Background
Thomas was born on September 11, 1750 in London, England. He was the son of a Church of England clergyman.
Thomas was born on September 11, 1750 in London, England. He was the son of a Church of England clergyman.
In youth he served in the British navy with officer's rating, as evidenced by an order from Admiral John Byron, R. N. , July 31, 1771, giving him command of twenty-two men at Chateau Bay, Labrador.
Not long thereafter he left the British service (according to family tradition because of differences with a fellow officer), and in 1778 he was master of the brig Lady Clausen in trade from Saint Croix, Virgin Islands, to Europe.
Following the Revolution he commanded vessels in the American merchant service, living after 1783 in Philadelphia, and after about 1797 in Kingston, N. J. At the opening of naval warfare with France he was made captain in the American navy, Sept. 3, 1798, senior of five captains added that year, and during the next winter he commanded the Ganges and two smaller vessels cruising in the Windward Passage. Here he captured numerous prizes, including the Vainqueur (8 guns), taken after a ninety-mile chase. When the British frigate Surprise sought to examine his crew for British seamen, he peremptorily refused the demand, declaring the flag a sufficient protection. He had already assured his crew that he would resist search "while he was able to stand at quarters". Benjamin Stoddert, secretary of the navy, in a letter of Mar. 7, 1799, informed him that the president highly approved his action.
From June until late in the following autumn, after the departure of Commodores Thomas Truxtun and John Barry , he was senior officer in the West Indies. On January 22, 1800, he was appointed by Secretary Stoddert, as "being a man of understanding and having seen the navy-yards of England", to lay out and command the new Washington navy yard.
Though twelfth in the captain's list and thus not among the nine retained in the Peace Establishment of 1801, he remained superintendent of the Washington yard till 1803, was then temporarily "financial agent, " and on November 23, 1804, was recommissioned captain and made commandant of the yard and naval agent--the only instance of the combined functions. In these duties he continued until his death. Until 1814 his yard was the chief naval depot and construction base. Tingey was an indefatigable worker, carrying on the official correspondence largely in his own hand, slow to admit error and quick to defend himself, but never shirking responsibility. His rules for government of the yard (1808) were adopted for all similar stations on the coast.
At the British invasion of Washington in 1814 he received orders, based on a cabinet consultation, to burn the yard, and accordingly set fire to the buildings and shipping at 8:20 P. M. , August 24, just as the Capitol was fired by the British. He returned next morning at nine, being, as he wrote to his daughter (September 17, 1814), "the last officer who quitted the city after the enemy had possession and the only one to venture in" next day. The establishment was valued at $678, 210 and the loss at $417, 745.
Tingey was prominent in Washington social life, a school trustee in 1805. He was a close friend of Commodore John Rodgers and his second in negotiations (1806) for a duel--happily averted--with Capt. James Barron.
He died in Washington.
Thomas Tingey is remembered as the Commodore of the United States Navy. Originally serving in the British Navy, Tingey later served in the Continental Navy. Tingey served with distinction during the Quasi-War and would serve as the commandant of the navy yard until his death. Three USS Tingey ships were named for him as well as the Tingey gate of the Washington Navy Yard, Washington, D. C.
He was a head of the vestry of Christ Church, and an incorporator of its cemetery (now the Congressional Cemetery), in which he was buried.
During the 1820s, Tingey was a member of the prestigious society, Columbian Institute for the Promotion of Arts and Sciences, who counted among their members former presidents Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams and many prominent men of the day, including well-known representatives of the military, government service, medical and other professions.
He was highly respected and of genial, kindly nature.
Quotes from others about the person
WNY enslaved worker Michael Shiner noted Tingey's passing with this tribute, "Died in Command of the Washington navy yard Comerder thomas tinsy on the 23 day of February 1829 on Monday and snow on the ground and a fine officer he was and a gentelman"
He was married at Saint Croix, March 30, 1777, to Margaret, daughter of William Murdoch of Philadelphia.
By his first marriage he had three daughters who lived to maturity, one of them the mother of the naval officers Thomas Tingey Craven and Tunis A. M. Craven. He was married, second, December 9, 1812, to Ann Bladen Dulany; and third, May 19, 1817, to Ann Evelina Craven.
His daughter Hannah married Tunis Craven, a government clerk and later naval purser. Two of her sons, Tunis and Thomas Tingey rose to prominence in the Union Navy during the Civil War. Another daughter, Margaret, married U. S. Representative Joseph F. Wingate of Maine.
