Barry, John – Father of U.S. Navy and First Military Academy? - William Kelly
Commodore John Barry, Irish born American Revolutionary naval hero, is generally recognized, though sometimes arguably so, as the Father of the U.S. Navy. Congress recently declared a proclamation in his honor.
John Barry Kelly writes, “Few Americans are well-acquainted with the gallantry and heroic exploits of Philadelphia's Irish-born naval commander, Commodore John Barry. Obscured by his contemporary, naval commander John Paul Jones, Barry remains to this day an unsung hero of the young American Republic. As most naval historians note, Barry can be classed on a par with Jones for nautical skill and daring, but he exceeds him in the length of service (17 years) to his adopted country and his fidelity to the nurturing of a permanent American Navy. Indeed, Barry deserves the proud epithet, ‘Father of the American Navy,’ a title bestowed on him not by current generations of admirers, but by his contemporaries, who were in the best position to judge.”
Although not officially recognized as the “Father of the Navy,” John Barry is recognized as a hero of the Revolution and the first commissioned flag officer. Known for his exploits, Barry is less recognized for something equally significant – the naval education of the first class of U.S. Navy Midshipman and officers – Charles Stewart, Stephen Decatur, Richard Russ and Richard Somers, each distinguishing himself as a naval officer and establishing traditions that are still maintained by the Navy today. While these four young men served under Barry aboard the USS UNITED STATES, formulating their conduct as officers, there is evidence that he knew them before they served with him. It is possible John Barry taught them as a teacher at the Academy they attended in Philadelphia, and recruited them into the Navy service. If so, then this academy could be considered an early prototype of the type of military academy that would later train midshipmen and officers at Annapolis, West Point and Colorado Springs.
“After the War for Independence and the dissolution of the Continental Navy,” John Barry Kelly notes, “Barry reentered the maritime trade. Between the years 1787-89, Barry helped to open commerce with China and the Orient while captaining the merchant ship, Asia.”
“In the 1790s, under Washington's guidance, the Navy was revived as a permanent entity. Barbary Pirate depredations on American merchantmen had strained relations with America's old ally France and brought about this revival. On June 5, 1794, Secretary of War Henry Knox wrote Barry to inform him that on the day earlier, Barry had been selected senior Captain of the Federal Navy by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate.”
According to Mike McCormick, the National Historian of the Hibernians, Washington’s instructions to Barry, two years before the actual establishment of the new Navy, was to recruit such young officers to serve with him. “In recognition of his vast experience and dedication, Wshingtgon demonstrated Barry’s immense value to the new nation when, on June 17, 1794, he sent for the popular naval hero to form and train a class of midshipmen, who would then be command as Ensigns, and form the nucleus of a new American navy.”
While Barry was the first U.S. Naval officer to receive his commission, others would follow, though it would take some time for the new Navy to have any ships to sail. Many of the new ships were built in Philadelphia, the nation’s temporary Capitol, where Joshua Humphreys was famous for designing and making ships. Barry’s ship would be the U.S.S. United States, and the first four midshipmen to be commissioned were Charles Stewart, Richard Somers, Richard Russ and Stephen Decatur.
Before they enlisted in the new Navy, all four were young students in Philadelphia, then a major city, but historically a young town of 30,000 people, with most of the commercial and civic activity centered around the Delaware river waterfront. Stewart, Somers, Decatur, Russ and Barry, known to be “overseeing” the construction of the United States, were all neighbors. Of the more than 350 applications, only 57 were selected for all commissions, so the competition for each position was stiff. That Barry would select such fine young men to be his officers made them special. But how well did Barry know them? And what did Barry do during the years 1789 when he ceased being a merchantman and 1796, when he assumed command of the USS UNITED STATES? Teaching young men at the Philadelphia Academy would fill in that black hole in Barry’s biography.
There is some documentary evidence that John Barry, during the years between the end of the Revolution and the beginning of the Navy, served as a teacher at the Episcopal Academy, a school that Stewart, Decatur, Rush and Somers attended. One teacher there was certainly named John Barry, author of the Philadelphia Spelling Book, the first book to receive a U.S. copyright. The author of the spelling book was a Irish immigrant and Hibernian, as was the Commodore. And the years he taught at the Academy fit perfectly with the chronology of Barry, the sea Captain, beginning in 1789, when Barry’s merchant career apparently ended, and 1796, when the United States entered service under Captain John Barry. In addition, there are known ties and relationships between the Commodore Barry and the Academy, which increase the possibility that Barry taught there when he wasn’t sailing merchant vessels and before he assumed his Navy commission.
