men almost as well qualified to fight the ship as
her officers.
" The Constitution* was designed by Jo.shua Humphreys, of Philadelphia, and was constructed at Boston, under
the supervision of Colonel George Claghorne, of New Bedford, Mass. The point at which she was built is now
called Constitution Wharf. She had very distinguished men to look after her construction—Captains Barry, Dale,
Nicholson and Truxton. Old Paul Revere furnished the copper bolts and spikes. Originally she was built of live
oak and red cedar, the keel, keelson beams and planking of best white oak; the decks of the best Carolina pitch
pine, but, under the guns, of oak. There is hardly an inch of her original wood in her now. Singularly, she had
bad luck in launching. Two attempts were made to get her into the water; only the third was successful. Before
she sailed for Tripoli she was recoppered with copper made in the United States. The Constitution was at Charles-
town, Mass., in 1834, when Commodore Elliott was in command of the station. He was a warm admirer of General
Jackson and had placed a figure of that personage on the bow of the ship, greatly to the disgust of the Whig majority
of Boston. This figurehead an enthusiastic young man named Samuel P. Dewey sawed off and carried away in the
night. He had the impudence to carry the head to Washington with the intention of presenting it to General
Jackson, but after he arrived there he was dissuaded from doing so. This figurehead is still preserv'ed at Annapolis.
During the War of the Rebellion, the Constitution was laid up for a time; but afterward, during the same trouble,
she was employed as a practice ship at Annapolis. She was in the training squadron for about three years.
"Such are the main facts in the history of this famous ship. She has been sedulously cared for, until now, it
appears, she is worth caring for no longer. No poet will now come to her rescue, and ask, as a better fate for her,
that she be given 'to the God of storms, the lightning and the gale.' Naval warfare has entirely changed since she
won her great battles against wonderful odds; but she will always be honorably mentioned in the naval history of
the country, as a noble exemplar of the tactics which gained great victories, man to man and gun to gun."
Children:
20. I. Clement. 5 When but i8, infuriated at an attack in the Aurora upon the Federalists and
upon Washington, in April, 1797, he assaulted the editor, a visitor to the frigate United
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Stales, at Philadelphia; was tried for assault, convicted, fined $50 and put under bonds
of $2,000 to keep the peace; but the Federalist merchants of that city paid the fine and
furnished the security. President Adams then sent him to France, with special des-
patches to the U. S. Commissioners, then in hot controversy with the French Directory,
and he probably carried, privately, information more important than his despatches.
He was afterward supercargo of the ship India, and was lost at sea between Batavia
and Bombay, about the first of May. 1803.
2T. II. Samuel, 5 b. 23 Nov., 1778; m. Letiiia Atkinson. Familv 7.
2:s. III. Sarah '; m. Henry (son of Levi) Holiingsworth, of Philadelphia, a very wealthy and
eminent merchant. The Holiingsworth family is one of the leading families of
Maryland, in wealth and influence. Children:
23. i. Levi", d. unmarried.
24. ii. Clement*'; d. unmarried, aged about 18 years.
• As wore also llic frignlts llii- Prrsidcnl the I'nilcd Stala ilie Constellation, llie Congress, and ihe Chesapenke See Joshua
Humphreys* letter, p 91);^