Woolsey, Melancthon Taylor, , New York 1780 1838 Male Naval Officer naval officer, was born in New York State, the son of Col. Melancthon Lloyd Woolsey, an army officer in the Revolution and subsequently for many years collector of revenue at Plattsburg, N. Y. His mother, Alida (Livingston) Woolsey, was the daughter of a clergyman and a sister of John Henry Livingston [q. v. ].
He participated in the war with the Barbary corsairs in the squadron of Commodores Dale and Morris (1802 - 03) and the squadron of Commodore Barron and Rodgers (1804 - 07), returning home as a lieutenant of the Constitution, a grade to which he was promoted in 1804, although his permanent rank dated from 1807.
In 1808 he began a service on the Great Lakes that was to last more than seventeen years.
On July 19, 1812, the British squadron made its appearance off Sacketts Harbor, whither Woolsey had moved his headquarters.
Declining the British summons to surrender, he fought a superior force for two hours until it withdrew, leaving him victorious.
In November, now next in command under Isaac Chauncey [q. v. ], he participated with his ship in the attack on Kingston, and in May and July 1813 in the joint army and naval operation against York.
In May 1814 the important duty of convoying some heavy guns from Oswego to Sacketts Harbor fell to him.
In time the Sacketts Harbor naval station decreased in importance and was no longer worthy of an officer of high rank.
In 1825 he was placed in command of the Constellation and until the following year was employed in the suppression of piracy in the West Indies.
He then received the command of the Pensacola navy yard, where he remained until 1830.
In 1832-34 he commanded the Brazil Squadron, hoisting the flag of a commodore.
This was his last service afloat or ashore.
A son, Melancthon Brooks Woolsey, 1817-74, entered the navy and rose to the rank of commodore.
[Records of Officers, Bureau of Navigation, 1798-1840; Veterans Administration, War of 1812 Records; U. S. Navy Reg. , 1814-38; M. L. Woolsey, Letters of Melancthon Taylor Woolsey (1927), and Melancthon Lloyd Woolsey (1929); C. J. Peterson, Hist.
of the U. S. Navy (1852); R. W. Heeser, Statistical and Chron.
Hist.
of U. S. Navy, vol.
II (1909); Niles' Nat.
Reg. , June 2, 1838; Theodore Roosevelt, Naval War of 1812 (Putnam, 1910); J. F. Cooper, in Graham's Mag. , Jan. 1845; Morning Herald (New York), May 22, 1838. ]
His wife, Susan Cornelia (Tredwell) Woolsey, to whom he had been married at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., on Nov. 3, 1817, and their seven children survived him.
His wife, Susan Cornelia (Tredwell) Woolsey, to whom he had been married at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., on Nov. 3, 1817, and their seven children survived him.
His wife, Susan Cornelia (Tredwell) Woolsey, to whom he had been married at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., on Nov. 3, 1817, and their seven children survived him.
Delegating his duties on Lake Champlain to a subordinate officer, he established his headquarters at Oswego on Lake Ontario and constructed there the Oneida, with the aid of Henry Eckford q.v..
