DELAWARE BORN JACOB NICHOLAS JONES US NAVY COMMODIRE WAR 1812.

DELAWARE HISTORY

DELAWARE BORN HEROS

Jacob Nicholas Jones, was born just outside of Smyrna about a mile northwest

on a farm, the son of Jacob James and his wife whose maiden family name was McDemott.

Is father was of a exemplary moral and religious character and his mothers family was

greatly respected. Both died before Jacob reached four years old and he became an orphan

in 1772.

Jones was educated in medicine and practiced as a doctor, and later took the

appointment to be Clerk of Delaware Supreme Court. He was married to Anna

Matilda Sykes, daughter of the 15^th Governor of Delaware James Sykes. She died

before 1799 when Jacob Nicholas Jones joined the United States Navy.

Jones was 31 when he joined the Navy, rather old for the times, and spent 22

months as a midshipman. During the war with France he served under Commodore

John Barry on the frigate United States and in 1801 commissioned a Second Lietentant.

1803 he joined the crew of the Philadelphia as it's 2^nd Mate. On October 31, 1803 he

and the crew were taken prisoners by the Bey of Tripoli and held until June 1805.

April 20, 1810 Jones received promotion to Master Commandant and became

commander of the USS Wasp June 4^th. In October 1812 he sailed the Atlantic with the

Wasp and captured the British 12 gun brig HMS Dolphin on October 13. Sailing on, with

storm damage to his ship, he attacked a British convoy 18 October, captured the HMS

Frolic, but with his ship badly damaged , fell to the HMS Poictiers, a more powerful ship

of the Royal Navy. When returned to the United State in an exchange of prisoners he received a Gold Metal from the US Congress, promoted to Captain and given command

of the Frigate Macedonia which was blockaded in New London harbor, he was given command of the frigate Mohawk in Lake Ontario until the end of the 1812 War.

During the 1815 Barbary War, Jones again was in command of the Macedonia and

in 1816 to 1818 he was captain of the Guerrier, between 1821 and 1823 he was Commodore of the Mediterranean squadrons, then 1826 to 1829 was moved to the Pacific.

When not at sea Commodore Jones held commands ashore in Baltimore and New

York, his final assignment was Commandant of the Philadlphia Naval Asylum in 1847.

Commodore Jacob Nicholas Jones died 3 August 1850 , age 82, in Philadlephia and is

buried in Brandywine Cemetery Wilmington.

Ancestry records show he had a second wife, Ruth Lusby who died in 1868 and

probably the mother of Jacobs daughter Hester A Jones, born 1821 died 1886.

Abstract: Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Wikpedia, and Genealogy.