James Lawrence was the youngest son of John Lawrence, Esq., of
Burlington, New Jersey, and was born on the 1st of October, 1781.
Having lost his mother a few weeks after his birth, his two eldest
sisters, by their most tender attention, endeavored to supply her
place. His affection for his sisters was in a measure filial, as
well as fraternal, being bound to them by the double ties of blood
and education. Their assiduities were directed to the cultivation of
his feelings and his principles, and they were only relieved from
responsibility when they gave him to society, liberal, humane and
virtuous. At the age of twelve years he exhibited a passion for the
sea, but his father was anxious that he should be educated for the
law, a profession in which he was himself considerably distinguished;
and in consequence of his limited means, his son James received his
education at a grammar-school in his native town. At the age of
fourteen he removed to Woodbury, and commenced a course of law studies
with his brother John Lawrence, who was at that time a lawyer of some
distinction there. Soon after his removal his father died. James was
now wholly an orphan, and long and severe were his sufferings at the
loss of so good a parent, but in time they wore away, and he made an
urgent appeal to his brother in favor of the path to which his genius
had directed him.
The faithful and affectionate brother had discovered that the pursuits
of law were loathsome to his pupil, and that sedentary habits suited
not a frame formed for activity, nor study a mind that gloried in
action, nor the land a heart whose only delight was the broad ocean. It
was, therefore, thought best, on the whole, to surrender him at once
to the prerogative of his nature. At his own request he returned to
Burlington, and commenced the study of navigation. He remained there
only sufficiently long to attain the elements of the theory of that
science; but it was all he required. His mind, once receiving a proper
direction, could go forward at leisure, of its own motion; a guide was
wanting only to show the path and to mark out the course; it was for
Lawrence alone to arrive at the goal. It was not long before he was
pronounced a most finished seaman, and this character could not have
been acquired otherwise than by devoting himself exclusively to the
acquisition of nautical science, including combination of practice with
theory.
In the seventeenth year of his age--in the bloom of youth and the
pride of his strength--full of hope, he applied for a station in the
navy. Such was the correctness of his character, the promise of his
life, and the interest felt for him, that many of the oldest and most
respectable citizens of the state came forward with alacrity, in aid
of his application. The mail that carried it returned with a warrant
for midshipman Lawrence; and he entered his country’s service on the
5th of September, 1798. His first voyage was to the West Indies, in
the ship Ganges, Captain Tingey. Nothing of consequence occurred to
our young officer for the two first years of his seafaring life, until
his promotion to a lieutenancy on board the Adams, Captain Robinson,
where he remained until March, 1801. In the war with Tripoli, Lawrence
was a commissioned lieutenant and attached to the Enterprise as first
officer. In the bombardment of Tripoli, he acted a very conspicuous
part, which was acknowledged by Decatur in his official reports. After
his return from the Mediterranean, he was some time at New York,
attached to the navy yard in that city. While there the attention of
the naval gentlemen of that place was attracted by some “queries” in
the “Public Advertiser,” the object of which was to call Commodore
Rogers to account for not having used the gun-boats in a particular
manner on a recent occasion. One query alluded to the inferior
officers, and particularly the commanders of gun-boats. “Why,” asks
the writer, “are the commanders of these gun-boats suffered to be
swaggering through our streets, while they should be whetting their
sabres?” So much insolence incensed the whole corps; and Lawrence,
being the senior officer then on that station, in behalf of them,
addressed the following note to the printer.
“_To Mr. Frank, Editor of the Public Advertiser._
“Your queries in the Public Advertiser of Monday, were of a
nature to excite indignation in the coldest bosom, and procure
for you the chastisement which a scoundrel deserves. In answer
to your ‘Queries,’ which immediately relate to the navy, if
you wish to be informed why Commodore Rodgers did not employ
the _apparent force_ with which government has invested him, I
would refer you to the constituted authorities. On this subject
they _alone_ can gratify your curiosity. In regard to the
commanders of gun-boats, whom you term _swaggerers_, I assure
you their ‘sabres’ are sufficiently keen to cut off your ears,
and will inevitably be employed in that service, if any future
remarks, injurious to their reputation, should be inserted in
your paper.
