p353  XXIV.

A Country Gentleman at Strawberry Hill

George Washington had entered upon his duties as first President of the United States a little more than a month before John Barry came back from Canton. That Constitution, for whose adoption the Captain had risked prosecution as a law‑breaker, was now the rule of the land, and the new Congress, of two chambers, was already dividing itself into factions, which, in time, would assume the larger dignity of parties. As New York was the seat of this youthful and robust government, Philadelphia, for the nonce, had lost its political, if not its economic leader­ship.

From the quietude of Strawberry Hill, through the summer and fall of 1789 and the winter of 1789‑90, Barry brought himself up-to‑date on what had transpired during his voyage — a man could get out of touch during an absence of a year and a half — and lived the peaceful life of a gentleman retired from his labors. Duti­fully, he wrote to Washington of his return from Canton, and listed the American ships remaining there. Sea captains, in the early days of the republic, seemed to regard such a report due the chief executive of the country. The President had replied, on July 6, thanking him "for this polite mark of attention."

Otherwise Barry entered not at all into affairs of state. Neither did he participate in local activities. Once, in late July, he was called upon to commiserate with John Moylan, brother of the young American joint commercial agent at L'Orient during the late war. John Moylan was in the Philadelphia jail — a "dreary Mansion" — the victim of too much borrowed money and "a merciless creditor." Barry, John Brown, Alexander Nesbit and James Crawford were other creditors of the luckless  p354 Moylan, but had not pressed their claims. From the jail, the distressed debtor had written them a joint letter, lamenting "that it is not in my power at present to fulfill these obligations which Honor & Friendship consider Sacred, but which I shall not forget whenever my better day comes on." Moylan was not the only person owing Barry money, who was promising to pay sometime in the future. The Captain's letter file contained numerous similar epistles from other debtors.

Miss Betsy Keen was staying on at Strawberry Hill — a permanent member of the household. Sarah Barry found her presence essential to happiness, and Barry was delighted to have young folks about him. So Betsy and young Patrick Hayes, dwelling under the same roof, found companion­ship, which, in due course, would blossom into love. Sarah, with a doting husband to pamper her, considered life within her own home sufficient. She sought no social interests away from Strawberry Hill, and was fearful of venturing into the city unless docile steeds drew the family chaise. Barry would have liked a more spirited team, but, as he informed a liveryman, he would not think of paying £80 for a pair of horses without trying them, "as Mrs. Barry is so timid."

Thus the fall and a bitter winter passed, with friends dropping in for short stays, with Dr. Rush called upon for occasional visits to ailing members of the household, and with, in February, 1790, the acquisition of a Douay Bible at a cost of six dollars. The Bible is missing today, but the receipt remains.

In March came revival of the long fight to procure half‑pay and land grants for the officers of the Continental navy. A letter from James Nicholson fired interest at Strawberry Hill. The late senior naval captain felt a petition to the new Congress was in order, and Barry agreed.

"I think the best method we could fall upon," the Captain wrote Nicholson on March 6, "would be to Collect as many officers as posable in New York and appoint a Committee to draw up a Petition . . . I am of opinion the more Officers there is then the more weight it will have for at least each one will have a friend."

As soon as the roads were clear, he would go to New York, and believed he could induce John Green (apparently they had patched up their differences) and Alexander Murray, "the only  p355 officers here at present," to accompany him. He wrote in like vein a few days later to Seth Harding, who had expressed views similar to those in Nicholson's letter. Also, he forwarded Harding a certificate extolling the latter's services on the Alliance in the engagement with the Sybil — a document the penniless and incapacitated Connecticut captain needed in efforts to obtain relief.

Just when Barry journeyed to New York is not clear, but a memorial signed by him and others, was presented in both houses of Congress on March 26. It prayed "that the same emoluments that were granted to the officers of the late Continental Army may be extended to them." In the Senate, it was laid upon the table; in the House of Representatives, it was referred to a special committee. The naval officers concentrated their attention upon the House committee. Barry, on May 10, was in New York to join in the lobbying. He dined that day with Senator Maclay, of Pennsylvania; Colonel Stephen Moylan, another brother of the unfortunate John, and Tench Coxe, the new assistant treasurer of the United States. His efforts, plus those of his companions, were success­ful with the committee, which reported on June 24, that it could find no reason for discrimination against the officers of the Continental navy, and "that a law ought to pass for granting five years pay, equal to the commutation of half pay, and also a bounty of land to the officers of the Navy, upon the same principles, and in the same manner, as has been granted to the officers of the army of the United States."

