Jeremiah Hibbert (bef. 1753 - bef. 1781)

Born before 2 Dec 1753 in Marblehead, Essex, Massachusetts Bay Colony

Ancestors

Husband of Martha (Lee) Fisk — married 3 Oct 1776 in Manchester, Essex, Massachusetts

Biography

Jeremiah Hibbert (sometimes seen as Hilbert and Hibbard) was the son of Joseph Hibbert and Lois Ingerson, baptized December 2, 1753 in Marblehead.^[1] He married Patty (Martha) Lee of Manchester, October 3, 1776 at Manchester.^[2][3] Patty was the daughter of Col. John Lee of Manchester. She married 2nd, Gen. John Fisk of Salem. She died November 30, 1785.

Military

Ship's Captain Jeremiah Hibbert served with Massachusetts Navy during the American Revolution.

Jeremiah Hibbert was a mariner. He started out as a Lieutenant on the Schooner Benjamin Franklin, commanded by Captain Mumford, originally part of the Army. The Naval committee of the Continental Congress was establised in November 1775 and the Continental Marines in December.

Privateer

Jeremiah became a Naval Privateer and was Captain of the Privateer schooner, Hawke^[4][5], (not to be confused with the British schooner or the sloop by the same name, or the 550 ton Schooner, owned by Thomas Davis of Beverly and Ephriam Spooner. William Holland was commissioned master when she received her Letter of Marque on Nov. 1, 1779).^[6][7] Captain Hibbert, with his schooner captured Adventure, Britannia, Mary, Nancy, Oderion, plus ships of the Newfoundland fishing fleet.^[8][9]It was taken in West Indies, April 1778, under Capt Jeremiah Hibbert, and 6 of its crew sent to Mill Prison. ^[10] This may be the prize of the Hawk on which Benjamin Leach of Manchester was captured.^[11] This is the Hawk commanded in Jun 1777 by Capt Jeremías Hilbert, 10 guns, 8 swivels, 60 men, which took its prize Bretaña into a Spanish port. Crewmen listed in MAS.

On July 26, 1777 the Hawke left Newberry, Massachusetts, having taken in her Passage and sent to Bilboa to sell several vessels that had been taken. As of September 24, she was in the Port of Corunna, Spain. Herman Katencamp was alerting Lord Weymouth to the fact. The ships had been taken in August and the Commandant General of Galicia ordered the Hawke out of Ferrol (a city in the province of Corunna.^[12] The Hawke and Hibbert appear regularly in the Naval documents. In one letter dated October 6, 1777, mention is made that the Hawke privateer had under pretense of Repairs put into the Coruna & had received orders to quit that Port." They had 3 ships as prizes at that time, which they sail to Bilbao. A letter dated October 23, 1777 added a post script stating the sender had learned that the Hawke seized the schooner Adventure on the coast of Bilbao and it was declared an unlawful prize. New Lloyd's List (London), Tuesday October 28, 1777 published the same.^[13] in December that year, a letter from Corunna informed Lord Weymouth, "...The Hawke Privateer Jeremiah Hilbert has also made great Havock among our Newfoundland Ships bound to Bilboa, and Santander, more than half of which have been taken by the Rebels since the Convoy under Admiral Montague left them. None of His Majesty's Ships appear on this Coast to protect a Trade so extremely beneficial to the Nation..." Also in December 1777 Joseph Gardqui & Sons, merchants, write "...here is also in Port the Privateer Schooner Hawke Jeremiah Hibbert Master with an Intent of Returning home his Cruzing time being over, therefore doubt not, shall also have Roome in her to send another assortment of your said Articles, &..." On November 25, 1777 the Hawke took the Brigantine Friendship, commanded by Captain Appleton, loaded with provisions.^[14]