“JAMES LAWRENCE, _Lieut. U. S. N._,
“_In behalf of the officers_.
“_Navy Yard, N. York, 6th Sept., 1807._”
The editor, having too much respect for his ears, let the matter rest.
Lawrence was next appointed first lieutenant to the Constitution, where
he remained until he was promoted to the rank of master and commander,
and directed to take command, in succession, of the Vixen, Wasp, Argus
and Hornet; was twice sent with dispatches to Europe--once to London
and once to Paris.
In 1808 he married a Miss Montandevert, of New York. At the declaration
of war in 1812, he sailed in command of the Hornet, in the squadron
commanded by Commodore Rodgers, consisting of the United States,
Congress and Argus, and after a cruise not distinguished by any signal
success, returned to Boston on the 31st of August in the same year.
Captain Lawrence went to sea again in October, 1812, as commander of
the Hornet under Commodore Bainbridge, who commanded for this cruise
in the Constitution. Their destination was the East Indies, but near
Brazil Captain Lawrence captured the English brig Resolution with ten
guns and twenty-five thousand dollars, but being a dull sailer, after
securing the crew and the money he burnt her. Captain Lawrence then
sailed towards Demerara, and in passing round the Corobano bank he
espied a sail on his weather-quarter and about to approach him. It was
the Peacock, Captain William Peake, with English colors.
The Hornet was immediately cleared for action, and kept close to
the wind to get the weather-gage of the enemy; shortly they exchanged
broadsides at half pistol-shot distance. Finding the enemy in the act
of wearing, Captain Lawrence bore up, and gave him a well directed and
tremendous fire, and in less than fifteen minutes from the commencement
of the action, the signal of distress had taken the place of the
British flag. In an instant a lieutenant boarded her and found her cut
to pieces, her captain killed, many of her crew killed or wounded, her
mizzen-mast by the board, six feet water in the hold, and the vessel
fast sinking. The two ships were immediately brought to anchor, the
Hornet’s boats dispatched to bring off the wounded, the guns thrown
overboard, the shot holes that could be got at plugged, every thing
done, by pumping and bailing, to keep her afloat; yet she went down
before all her wounded seamen could be removed. The Hornet had one man
killed and lost three brave fellows while attempting to rescue the
vanquished from a watery grave; four of her seamen were taken from the
tops just before the Peacock had entirely disappeared. Captain Lawrence
now determined to sail for New York; no sooner had he arrived there,
than the officers of the Peacock honorably made public their grateful
feelings for the kindness of Captain Lawrence and the officers under
him. They said, “_we ceased to consider ourselves prisoners_.” The crew
most heartily vied with their captain in generosity as well as bravery.
The sailors of the Peacock were left destitute of a change of apparel,
so suddenly had their vessel sunk. The crew of the Hornet most kindly
contributed to their wants. Such conduct is worthy heroic sailors!
these brave hearts from opposite extremities of the ocean, mingling
together on the same deck, beat with but one common pulsation. On the
meeting of the next Congress, this battle was thus officially noticed
by the President of the nation:--
“In continuance of the brilliant achievements of our infant navy, a
signal triumph has been gained by Captain Lawrence and his companions,
in the Hornet sloop-of-war, which destroyed a British sloop-of-war
with a celerity so unexampled, and with a slaughter of the enemy
so disproportionate to the loss in the Hornet, as to claim for the
conqueror the highest praise.”
