p482  XXXII.

Closing Years

Naval retrenchment, a symptom of which was the laying up of the United States at the Washington navy yard, has been popularly ascribed to the Democratic administration. Actually, it began with the Federalists more than two months before Thomas Jefferson took office. As early as January 12, 1801, Secretary Stoddert had recommended, in case of an honorable treaty with France, the sale of all public vessels except thirteen frigates built before and during the war period. On March 3, the last day of John Adams's term, Congress had adopted an act providing for a naval peace establishment, embodying Stoddert's recommendations, and redu­cing the naval personnel to one‑third its wartime strength. To Jefferson the Federalists bequeathed the unpleasant task of dismissing all but nine captains, thirty‑six lieutenants and 150 midshipmen.

That John Barry's reputation stood high with the new administration was evidenced a few days after he returned to Strawberry Hill. To him came a communication from the Navy Department, signed by Henry Dearborn, and dated June 11. Enclosed was a copy of the act creating the peace-time navy. To reduce the commissioned personnel, the letter admitted, was an unpleasant duty. Such a preamble prepared the Commodore for the worst, but his spirits rose as he read:

The man whom Washington had commissioned seven years before as senior captain, and whom an ungrateful administration  p483 had hoped would resign, remained the titular head of the American navy!

* * *

Death struck at Strawberry Hill the day that welcome message came from Washington, for, on June 15, Isaac Austin died. The shadowy little watchmaker, who had lived but for his sister, succumbed to a sudden illness, and Sarah Barry was inconsolable. She had been particularly dependent upon him, with her husband so much at sea; in fact, one of her letters admitted that too much had she relied upon both her brothers, "altho I am not blind to there faults." Her dependence upon them, she "dated from my earliest infancy and their unbounded affection toward me." Isaac Austin died intestate. Barry and the surviving brother, the scapegrace William, were appointed administrators. William had settled in North Carolina. Apparently he cared not to return to the scene of his long‑ago treason, so the brunt of handling the estate devolved upon the Commodore, with William Jonas Keen as attorney in fact.

Just a few months before another death had brought much sorrow to Strawberry Hill. Young Michael Hayes, with a promising sea career before him, had died early in March. When, how or where he departed this life is not certain. He had returned almost a year before from a fourteen months' cruise to China as first mate of the ship America. Nothing more appears about him until Patrick Hayes wrote to their sister Eleanor Kavanaugh, at Wexford, on March 19. His letter is missing, but we know from her reply, that Michael, in his will, provided for an equal division of his estate between her and Patrick's wife, Betsy Keen Hayes, his sister-in‑law. The amount to be divided was £500 — a tidy little sum the youth had saved.

Aside from these bereavements, the Commodore and Sarah grieved over the absence of Patrick's and Betsy's little family. When their third infant, Thomas Hayes, had been born on January 7, 1801, the young merchant-captain and his wife had decided upon an establishment of their own on Pine street, in Philadelphia. Barry missed the noise and commotion of five-year‑old John Barry Hayes, and the wistful, winning ways of three-year‑old Sarah Austin Hayes.

Not that they were isolated nor alone that summer. Guests  p484 were frequent, and, when the Keen family started visiting, they were numerous enough in their various branches and marriages to have taxed the most hospitable household. Reynold Keen, for example, who will be replaced as husband of Sarah's half-sister, who died in Reading in 1777, had remarried twice, and had so many children that even later family genealogists have had trouble enumerating them. Reynold Keen and his enormous brood were always welcome at Strawberry Hill, and all the children born to him and Sarah's half-sister visited their uncle and aunt for weeks at a time.

Most welcome of all those who came to Strawberry Hill that summer was Richard Somers. Somers had been one of the lieutenants retained in service, and, in late July, arrived from Washington enroute to Boston to act as senior lieutenant of the frigate Boston. He could tell the Commodore all about the United States; how she had been completely stripped, and now lay a mere hulk of her former self at the navy yard. That unpleasant duty had been completed in June, but courts-martial had detained the lieutenant longer in Washington. When Somers left Strawberry Hill, on August 3, he carried a warm letter of recommendation from Barry to Captain Daniel McNeill, commanding the Boston. Several weeks later a reply was received. McNeill was happy to have Lieutenant Somers, "more especially as he has serv'd under your Command & to your satisfaction and have no doubt but I shall have much Pleasure with him."

The Commodore was then in good health. Dr. Rush had no occasion for other than social visits to Strawberry Hill. Because he felt so well, Barry watched with interest the unfolding of the threatening situation with the Barbary Powers, and began to yearn again for the quarter-deck of the United States.

