President Thomas Jefferson and Secretary of State James Madison Appoint an Officer Who Would Become a Noted Privateer in the War of 1812

Lewis Smith was a merchant marine officer and later a privateer captain in the War of 1812. His sea voyages stated in 1804. Smith left a memoir, which is at the University of California Library, indicating he was an American merchant marine officer and captain of privateers during the War of 1812. The memoir contains records of some of his many sea voyages aboard twelve different vessels, beginning in 1804. Of particular interest are the accounts of service on various privateers in the Atlantic during the War of 1812. An entry summarizes some of Smith’s adventures: “I have suffered from chastisement…From extreme cold and excessive heat…the horrors of almost certain death on a lee shore, in both Northern and Southern Oceans. From shipwreck in the India seas…From capture by pirates, from mutiny by my own crew when my life was to have been taken, once from the jaws of a Shark… From capture and detention by the Enemy.” The pirate incident occurred in 1807 onboard the ship Thomas, some 200 miles N.E. of the Island of Barbuda, when a small schooner of about thirty French-speaking men threatened violence and made off with money, clothes and provisions owned by the captain and crew.

The ships Lewis Smith served on were (with his service starting dates): 1) Projector (Jan. 13, 1804); 2) Susan (May 26, 1805); 3) United States Brig Dolly (Nov. 4, 1805); 4) Ship Carmalite (March 7, 1806); 5) Ship Thomas (Dec. 18, 1806); 6) Schooner Franklin of Hudson (May 26, 1806); 7) Ship Ann Williams (May 12, 1809); 8) Ship Alligator of Hudson (Aug. 30, 1810); 9) Ship Magnet (Dec. 11, 1811); 10) Schooner General Armstrong (Oct. 6, 1812); 11) Governor Tompkins (Feb. 22, 1813); and 12) Schooner General Marion (Oct. 7, 1813).

This is Smith’s appointment as a mate early in his career. Document signed, by Thomas Jefferson as president and James Madison as secretary of state, Washington, November 8, 1805, naming Smith “third mate of a cutter in the service of the United States”, and authorizing him to “execute and fulfill the duties of that office.” A third mate on a ship is generally officer of the watch, the ship’s safety officer, and fourth-in-command.

At the bottom of the document is a handwritten contemporaneous statement – “Brig Dolly, 14 guns and 71 men, Captain Francis Bright”. The Dolly is also mentioned in Lewis’s memoir, indicating he served on the Dolly in November 1805.

A fine Jefferson/Madison document with a very interesting connection to both a noted memoir and a War of 1812 privateer.