According to John Barry Kelly, after his first wife died, “Barry was consoled by his second marriage, this time to the socially popular and attractive Sarah Keen Austin, nicknamed ‘Sally’ by her friends. Sally Austin and John Barry were married on July 7, 1777, in Old Christ Church by the Reverend William White, rector and founder of the American Episcopal Church.” The Reverend William White was among the founders of the Classical Academy of Philadelphia 1785-1790, which became the Episcopal Academy, according to Charles Latham, Jr.(in The Episcopal Academy 1785-1984, Wm. Cooke, Pub., Devon, Pa.). So Commodore Barry at least knew Rev. White and had the opportunity of being recruited to be an instructor at the fledgling academy. In addition, there is an association by marriage between Barry and Richard Somers.
Richard Somers’ biographer Barbara E. Koedel (Glory, at Last! – A Narrative of the Naval Career of Master Commandant Richard Somers: 1778-1804, Atlantic County Historical Society, 1993), writes, “Richard’s formal schooling probably began in 1785 when his father’s ledger showed an account with ‘Mr. Yerkess for tuition for Richard.’ Yerkess had a single school at this time. Such a school is described as ‘making their scholars good writers, good arithmeticians, good readers, and intelligent grammarians; and then…they were qualified by their own separate exertions, to improve themselves at home. Later entries mention tuition to Mr. Simmerman and Mr. Ely, both of whom are identified as ‘School Master.’ I have been unable to identify these men with a specific school.”
“A ledger contains an entry dated October 1791, stating, ‘Left my son Richard Somers at Woodbury….to go to Mr. Hunter school.’ Savage and Richard, Junior were enrolled in Andrew Hunter’s academy at Woodbury, New Jersey, for further education. Although there are entries indicating that Savage took courses in Bookkeeping and Navigation and Surveying there is no mention of specific studies for young Richard. However, there is a small notebook identified as ‘Richard Somers His Book,’ dated 1792, with notes on navigation, so he was familiar with it. Commencement was on September 20, 1792, so they were in Hunter’s school at least a year.”
“Several biographies of Decatur” notes Koedel, “state that he, with Richard Somers, Charles Stewart and Richard Rush, attended the Episcopal Academy of Dr. Abercrombie, ‘where the discipline is strict, and the educational standards low, and the code of conduct derived from that of the court of LOUIS XVI…They lived much out of doors, boating, swimming, fishing. Somers was the strongest of the four, but Decatur was the best skater, very quick at repartee and a clever mimic. All were high spirited as eagles, and they were involved in not a few fisticuff ‘duels’ settled in the old Quaker burying-ground.’ In a letter to Mrs. Decatur in 1846, Richard Rush remarks about the Academy: ‘….The Elite of the town went to that school…,’ All of this is possible but there is no mention of the Academy in the accounts of Richard’s father.” That may be because Colonel Richard Somers died on October 22, 1794. Richard’s sister Sarah Somers married William Jones Keen, an attorney, and Richard lived with them. In addition, the Academy was known as a “free school,” the tuition being paid by solicitations from the pulpit and donations.
Claude Berube and John Rodgaard (In A Call to the Sea – Captain Charles Stewart of the USS Constitution – Potomac Books, Washington D.C., 2005, p4), report, “Young Charlie attended Dr. Abercrombie’s Academy in Philadelphia. Known later as the Episcopal Academy, it was attended by the elite sons of the city. Little other than the name of the school is known, except that it was one of several Episcopal academies located in the city before the turn of the eighteenth century. One such Episcopal academy was founded in 1785 by Reverend William White to educate the sons of Philadelphia’s Episcopalian community. Courses included Greek, Latin, mathematics, and business – all practical courses for young boys who would become the city’s merchants, traders, and ship owners, if not sea captains. At the academy, Charley met three other youths whose futures figured prominently in his life and in the U.S. Navy and diplomatic service.”
“The first and most famous friend was Stephen Decatur, Jr., the son of an American Revolution ship captain, Stephen Decatur, Sr. The elder Decatur was a sailing master on board a ship owned by the Philadelphia merchant firm of Stewart and Nesbitt.”
“A second friend, Richard Somers, less than two months Stewart’s junior, was born in Great Egg Harbor, New Jersey, bur during the American Revolution his family lived in Philadelphia. His father served as a militia colonel and judge... Somers father died in 1794 and so, like his friend Charles, young Richard lost his father at a very early age. Also like Charles, Richard Somers entered into the shipping trade when he came of age. However, Somers’ voyages were restricted to coastal routes between New York and Philadelphia.”