* * *

While the new American navy had been demonstrating its efficacy in the West Indies against the French, the United States had continued to stultify itself by annual tributes to three of the corsair nations in the Mediterranean. Algiers was receiving maritime stores each year to the value of $21,600; Tripoli, to the value of $56,000, and Tunis, to the value of  p485 $107,000. Likewise, in 1798, the dey of Algiers had been given the frigate Crescent, and, in 1800, had received a cargo of additional presents. None of the trio was satisfied, and the situation became critical in the spring of 1801, while Barry was still in the Windward islands. Algiers protested its tributes were late. Tunis renewed a demand for forty cannon, with the threat to open warfare upon American merchantmen. The bashaw of Tripoli, looking covetously upon the extra presents to Algiers and the larger tribute to Tunis, made exorbitant demands, and followed them, on May 10, 1801, by declaring war.

Prior to that, in an effort to forestall hostilities, Richard Dale had been ordered to the Mediterranean with four ships-of‑war — a "squadron of observation" — which could only fight if attacked. Dale carried the annual tributes, and should pay them if he found the Barbary Powers ready to listen to reason. He had sailed in May in the President as his flagship, and accompanied by the Essex, Philadelphia, and Enterprize.

Naval men, including Barry, looked upon the expedition, with its hampering orders, as futile. Jefferson's new Secretary of the Navy, Thomas Smith, of Maryland, who took office in July, evidently had similar feelings, and contemplated augmenting Dale's force. Should it be necessary to send a relieving squadron to the Mediterranean, he considered re‑commissioning the United States, and so informed Thomas Tingey, commandant of the Washington navy yard. Tingey wrote to Barry on August 11. He was already putting the frigate into preliminary shape, and wanted to know "whether you determine to command her yourself or to surrender your old favorite to be enjoyed and commanded by another?"

Should "My Favourite" be added to the squadron, he would try to give Tingey an accurate account of her condition when he left her, and what she needed, although "her wants will be but Trifling"; certain new sails, new cables and either a new main or foretopmast, he could not recall which.

 p486  "I do not at present recollect any Other wants but them I have stated," he added. "She stood in need of no other when I left her."

While awaiting further word from the Navy Department, Barry invested jointly with Patrick Hayes and the firm of Keen & Stillwell in the schooner Edward and Edmond. The Commodore's share in schooner and cargo was a half interest for which he paid $3,000. He retained it for a year, and then sold it to his nephew. It was his final shipping venture.

Meanwhile, in the fall of 1801, the Barry household moved in from Strawberry Hill to the city residence on Spruce street below Fourth. That fall the Commodore was called upon to prove some guns cast in the vicinity of Philadelphia. Nothing official regarding the United States came until November, when Secretary Smith wrote him regarding a report the frigate's false keel had been injured on the way up the Potomac the preceding June. The Secretary said the ship's status was unchanged. She was still laid up, and could Barry give him any additional information as to her needs?

The foundation for a report of injury to the false keel, "I cannot devise," Barry replied on November 26. He had never discovered any deficiency in the United States, and believed "that her bottom is in perfect order and needs not the unnecessary exert and trouble of heaving down." Other than a bower anchor, he could not recall any other needs than those he had previously given Tingey. All the correspondence about the frigate came to naught, however, as, after Dale's return in the winter of 1801, the new squadron sent out to the Mediterranean was under Richard V. Morris, and consisted of the Chesapeake, Constellation, New York, Adams, John Adams, and, again, the schooner Enterprize. Dale had accomplished more than had been expected. Algiers and Tunis, overawed by the sight of the American fighting ships, had meekly accepted their tributes and promised to be good. Tripoli alone remained aggressively capturing American merchantmen. Morris, who sailed in February, 1802, was supposed to squelch the bashaw, although his orders were only slightly less restrictive than had been Dale's.

* * *

Through the winter of 1801‑02, John Barry's health was fair. He had occasional asthmatic attacks, but none of them  p487 serious, and he was enjoying life among friends in the city. In January, he gave a little dinner party to a chosen few. Numbered among them was Joshua Humphreys, whose card of acceptance, on January 26, announced that "Mr Humphreys will do himself the honor of takeing Dinner with the Commodore tomorrow." John Rossiter, too, was present, for, on the back of Humphreys's card, Barry made notations of items he had commissioned Rossiter to bring him from the West Indies.

