The Lives of Eminent Philadelphians Now Deceased

d of a merchantman. The intervals of his voyages were assiduously occupied in the improvement of his mind. At the age of fourteen or fifteen, he emigrated to America, and having entered into the employment of the most respectable merchants of this country, continued to pursue his favorite profession with earnestness and signal success. The commencement of the war of Independence found him a prosperous man, actively employed and rapidly acquiring wealth. To that contest he could not long remain indifferent, His ardent love of liberty, combined with those admirable qualities which were the foundation of his growing reputation, impelled him to sacrifice the highest prospects, to embark in the noble, but impoverishing, struggle for freedom by his adopted country. He accordingly abandoned, to use his own language, " the finest ship and the first employ in America," and entered into the service of his beloved country. In 1776, he was employed by Congress to fit for sea the first fleet which sailed from Philadelphia; and by the authority of the Council of Safety of that city, he superintended the building of a state ship. In the month of March of the same year, he was requested to take command of the brig Lexington, of sixteen guns, and clear the coast of the enemy's small cruisers, with which it was infested; and he successfully performed the duty assigned to him. Prior to the Declaration of Independence, he was transferred to the command of the frigate Effingham, and i...