John Barry was not present in New York that day, but he heard the whole story of how the House of Representatives rejected the committee report by a vote of twenty‑two to thirty‑one. The information came in letters from Colonel Thomas Hartley, who had led the forces favorable to the memorial, and from James Nicholson, who had sat in the gallery and witnessed the defeat of their hopes.

"We lost it," wrote Hartley, "tho' we had many reasons to suppose we might succeed. Luke warm Friends and some remarkable Changes were unfavorable Circumstances."

Nicholson was disgusted — despondent. While he quoted Representative Michael J. Stone, of Maryland, as saying "he will have it, if it is five years hence," the senior captain believed  p356 "there is an end to the business." Stone, Colonel Hartley, James Jackson, of Georgia; Aedanus Burke, of South Carolina; Joshua Seney, of Maryland, and John Page, of Virginia, spoke in favor of the measure, "the whole of which did all that honest sincere men could do, whom we aught to look upon ourselves much Indebted." Theodore Sedgwick, of Massachusetts; Roger Sherman, of Connecticut; Elias Boudinot, of New Jersey, and Abraham Baldwin, of Georgia, were "The Violent Objectors."

No party lines marked the voting. Barry could see in the analysis Nicholas supplied that Federalist and Republicans had been enrolled indiscriminately on either side of the subject. Like Nicholson, the Captain felt the long fight was over, and so it was. To this day, the discrimination against the officers of the Continental navy has never been rectified.

* * *

While Congress was doing injustice to the navy officers, John Barry was extending a helping hand to an unappreciative namesake. The recipient of the Captain's favors was young John Barry, hailing from the island of Grenada and claiming kinship with that Captain David Barry, of Walsh's Irish brigade, who had visited the Alliance at St. Eustatia in 1783. Writing the Captain from New York, on March 5, 1790, young Barry hoped "as a Name Sake and Country Man you will be my friend."

"If you will be so friendly as to give me or get me a birth on board a Ship bound to the East," continued this applicant for the Captain's assistance, "I shall Exercise myself in doing Justice  p357 to your recommendation, being brought up from my Infancy to the Sea — and flatter my Self in being a good Artist and a Carefull officer."

In conclusion, the writer referred to still another cousin named David Barry, a reputable merchant of Grenada, who "means to Correspond with you as he admires your good Character — he means to send you by the first good opportunity Some old Rum."

Barry succumbed to the blandishments of this letter — few were the appeals from a fellow Irishman he could refuse — and, after several efforts, secured the lad a berth as second mate on an East Indiaman out of Philadelphia. Just prior to the sailing of his ship, young John Barry was married, on December 6, 1790, in Swede's Church to Margaret Noll. When he departed, it was to leave a pregnant wife behind. Let us carry this episode to its conclusion. In the spring of 1791 came a letter from David Barry, that reputable merchant of Grenada — a pleasing, friendly epistle in which the writer gave his antecedents, spoke of his desire for acquaintance­ship by correspondence, and sent along a •twenty‑two-gallon cask of old rum, two dozen bottles of lime juice and a jar of tamarinds.

"I have heard of you last from my Kinsman Captn John Barry, who went from this island last year to Philadelphia," the letter continued. "he has been a most unfortunate Man, I wish he may not be in some measure accessary to it himself — tho I must at the same time do him the justice to say, that I cou'd never find out any thing particular against his conduct, altho I made strict enquiries."

The correspondence between David Barry and the Captain flourished for several years, and "one half barrel of our best beef" went off to Grenada in appreciation of the rum, lime juice and tamarinds. Then, in the fall of 1792, John Barry had to inform friend David of the delinquencies of his kinsman.

"In my last," he wrote, "I enformed you that I had got your Cozen J B aberth as second Mate of a ship to Maddrass or Calcutt She is since arrived in this place and left him behind [at Bengal]. he married here a few days before he sailed and I under Stand his wife is in very low Sircumstances and has a young Child to take care of I have not heard that he sent her any thing all tho he must have Known when he left her that she  p358 must work hard for a livelly hood." A subsequent letter gave more details: "from what I can learn from the Captain and the other officers [of the East Indiaman] he is too fond of drink and little or no stability." The deserted young wife, said Barry, "I understand goes out nursing."