With the advent of spring and the return to Strawberry Hill, a letter came from Ireland which explains the long existing tradition that Barry visited his birthplace in County Wexford. Tradition states:

The legend is based upon a confusion of names and facts. The visitor to County Wexford was Captain John Barry, that merchant-skipper friend of the Commodore, whom we have happened upon occasionally in this narrative.⁠a The date of the visit was in March, 1802, instead of shortly after the Revolution. His arrival and departure were described in a letter Eleanor Kavanaugh, the Commodore's niece, wrote from Wexford, on March 24, of that year, to her brother, Patrick Hayes. She was pleading for a part of the legacy from the estate of her late brother, Michael, and her postscript read

Another letter from Ireland, received in the early summer, indicated the Commodore's poor relations were still looking to him for financial support. The writer was Nancy Merryman Kelly, "Your Aunt Margrets Oldest Daughter Who has Departed this Life five years Back." Mrs. Kelly's husband had been killed in the Irish insurrection of 1798, "Leaving five Small Children behind him."

 p488  "As your Father Being my only Comfort whose Death I must for ever Regret," continued Cousin Nancy, "Gave me half a Guinea out of Part of the money you last sent him therefore I Place a Reliance on his loveing Son Expecting his Tender Goodness will take Place on me as Being So much in Need of it."

When this letter was received, Barry and Sarah had just returned from a trip to Easton. Its purpose we do not know. All we have is a letter from Sarah to Betsy Keen, describing the journey as fraught with many difficulties, and reporting "My dear Cap' Barry and self is quite well." In July, Sarah again had occasion to issue assurances of her husband's continued good health. This time it was to Patrick Hayes, who had written her from Cape May. All the Hayes children were at Strawberry Hill, as Betsy, in her Pine street home, was once more awaiting the advent of a child. Sarah and the Commodore had intended going to the seashore, but had delayed their departure.

"Tomorrow I go in [to Philadelphia]," wrote Sarah, on July 24, "determined not to quit untile I see Betsy safe in bead."

Poor Betsy's travails quite upset the visit to the shore, for she was not "safe in bead," until August 21, when Isaac Austin Hayes, her fourth offspring, was ushered into the world.

Early in August, Dr. Rush was called out to Strawberry Hill. The Commodore had sustained a severe asthmatic attack, one which prevented him from carrying out a commission from the Navy Department. Secretary Smith had asked him to prove a number of cannon at Sam Hughes's foundry in Cecil county, Maryland, and he had been compelled, on August 8, to report that his health would not permit him to venture farther from his home than Philadelphia. The ordnance was proved by Captain William Bainbridge, whose daughter, in later years, would marry one of Patrick Hayes's sons.

In August also, the Commodore replied a bit testily to a communication from Secretary Smith regarding an expense account rendered some months before.

"it is but Small and I took no Vouchers," Barry wrote, on August 25. "I expect the Accountant will Send it back for Want of the Vouchers. if So he may Keep it all as [if] it is to be Supposed that I can ask for a receipt too a few Cents he can not expect it."

Before the end of the month, the Commodore, Richard Dale,  p489 and Bainbridge had been constituted into a board to examine applicants for commissions in the navy. They sat in Philadelphia for a brief time — the first official examining board — and a number of aspiring young midshipmen were tested as to their qualifications for advancement in the service.

When Sarah and the Commodore, with their two slaves, James and Jude, removed from Strawberry Hill that fall, it was to a new home in Philadelphia. The house on Spruce street had been sold. The future abode, No. 186 Chestnut street, was a pretentious three-story dwelling on the south side of the street, east of Tenth.

Three times due to the remaining months of 1802 official communications reached Barry from Washington. On November 20, it was a request to examine the situation of the frigate Philadelphia in the Delaware. The winter might be severe. If the Commodore should think her unsafe, Secretary Smith desired his opinion of "what measures will be necessary to render her secure." Four days later came another communication, forwarding one of the medals struck to commemorate Truxtun's engagement with the French frigate La Vengeance in 1800.

"Considering you as the Senior officer of the Navy," Smith wrote, "and entitled to the most respect­ful consideration I cannot resist the inclination I feel of presenting one to you."

The most significant letter of all, however, arrived on Christmas day. Here was ample evidence that the Jefferson administration had high regard for John Barry's merits. There had been dissatisfaction with Morris's conduct of the Mediterranean squadron. His recall was inevitable. As his successor — the man who would uphold the honor of the flag in those far away waters — the Navy Department had turned to the aging Commodore.

It was a feeble man, racked by pain, frequently confined long days at a time in his bed, who received the order to prepare for duty. There could be no more active service for John Barry,  p490 and he realized it. His reply to Secretary Smith has not been preserved, but we know it was written with more mental pain than the physical ones that had seized upon him. He regretted that he could not respond to his country's call, and that never again would he fly the broad pennant as a squadron commander.

