Jeremiah O’Brien was a captain in the Massachusetts State Navy.
Background
Jeremiah O'Brian was born in 1744 in Kittery, Maine, United States, the eldest son of Morris and Mary (Hutchins) O'Brien. Early in life Morris O'Brien followed the tailoring trade, first in his native city of Dublin, Ireland, and later in the towns of Kittery and Scarborough, Maine, United States. In 1765 he moved to Machias, Maine, then a frontier town recently settled, and, aided by his sons, engaged with much success in lumbering, the main industry of the settlement. At the outbreak of the Revolution he and his family eagerly espoused the cause of the patriots.
Career
On June 2, 1775, the Boston sloops Unity and Polly arrived at Machias, convoyed by the schooner Margaretta, under the command of Midshipman James Moore of the Royal Navy, for the purpose of obtaining a cargo of lumber for the use of the British army. Determined to prevent the shipping of the lumber, Jeremiah O'Brien with about forty volunteers, including his five brothers, armed with guns, swords, axes, and pitchforks, seized the Unity, and after a considerable chase, on June 12 engaged and captured the Margaretta, 4 guns, with a loss of seven men on each side. Midshipman Moore was mortally wounded. O'Brien exhibited much enterprise and daring in this first naval engagement of the war. By a resolution, dated June 26, 1775, the Massachusetts General Court thanked him and his compatriots for their courage and good conduct.
Under the orders of the Machias Committee of Safety, O'Brien took command of the Unity, renamed the Machias Liberty and armed with the guns of the Margaretta. When, a few weeks after his first fight, the British naval schooner Diligent with her tender Tapnaquish appeared off Machias, he, with the aid of another vessel, captured the two British ships without firing a gun.
In August 1775 the General Court, recognizing O'Brien's ability, placed him in command of the Machias Liberty and the Diligent, thus taking these vessels into the service of the state, the first ships of the Massachusetts navy. O'Brien cruised intermittently with his small fleet, taking a few prizes, until it was put out of commission in the fall of 1776.
O'Brien next became a privateersman and in 1777 went to sea in command of the ship Resolution and captured the British ship Scarborough off Cape Negro. Continuing in this service he was captured in 1780 with his vessel, the Hannibal, and was confined first in the Jersey prison ship at New York and later in Mill Prison, England, where he suffered considerable hardship. Escaping, he returned to America and in 1781 commanded successively the Hibernia and the Tiger.
After the Revolution O'Brien lived a retired life at Machias until 1811 when President Madison appointed him collector of customs for the Machias district, a position he held at the time of his death.
Achievements
Jeremiah O'Brian commanded the first naval battle of the American Revolutionary War in 1775.
In recognition of his valuable services in the Revolution, Secretary of the Navy John D. Long named one of the torpedo boats, then under construction, after Jeremiah O'Brian.
Connections
Jeremiah O'Brian was married to Elizabeth Fitzpatrick, but they left no descendants.
Father:
Morris O'Brien
Early in life he was engaged in tailoring trade, later in lumbering.
