Jonathan Greeley (or Greely) (December 9, 1741 – 1781) was an American
sea captain
A sea captain, ship's captain, captain, master, or shipmaster, is a high-grade licensed mariner who holds ultimate command and responsibility of a merchant vessel.Aragon and Messner, 2001, p.3. The captain is responsible for the safe and efficie ...
. He was captain and co-owner of the
schooner
A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...
''Speedwell'', which was sunk by a British
frigate
A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied somewhat.
The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and ...
off the coast of
Marblehead, Massachusetts
Marblehead is a coastal New England town in Essex County, Massachusetts, along the North Shore (Massachusetts), North Shore. Its population was 20,441 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. The town lies on a small peninsula that extends ...
, in 1781, during the
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
.
Life and career
Greeley was born on December 9, 1741, in
North Yarmouth
North Yarmouth, officially the Town of North Yarmouth, is a town in Cumberland County, Maine. The population was 4,072 at the 2020 United States Census. It is part of the Portland– South Portland–Biddeford Metropolitan Statistical Area. ...
,
(now in
Maine
Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...
), to Philip and Hannah.
[''Genealogy of the Greely-Greeley Family'', George Hiram Greeley (1905), p. 103] His father was killed by
Native Americans in North Yarmouth in 1746, when Jonathan was five years old.
Greeley married Mary Hitchborn (1742–1819) on December 15, 1768. They had six daughters, all born in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
: Anna (born 1769), Mary (1771), Hannah (1773), Isannah (1775–1800), Frances (1777) and Elizabeth (1778).
[
]
Death
Greeley was killed in 1781, when his privateer
A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...
, ''Speedwell'', was sunk by a British frigate off the coast of Marblehead, , during the Revolutionary War. The ship was carrying eight guns (another source says ten), twelve swivels and 70 men. His commander sent his body and his sword to his family.[ Greeley was formerly a commander of the vessel, a petition for his installment being signed by ]Thomas Melvill
Thomas Melvill(e) (1726 – December 1753) was a Scottish natural philosopher, who was active in the fields of spectroscopy and astronomy.
Biography
The son of Helen Whytt and the Rev Andrew Melville, minister of Monimail (d. 29 July 17 ...
in 1776.[''Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revoluntionary War: A Compilation from the Archives'', Volume 6, Massachusetts Office of the Secretary of State (1899), p. 791]
References
People from North Yarmouth, Maine
1741 births
1781 deaths
Sea captains
United States military personnel killed in the American Revolutionary War
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