Captain Lawrence, after remaining in New York a short time, received
orders to repair to Boston and take command of the Chesapeake, to sail
on the 1st day of June. On his arrival there, he was informed that a
British ship had been cruising around in sight of the harbor for the
last three days. He accordingly, on the 1st, proceeded in chase of her,
and was informed by pilots they believed it to be the British frigate
Shannon. About four o’clock, P. M., she came in sight; he accordingly
directed his course towards her; at half past four, P. M., she hove
to, with her head to the southward and eastward; at five, P. M., she
took in the royal and top-gallant sails, and at about fifteen minutes
before six the action commenced within pistol-shot distance. The first
broadside killed, among others, the sailing master, and wounded Captain
Lawrence; in about twelve minutes afterwards, the Chesapeake fell on
board of the Shannon, and immediately thereupon, an armed chest, on the
quarter-deck of the Chesapeake, was blown up by a hand grenade from the
enemy, and every officer, on whom the charge of the ship could devolve,
was either killed or wounded previous to the capture. Captain Lawrence,
who, bleeding, had still kept the deck, supporting himself against the
companion-way, in the act of giving orders, was levelled by a second
ball; he was carried below, making a particular request that the ship
should not be surrendered. The surgeon hurried to his captain in the
cockpit, to relieve the most excruciating pains from his wounds both in
the body and the leg. But, “No--serve those who came before me, first;
I can wait my turn,” said the noble-hearted sailor--greater even below
than above deck. The wounds of Captain Lawrence confined him to his bed
until the moment of his death; he lingered in much pain and suffering
until the 5th of June, when, in the thirty-second year of his age, he
expired. He died young; he gave himself to glory and his country; not
to dwell upon public recollection mangled and mutilated, but leaving
in the fond eye of faithful memory the whole image of a perfect hero,
unimpaired by age or by accident, in all the freshness of youth and
the fair fullness of his admired proportions. Funeral solemnities were
rendered to Captain Lawrence and his Lieutenant, Ludlow, at Halifax.
“By strangers honored and by strangers mourned.” His enemies were his
mourners, or rather the enemies of his country, for personal enemies he
had none. The tears of Britons evinced how much more gratefully they
would have shown homage to his person than every respectful attention
to his remains. That flag, from which he had parted but with life, was
restored to him in death. “His signal once, but now his winding sheet.”
In the month of August following the remains of Lawrence and Ludlow
were removed from Halifax and arrived at Salem on the 18th, where a
public funeral service and eulogy were pronounced by the Hon. Judge
Story, and from thence, at the request of the relatives, were removed
to New York; there the city council took charge of the funeral in a
manner worthy the munificence which they had promptly manifested on
every naval occasion. They gave the two children of Captain Lawrence
one thousand dollars each, to be vested in the sinking-fund of the
corporation, and paid, with the interest, to the daughter at eighteen,
and to the son at twenty-one years of age.
His remains were interred in St. Paul’s burying-ground, in that city,
where a suitable monument is erected. Captain Lawrence was amiable in
private as he had made himself admirable in his professional life.
The domestic were in the same circle with the ocean virtues, each
heightening the charm of the others. As a Christian, his proof of
faith in our Heavenly Father was love to every brother upon earth. His
country wears the laurel to his honor, the cypress for his loss.
A monument has been erected in Trinity churchyard, New York, of which
the following is a description:--
The design is simple and affectingly appropriate. It is a broken column
of white marble, of the pure Doric, the cap broken off and resting
on the base. The inscription is, we think, singularly beautiful, and
does great honor to the author. It presents a fine contrast to the
unfeeling and inflated bombast which so often disgraces this species
of composition, exhibiting a rare specimen of that sweet yet dignified
simplicity which so well accords with the records and the emblems
of perishing mortality. The introduction of the dying words of this
gallant officer, is in the highest degree affecting.
In Memory of
Captain James Lawrence,
of the United States Navy,
who fell
on the first day of June, 1813, in the 32d year of his age,
in the action between the frigates Chesapeake and Shannon.
He distinguished himself on various occasions;
but particularly when he commanded the
sloop-of-war Hornet,
by capturing and sinking
His Britannic Majesty’s sloop-of-war Peacock,
after a desperate action of 14 minutes.
His bravery in action,
was only equaled by his modesty in triumph
and his magnanimity to the
vanquished.
In private life
he was a gentleman of the most
generous and endearing qualities;
and so acknowledged was his public worth,
that the whole nation mourned his loss;
and the enemy contended with his countrymen,
who most should honor his remains.