* * *

Upon the heels of the defeat of the naval officers' memorial, on June 24, 1790, came word that Philadelphia was again to become the national capital. It would be a temporary capital, it was true, until the permanent seat could be established on the Potomac, but it promised eight years, at least, of governmental occupancy of the City of Brotherly Love. Barry looked forward to the next session of Congress with unfeigned pleasure. He had many friends in both the administrative and legislative branches, and, being gregarious by nature, he craved their fellow­ship. Perhaps this desire in part influenced him that August to vow never again to take a ship to Canton. He wanted to stay home amid the delights of Strawberry Hill, and the association of gifted compatriots.

Yet in October, following a brief spell of sickness, when he learned of a big Indiaman outfitting at Providence, the old nostalgia for the sea struck him anew. The owners were well known to him; one, in fact, John Francis, being an old friend. So he proffered his services by letter and awaited impatiently for a reply. It came, but not until the end of November, and he found that his ill‑advised declaration to shun the China trade was to thwart him now.

"Your favor from Strawberry Hill did not reach Providence until several weeks," wrote Francis, "when we had proposed the command of our new ship to Captain Sarly, who since has accepted it. Had I not been very positively informed when in Philadelphia last August that you were resolutely determined never to adventure again to the Indies, I should haveº most certainly haveº made you the offer."

Alas, for regrets! Perforce, Barry had to stick to his resolve, taking comfort in the fact that already the members were flocking to Philadelphia for the opening of the third session of the first Congress, on December 6, 1790.

Regardless of his secret sentiments, Barry refrained from  p359 assuming the badge of any party. While Congress sat in Philadelphia, the Captain avoided commitments to either the dominant Federalists or the fiery Republicans. He numbered among his friends the leaders of each faction. He was welcome at the homes of Robert Morris and Thomas Fitzsimons, both staunch followers of the party of Alexander Hamilton, yet they knew him to be one of the familiars of Dr. Benjamin Rush, the most ardent Republican in Philadelphia. He could toast old times in a city tavern with a companion such as General Henry Knox, the new Secretary of War, but that did not deprive him of the fellow­ship of James Jackson, the Georgia baiter of any Federalist move, nor cause the elegant Pierce Butler, Senator from South Carolina, to shun his company.

We can understand his aloofness. The Federalists generally were pro‑British, and John Barry could never subscribe to adulation of anything English. His early life had created an antipathy in that direction, which time could not heal. The Republicans were vociferously advocates of revolutionary France, and the Captain, remembering his experiences with de Galatheau and the port officials of L'Orient, could not stomach the average Frenchman. Coupled with this were the long years in the Continental navy — at the service of government, not of party. He owed allegiance to George Washington, who, to him, rose high above the clamorous politicians in representing the American nation. Barry loved the United States. He was at the service of his country at any time; at the service of a faction, never. That was his creed, as he had lived it through the Revolution, and would live it to his death.

Thus, while he fraternized alike with Federalist and Republican, his private interests consumed his attention. There was young Patrick Hayes to be started on a seafaring career. There was the final settlement of the estate of his own brother, Patrick. There was renewed effort to collect from James Seagrove, that merchant who had handled none too well his shipments to Havana. There was frequent correspondence with relatives in Ireland. There were efforts in behalf of his fellow countrymen, who continued to turn to him a very present help in trouble. And, there was his own health to consider.

More frequent now were the spells which brought Dr. Rush posthaste to Strawberry Hill to prescribe nauseous doses to  p360 the ailing Barry. That eminent physician's ledgers record many a charge for "a visit in the Country," and the prescription used upon the Captain. To decipher them, because of the cramped handwriting, is next to impossible. That he suffered from an asthmatic affection, which each year seemed to afflict him more seriously, can be gleaned from some of Dr. Rush's more legible pothooks.

Not that John Barry was wasting away. Sedentary life at Strawberry Hill, in the years following the return from Canton, had added to his girth. He was too tall, however, ever to appear portly, but his face was fleshier, and he had taken on weight. Gradually, too, his dark hair had grayed and was slowly turning white. If anything, the result was to make his appearance even more commanding. There was full maturity now with accompanying greater wisdom, and a broadened mentality. Men listened when he spoke and heeded his words. Upon matters nautical, he was, as always, recognized as an authority who need yield precedence to none.

