Johnston Blakeley was born at the village of Seaford, in the county of Down, Ireland, in the month of October, 1781. At the age of two years, his father, John Blakeley, emigrated to this country, and soon after his arrival settled in Charleston, South Carolina. Not meeting with the encouragement he expected, he removed, with his family, to Wilmington, North Carolina, in hopes of improving his business. Soon after his establishment at this place, Mr. Blakeley was deprived of his wife, and all his children, except his son Johnston.

Ascribing these successive and painful losses to the unhealthy climate, which was considered peculiarly unfavorable to children, he was induced to send his only surviving son to New York, with a view to the preservation of his health, and to afford him an opportunity of acquiring an education. In the year 1790, Johnston was sent to that city and confided to the care of Mr. Hoope, a respectable merchant and very old friend of his father. After attentively pursuing his studies in New York, for five years, he returned to Wilmington, in order to complete his education at the university of Chapel Hill, in that state. Before Johnston had been one year in this institution he had the misfortune to lose his father, and was now without a single relative in this country, to whom he could look for advice, or protection, or assistance, which made it necessary for him to choose a guardian. In this choice, he was singularly fortunate in the selection of Mr. Jones, an eminent lawyer of Wilmington, who most tenderly and generously supplied the place of a father.

With occasional intermissions, he remained at college till the year 1799, when by some misfortune, he was deprived of the support derived from his father, and compelled to relinquish his studies at the university, as well as his intention of practising the law.

Having long had a predilection for a naval life, which, however, he had from his affection to his only parent, and with a self-denial worthy of imitation, concealed from him, he solicited, and through the friendly exertions of Mr. Jones, obtained a midshipman’s warrant, in the year 1800. Mr. Jones, in the interim, being anxious that his young ward should fulfil the wishes of his deceased parent, kindly offered to receive him as a member of his family, and afford him every facility in his power to complete his legal studies. Johnston, unwilling to accumulate obligations he might never be able to repay, and stimulated by a clear perception of the line of life he believed nature had marked out for him, declined this generous offer.

In every subsequent situation, he retained and demonstrated the most grateful recollection of the friendship of Mr. Jones, and to the end of his life acknowledged him as his benefactor.

The gentleman who kindly furnished materials for this biography writes thus: “As anything which illustrates the character of so much departed worth, especially when the qualities of the heart are so well calculated to excite our admiration, cannot but be interesting, I have furnished a few extracts from the letters of Captain Blakeley, written to me at various periods. Having been deprived of his father at an age when the desire of knowing something of his family was beginning to be felt, it was not in his power to gratify his inquiries on that subject in a satisfactory manner, until May, 1811, when I had the pleasure of opening a correspondence with him.” In his first letter, dated on board the United States brig Enterprise, May 9th, 1811, he manifested his anxiety to obtain the wished for information, relative to his connections, in the following manner.

“It would afford me great satisfaction to hear from you all the information you possess respecting my relations.

“This trouble your goodness will excuse, when I inform you, that for fourteen years I have not beheld one being to whom I was bound by any tie of consanguinity.”

In another letter, written soon after, he observes—

“The affection manifested by —— is truly grateful to my heart. Indeed, I begin already to feel for her a filial regard, and the more so, as it was my lot to lose my mother before I was sensible of a mother’s tenderness.”

In reply to a letter, in which the solicitude for his professional reputation was cordially expressed by the lady alluded to, he remarks—“Should I be fortunate enough to acquire any fame, my good old friend will make me debtor for more than half. With her prayers for my success can I doubt it? I hope the last Blakeley who exists, will lay down his life ere he tarnish the reputation of those who have gone before him. My blessed father’s memory is very dear to me, and I trust his son will never cast a reproach on it.” In another, he observes, “It is true, that in the war in which we are engaged, we have to contend under great disadvantages, but this should stimulate to greater exertions, and we have already seen that our enemy is not invincible.” In a letter, dated on board the Enterprise, the 29th of April, 1813, he observes—“Independent of personal feeling, I rejoice at the good fortune of the navy, believing it to be that description of force best adapted to the defence of this country. I confess the success of our sailors has been much greater than I had any reason to expect, taking into view the many difficulties they had to encounter. The charm which once seemed to have encircled the British navy, and rendered its very name formidable, appears to be fast dispelling.”

In a letter, dated Newburyport, 20th of January, 1814, he remarks—“I shall ever view as one of the most unfortunate events of my life having quitted the Enterprise at the moment I did. Had I remained in her a fortnight longer, my name might have been classed with those who stand so high. I cannot but consider it a mortifying circumstance that I left her but a few days before she fell in with the only enemy on this station with which she could have creditably contended. I confess I felt heartily glad when I received my order to take command of the Wasp, conceiving that there was no hope of doing anything in the Enterprise. But when I heard of the contest of the latter ship, and witnessed the great delay in the equipment of the former, I had no cause to congratulate myself. The Peacock has ere this spread her plumage to the winds, and the Frolic will soon take her revels on the ocean, but the Wasp will, I fear, remain for some time a dull, harmless drone in the waters of her own country. Why this is, I am not permitted to inquire!” These extracts will strike the reader as being strongly indicative of an amiable and heroic character. There is something touching in his gratitude to the good old lady who had manifested an interest in his successes. There is something noble in his reference to the memory of his father, as a motive stimulating him in the path of honor; and there is something heroic, we think, in the unaffected manner in which he expresses his regret at having left the Enterprise.