In scenes that would replay themselves in their naval careers, the young Stewart, Decatur, and Somers often crossed the street from the academy, located on Forth Street, to settle their arguments with fisticuffs…But if one feature of Philadelphia life influenced Stewart, Decatur and Somers more than any other, it was the call to the sea.”
As John Barry Kelly wrote, “After the War for Independence and the dissolution of the Continental Navy, Barry reentered the maritime trade. Between the years 1787-89, Barry helped to open commerce with China and the Orient while captaining the merchant ship, Asia,” setting the dates of his merchant maritime career.
Charles Latham, in his history of the Episcopal Academy writes, “…Bishop White describes a series of meetings…beginning on 24 October 1788. The original proposal was for a boys school. A school for girls was added to the plan….Both schools apparently opened on 19 January 1789. The boys’ school was housed in the basement of the new Academy building, a wall having been built to make a separate room. The teacher was John Barry, who served until 1796, at a salary of $L100 a year. In 1790 he brought out his Philadelphia Spelling Book, which seems to have gone through several editions; the Academy owns a copy of a later edition printed in 1802. He was a member of the Hibernian Society, and in 1792 was also involved in running a Sunday school for boys.”
“In 1791, as the Classical Academy crumbled, the mangers of the Dancing Assembly, who rented the upper floors of the building, asked to have the use of the basement. In March the boys’ free school was moved to a building in the back of 62 Union Street (now DeLancy), in quarters rented from Andrew Porter at $L20 a year.” In a footnote, Latham mentions that “The 1794 city directory lists Barry at the ‘back of 62 Union St.’” The early address of the Classical Academy however, is listed at 83 South Third Street, on the corner of Third and Pearl Streets, and thus one block from the Fourth Street Quaker Cemetery where Stewart, Decatur and Somers were known to have engaged in fisticuffs.
That Richard Somers knew Barry before being commissioned a midshipman is given by the fact that Commodore Barry’s wife, Sarah Keen Austin, was cousin to his sister’s husband William Jonas Keen. (See: Glory at Last, p. 5). John Barry Kean writes, “Sarah (Keen Austin Barry), an Episcopalian, eventually converted to Barry's Roman Catholic faith. The Barrys were regular parishioners at several Philadelphia Catholic churches: Old St. Joseph's, Old St. Mary's and eventually, St. Augustine's. The Barrys had no children; however, they happily raised two boys from Barry's deceased sister Eleanor's household.” “Sarah's nephews from Ireland, Michael and Patrick Hayes, were brought to Philadelphia by Captain John Rosseter on his ship, the Rising Sun. Rosseter was a neighbor of the Barry family in Ireland, and the captain also wound up living on the same street as John Barry in Philadelphia. His close association with the Barrys continued even in death, as the Rosseter plot lies next to the Barry plot in Old St. Mary's churchyard.”
“Patrick Hayes, his second wife Sally's nephew, accompanied Barry on his eventful journeys to the Orient where porcelain and ivory treasures were brought back and sold to Philadelphians hungering for luxurious items.” But as JPKelly notes, those merchant voyages ended in 1789. According to the Episcopal Academy ledgers, teacher John Barry was paid L100 ($266.66) a year from January 1789 until September, 1796, the lowest paid of six teachers, indicating that he also had additional income from another source, possibly from serving as a merchant sea captain.
That Commodore John Barry, born poor and uneducated in Ireland, had no formal education other than his training at sea, could still be accepted as a teacher is possible since there were five other better paid teachers at the academy and Barry’s specialty, seamanship, would be a beneficial curriculum for boys intent on being seamen, as were Stewart, Decatur, Rush and Somers. That professor John Barry would write, publish and obtain the first copyright for the Philadelphia Spelling Book seems to support the idea that this John Barry is a different person than the Commodore, however Commodore John Barry also wrote and published a book on naval flag signals, which can be compared to an extant copy of the Philadelphia Spelling Book to see if it is possible they were written by the same person.
On March 27, 1794 Congress passed an act to create a naval force and build six new frigates, and on June 4, 1794 John Barry made the first commissioned officer. In addition, Washington ordered Barry “to form and train a class of midshipman who wojuld then be commissioned as Ensigns, and form the nucleas of a new American navy.” Funding for the fleet however, wasn’t approved by Congress until 1797 and the Navy Department not officially created until April 30, 1798, the day Richard Somers and Stephen Decatur received their commissions as midshipmen. Of the 350 applicants for commissions, only 59 were approved for all grades, from midshipman to captain. Koedel writes, “(Somers) knew Captain John Barry through his brother-in-law, William Jonas Keen, cousin to Barry’s wife. Barry was to become the captain of the UNTIED STATES and Commodore of the West Indies squadron, so we may speculate that he was influential in getting Somers on his vessel.”