Late in February of 1803, abandoning all hope of recovery, he summoned William Jonas Keen and outlined how he wished his will drawn up. There should be one thousand Spanish milled dollars paid to Patrick and Betsy Keen Hayes within six months after his death. To Patrick, likewise, should go his wearing apparel, books and navigating instruments. Each of the Hayes children should receive one hundred dollars, save his namesake, John Barry Hayes, who should have twice that amount. His silver-hilted sword was to go to his brother-in‑law, William Austin; the gold-hilted one, to Richard Dale. James and Jude, the negro servants, were to be Sarah's property as long as she remained his widow. At her re‑marriage or death, they should be freed, and each given an annual annuity of twenty pounds. The principal of the annuity, at the death of James, should be paid to the poor fund of St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church. At the death of the woman, Jude, the principal of her annuity would go to Eleanor Howlin, daughter of his late sister, Margaret. The balance of his estate he wanted bequeathed "to my dearly beloved wife Sarah Barry." At her death, one‑half would revert to Patrick and Betsy Hayes; the other half, to whomsoever Sarah might indicate in her will. His wife should be his executrix, acting with Patrick Hayes and John Leamy as co‑executors.

William Jonas Keen prepared the will as directed, and the Commodore signed it on February 27, 1803. There were three witnesses — John Brown, his friend since Revolutionary days; Reynold Keen, the much married half-brother-in‑law, and Richard Somers, back from service on the Boston, and about to be commissioned as commander of the newly purchased twelve gun schooner Nautilus.

As the warm days of spring arrived, the ailing Commodore craved once more the clear country air of Strawberry Hill. Dr. Rush was consulted and agreed. The physician knew Barry's days were numbered. To make those last days as happy as possible warranted the danger of moving him. In May, carefully  p491 pillowed and covered, the sick man made his last journey northward to his beloved estate.

Two months later, the squadron he might have commanded sailed for the Mediterranean — the squadron under Edward Preble that would end forever the piracies against American shipping by the Barbary Powers. Barry's boys were at sea — off to demonstrate the skill, the courage, the spirit their old commander had inculcated in them. Let us call the roll of these immortals — Stephen Decatur, Richard Somers, Charles Stewart, James R. Caldwell, Jacob Jones, John Trippe, Jr., Charles Ludlow, William N. Crane, Daniel Heath, Charles Wadsworth; aye, and James Barron, whose star would rise off Tripoli, and fall in later years.⁠b

At Strawberry Hill, the Commodore heard of their going, and, when freedom from pain permitted, asked for word about them, listened raptly to the meagre news from the Mediterranean. Their deeds, however, would never reach his ears. Long before the squadron had arrived at Gibraltar, he was sinking at an alarming rate.

William Jonas Keen stood beside his bedside, on August 24, and, that afternoon, dashed off a letter to Betsy Hayes, who was visiting in New Jersey.

"Dear Sister, I have just returned from Strawberry Hill," he wrote, "the Commodore is something better but I think only flattering us to make the easier exit. I therefore think you had better pack up and Come to town. Send word to me what time and I will meet you at the ferry."

Betsy returned. Other loving relatives and friends gathered. Yet, at Strawberry Hill, the gallant spirit of the old Commodore fought on. For three weeks after Keen's urgent message, he lingered, semi-conscious, and, on September 13, he died. In her family Bible that night, Betsy Keen wrote reverently:

* * *

They buried the Commodore the next morning with full military honors. Short was the time between death and funeral, but it suffered to draw to the city home, where the body had been brought during the night, a great concourse of sorrowing people. In the wake of the hearse as it passed down Chestnut street  p492 to Third, and then southward to St. Mary's Church, was "a numerous train of his fellow citizens, officers of the navy, Brethren of the Cincinnati, Captain Rush's well-disciplined volunteer corps, and many brave tars, who shed a tributary tear to his departed worth."

Tributes poured in from the press, two of which epitomize the great heritage the Commodore had bestowed upon his adopted land. Said the Massachusetts Spy and Worcester Gazette:

Added the Philadelphia Aurora:

Even a poet sang:

From the judgment of contemporaries are a man's merits most accurately ascertained. Two such, Dr. Benjamin Rush and Master's Mate John Kessler, contributed all they knew of their long-time friend to the editor of The Port Folio. Upon their evidence was based "A Biographical Sketch of Commodore John Barry," appearing in the July, 1813, issue of that publication. In this sketch may be found the origin of the title which has clung ever since:

His claim to that honor rests upon solid ground.

---

Thayer's Notes:

a pp361, 401.

b An allusion to his duel with Decatur, who was killed

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