It is unnecessary to remark here, that it was in the action between that vessel and the Boxer, that Burrows conquered, and lost his life.

Yet Blakeley regretted he had not been in his place, either because he considered the sacrifice of life as a cheap price for the purchase of glory, or had forgotten, in his love of fame, that such a price had been paid. But he was determined before long to acquire at least equal reputation, and to perish equally with the regrets of his country. After various services, Blakeley was appointed, in 1813, to the Wasp, with the rank of master commandant.

In this vessel he fell in with his Britannic majesty’s ship Reindeer, mounting sixteen twenty-four pound carronades, two long nine pounders, and a shifting twelve pound carronade; and having a complement of one hundred and eighteen men. An action commenced, and, in nineteen minutes ended in the capture of the Reindeer. The loss of the Americans was twenty-one killed and wounded; that of the enemy sixty-seven. The Reindeer was cut to pieces in such a manner as to render it impossible to save her, and she was accordingly set on fire. After this the Wasp put into L’Orient; from which port she sailed on the 27th of August, and four days afterwards, falling in with ten sail of merchantmen, under a convoy of a ship of the line, she succeeded in cutting off one of the vessels. On the evening of the first of September, 1814, she fell in with four sail, two on each bow, but at considerable distances from each other. The first was the British brig-of-war Avon, which struck after a severe action; but Captain Blakeley could not take possession, as another enemy was fast approaching. This enemy, it seems, however, was called off to the assistance of the Avon, which was now sinking. The enemy reported that they had sunk the Wasp by the first broadside; but she was afterwards spoken by a vessel off the Western Isles. After this we hear of her no more; and though her fate is certain, the circumstances attending it are beyond the reach of discovery. The most general impression is that she was lost by one of those casualties incident to the great deep, which have destroyed so many gallant vessels in a manner no one knows how; for there are so many uncertainties connected with the unfathomable deep, that even imagination is bewildered in tracing the fate of those who are only known to have perished, because they are never more heard of or seen.

Another impression is, that the Wasp, very shortly after being spoken off the Western Isles, had a severe engagement with a British frigate, which put into Lisbon in a shattered condition; and reported having had an action, in the night, with a vessel which they believed to have sunk. But whatever may have been the fate of the generous Blakeley, this much is certain, that he will, to use his own expression, “be classed among those names that stand so high.”

The lustre of his exploits, not less than the interest excited by those who remembered how, in his very boyhood, he was left, as he says, without a single being around him with whom he could claim kindred blood,—how, by his merit, he obtained friends, and conferred honor on that country which was not only his parent, but which has become the parent of his only child; and how, last of all, he perished, is known only to One who rules the sea, and commands the troubled waves to “be still;”—has all given to his character, his history, his achievements and his fate, a romantic interest, marking the name of Blakeley for lasting and affectionate remembrance.

Notwithstanding his professional duties, which were scarcely interrupted from the time of his obtaining a warrant, his literary and scientific acquirements were very respectable; and among his brother officers he was always considered a man of uncommon intellect, as well as great courage and professional skill.

In December, 1813, he married Jane, the daughter of Mr. Hoope, of New York, the old and respected friend of his father; by whom he has left an only daughter, who received one of the most noble and substantial tributes of national gratitude which has occurred in the history of this country.

On the 27th of December, 1816, the legislature of North Carolina, after prescribing the destination of the sword they had voted to Captain Blakeley, “Resolved unanimously, that Captain Blakeley’s child be educated at the expense of this state; and that Mrs. Blakeley be requested to draw on the treasurer of this state, from time to time, for such sums of money as shall be required for the education of the said child.” This, we repeat, is substantial gratitude. It is classical, too, and reminds us of those noble eras in the history of some of the illustrious states of Greece, when the offspring of those who had fallen for their country, became the children of that country whose cause had made them fatherless. It is in this way that our states may acquire a parental character, that will endear them still more to the hearts of the citizens; that will inspire fathers to die in defence of their country, and be held up as an example to the world.

It is in this way, too, that the different members of the Union may nobly indulge their local feelings, and display their honest homebred affections. Let them exemplify their desire to appropriate to themselves the fame of their distinguished citizens, by their peculiar care in honoring their memory and cherishing their helpless orphans. A gold medal (see Plate XIV.) was, by a vote of Congress, presented to Captain Blakeley, for the capture of the British sloop-of-war Reindeer, Captain Manners, June 28th, 1814.

DESCRIPTION OF THE MEDAL.

Occasion.—Capture of the Reindeer.

Device.—Bust of Captain Blakeley.

Legend.—Johnston Blakeley reip. fed. Amer. nav. Wasp, dux.

Reverse.—Two ships engaged.

Legend.—Eheu! Bis victor. Patria tua te luget plauditq.

Exergue.—Inter Wasp nav. Ameri. et Reindeer nav. Ang. 28th June, 1814.