The USS UNITED STATES was launched in Philadelphia on July 10, 1797 before a crowd of 30,000 people. With Charles Stewart appointed Lieutenant, and Stewart, Deactur and Ross midshipman, the young Academy schoolmates were now shipmates, under Barry’s command. Berbe and Rodgaard write, “In the midshipman’s berth on the UNITED STATES were two future standouts of the young navy: Charles; friends Mid. Stephen Decatur and Mid. Richard Somers. With the three childhood friends together again, one could imagine that all three thought that the USS UNITED STATES was an extension of their childhood days at Dr. Abercrombie's Episcopal Academy in Philadelphia. Under Barry’s watchful eye, the four junior officers worked the United States through the rest of her fitting out work. When the frigate was ready for sea, Captain Barry set sail for the West Indies.”
That John Barry would be their teacher at the Philadelphia Academy before becoming their commander at sea, is a distinct possibility, despite the objections of historians who believe that John Barry the teacher and Commodore John Barry are two different people. This objection is expressed by Philadelphia Seaport Museum curator Megan Fraser, who wrote, “I don't know of any papers in the John Barry series of the Barry-Hayes Papers that pertain to him teaching at the Philadelphia Academy. Actually, I find no sources to suggest that John Barry, the naval captain, and John Barry, master of the Episcopal Academy, are the same person.” Well now I am making that proposition, and will try to overcome the expressed objections and establish the actual truth, one way or the other.
As Megan Fraser points out, “And since the captain was a Catholic, with no documented formal education (although from his writing, one can clearly glean that he did have some sort of schooling) it seems unlikely to me that he would have served as a schoolteacher." While Commodore Barry was indeed Catholic, it appears that the Philadelphia Free Academy, as Russ mentions years later, was a school for the city’s “elite,” regardless of religion, and the city’s Quaker traditions would have encouraged cooperation between religions. In addition, Commadore Barry was married by Bishop White, the founder of the Episcopial Academy, at White’s Episcopal church. While Commodore Barry received no formal education, he was trained at sea by his uncle, and as Megan Fraser herself says, his education can be measured by his writings, letters and reports rather than by his formal schooling. Schools at the time certainly didn’t have the required teacher training and certification they have today, and the teachers were likely selected by what they had to offer the students. Among the chosen careers of the boys at the Academy was going to sea in ship, and the crafts of seamanship should have been on the caricullum. Indeed, among Richard Somers’ school notebooks is the notation : “navigation,” a subject that Commadore Barry would have been well qualified as an instructor. In addition, Barry had sailed as a captain for the merchant house owned by the father of Charles Stewart, and of those sixty some young students, all those we know of who attended this school – Stewart, Decatur, Russ and Somers, were destined to be sailors, and in fact, from his school book notes, Somers was trained in the arts of navigation at school.
The idea that the teacher would write, publish and copyrighted The Philadelphia Spelling Book, while the unschooled Commodore could not have done such a thing, is also misleading. “ I also find that the "Philadelphia Spelling Book" has the distinction of being the first book copyrighted in the United States -- a fact that surely would have made Captain Barry's standard biographies if he were the author.” But Commodore John Barry did write and publish a book, on naval flag signals, which gives an example of his work that could be compared to the Philadelphia Spelling Book to see if they were written by the same person. Also, copies of the handwritings of the teacher could be compared to that of the Commodore, as evidence.
The standard biographies that would mention The Philadelphia Spelling Book if Commodore Barry were the author, also fail to mention what he did between the years he left the merchant sea faring business and overseeing the outfitting of the USS United States, leaving open the possibility they are one and the same man. If they were different people, then who was John Barry, the Irish immigrant, Hibernian, author of the copyrighted book Philadelphia Spelling Book, and teacher of the first class of midshipman in the United States Navy? If not the Wexford, Ireland born Hibernian and author of the Navy Signal book, and commander of the first class of midshipmen in the United States Navy, then the other John Barry must have had another, possibly equally interesting life that’s yet to be discerned.
THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS. YOUR THOUGHTS, COMMENTS AND CRITICISM IS APPRECIATED. William Kelly – billykelly3@yahoo.com | 609-425-6297