Such was Barry in the years of Washington's first term. Hamilton and Jefferson might be waging a herculean battle in Cabinet and Congress. Citizen Genêt might be riding to a fall as the flamboyant representative of the new French republic. The Whisky Boys might be fulminating in western Pennsylvania against the excise tax. John Adams might be flattering his vanity with pompous ceremony in presiding over the Senate. Federalist and Republican press might be engaging in an orgy of mud‑slinging journalism. The turmoil and the shouting ruffled the Captain not at all.

Instead, in the fall of 1791, he was instructing his Tory brother-in‑law, William Austin, in England, to send "a Carpet for our best room," preferably an Axminster. Early in 1792, he was urging James Corish, a boyhood Irish friend, not to buy land in America without consulting him, as he flattered himself well acquainted with the country and its people, "if thirty odd years residence will give me a title to it." That spring he was entertaining Representative James Jackson as a house guest, and extracting from that gentleman a promise to send some native Georgia trees to grace the Strawberry Hill estate. In the fall, he was forwarding money to his importuning sister, Margaret Howlin, at Wexford.

 p361  Likewise, he was in correspondence that year with another John Barry, a sea captain, who was a not infrequent voyager at Strawberry Hill between voyages to the West Indies and Ireland. Do not confuse this sea captain with the young scamp of the same name whom the Captain had befriended as described earlier. This other John Barry was a seasoned mariner with two brothers, William and James, both of whom were then residing in America. The correspondence that summer of 1792 had to do with the possible purchase by the three brothers of "the Red Springs," whose location is not made clear, but whose desirability, or lack of it, was a matter upon which they felt the Captain could provide sage advice.

Sea captains of the old days and of the new were always Barry's closest friends. Scarcely a trip to Philadelphia, but what he and cronies of the Revolution foregathered at a tavern for a tankard of ale, some reminiscences, and, perhaps, discussions of the expanding merchant trade to the Orient. One time it would be Stephen Decatur, once a daring privateersman, but now a respectable merchant with a wife and growing family, including several sons who would be bred to a life on the ocean wave. Or again, he and Thomas Truxtun, who still plied in the China trade, would sit and conjure over pipe and bowl. They and others, particularly mariners from ports along the coast, enjoyed the hospitality of the genial host of Strawberry Hill. There is even record of a hasty trip Dr. Rush made out to the Barry homestead to attend the ailing Richard Dale, who had married one of the Crawthorne girls in 1791, was enrolled now in the expanding Keen family, and made Strawberry Hill his residence whenever business called him to the national capital from Baltimore.

With the advent of 1793, Captain John Rossiter and his ship, the Rising Sun, came in from a European voyage, bringing Michael Hayes for a brief visit to his uncle. By March, Rossiter and Michael were off again, this time for China, and John Barry was entrusting forty dollars to their care to be expended at Canton for "a Catty of Hyson Shelong [tea]," and numerous other articles, from brushes to satin.

Despite aloofness from political affairs, the Captain's friends throughout the country credited him with much influence in high places. Witness the case of David Porter, who had served  p362 under him in the Raleigh, in 1778. Porter wanted the post of surveyor of the port at Baltimore, where he now resided, He had made application to the principal officers of the Treasury Department, and, on August 20, 1793, turned to Barry.

"Your friendship . . . and Particularly a letter to the President," Porter believed would secure the surveyor­ship for him. The Captain's influence, he added, would be greater "than thirty or forty Signers to a recommendation." No doubt Porter was correct. Washington's respect for John Barry had strengthened over the years. But the Captain would not lift a finger to aid in political appointments. He refused to employ his friendship with the President, or with anybody else, on Porter's behalf.

It is interesting to note, however, that at the very time he was turning a deaf ear to that gentleman, he was bending every effort to place, as a clerk either in the Bank of the United States or in Mathew Carey's publishing house, a worthy young Irish lad named Shannon, "who has lived with me these three months." A deserving countryman might count on the Captain to do all in his power to aid him to an honorable livelihood.

And thus we come to the close of 1793, with John Barry under the impression that, having retired "on a handsome competency," he would end his days peacefully in the beauty and comfort of Strawberry Hill.

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