Michael Crawford revealed more about Captain Hibbert's "prize" captures. It was his practice to take merchant ships, sail them to neutral ports to sell both the ship and its goods. One ship was the Dove, a British Merchant ship commanded by Captain John Lowden Cole. He carried a cargo of fish from St. John's Newfoundland to Spain. Despite being warned by an officer from the frigate HMS Thetis that privateers were operating near Bilboa and he should sail to Santander instead, he kept his course and was taken prisoner, just a league off the Spanish shore. "...In Santander’s roadstead, Hibbert transferred Dove’s entire crew, officers included, to the Hawke. The Hawke and the Dove then sailed into Santoña, where Hibbert sold the Dove with its cargo to a Spanish merchant. The Hawke escorted the Dove, now with Spanish colors and a Spanish crew, to Bilbao. Hibbert kept Cole and his crew closely confined in the Hawke, fending off approaching boats and preventing anyone from conversing with the prisoners. Despite the Americans’ vigilance, one of the Dove’s sailors slipped overboard in the night and swam ashore. None of the merchants in Bilbao to whom the sailor applied offered any assistance. Ten days after the Hawke and the Dove anchored at Bilbao, Hawke’s officers and men received their share of the proceeds from the sale of the Dove and most of them went ashore to spend their prize money. As darkness fell and a hailstorm came up driving the few guards remaining on board under shelter, Cole seized his opportunity. He jumped into the Hawke’s boat, cut the painter, and got out of gunshot before being missed. Once on shore, he had seven miles to travel to reach the city, with six “stout fellows, well armed,” including Captain Hibbert, hot on his trail. It was a perilous flight along a wretched road: two of the pursuers ended up with broken legs and three days afterwardsCole was still unable to walk. Cole escaped with the help of a ferryman who took him across the River Nervión and refused to ferry the Americans. In Bilbao, Cole located the merchant Ventura Gomez de la Torre y Barrena, who, having close business ties with British firms as an importer of Newfoundland fish, was sympathetic to the British cause. Gomez told Cole that he should not expect to recover his vessel, for, as he said, “the Americans are favorites here.”

The tale of the Hawke and the Dove contains the essential ingredients of the process by which American privateersmen overcame the obstacles, legal and practical, they faced in disposing of prizes in neutral ports. Under the pretense of seeking relief from the stress of weather and the dangers of the sea, American privateers used neutral ports as operating bases, enabling them to capture fully laden British merchantmen as they neared their destinations, and to reap the benefit of an expectant market. They obtained the collusion of merchants in the neutral ports by selling to them below market price. In addition, they evaded legal restrictions on the sale of prize ships and goods in neutral ports by selling in out-of-the-way inlets and by hiding from the authorities the fact that they were prizes. Such practices enabled government officials to dismiss British claims and protests by pleading ignorance and inability to control the avarice of a few private individuals...."^[15]

The 64 gun ship, Jersey, had been dismantled in 1776 as unfit for service and was used as a prison, holding 1,000 or more. It was one of over 13 ships used to house prisoners and conditions were even more deadly than the land prisons. It is likely that 7,000 to 10,000 soldiers died on these ships during the Revolution. in 1803 thousands of skeletons were discovered around the shores of Wallabout Bay. Jersey prison was nicknamed "Hell" by the prisoners.

Death and Will

Jeremiah wrote his will October 29, 1776. His wife Martha and brother John were mentioned. John Lee, Martha's father, was one of the three witnesses.^[16]Lee was Captain of the Privateer Hawke before Jeremiah was.^[17] The will was entered into probate July 7, 1781^[18] and the inventory was presented September 2, 1782, valued at £526.2.3. ^[19]

Note

The family genealogy states Jeremiah died at sea in August of 1778^[3] but his ship was taken as a prize in April of that year^[10] and he was seen in various ports throughout that year.

Sources

1. ↑ Vital records of Marblehead, Massachusetts, to the end of the year 1849, Vol. 1 Pg. 255.
2. ↑ Vital records of Marblehead, Massachusetts, to the end of the year 1849, Vol. 2, Marriages and Deaths, Pgs. 208,259. Intentions also recorded.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} Hibbard, A. G. (Augustine George), b. 1833, Genealogy of the Hibbard family who are descendants of Robert Hibbard of Salem, Massachusetts. 1901, Hartford, Conn. : Case. Pg 30.
4. ↑ NDAR10 Pgs. 878, 903, 1155
5. ↑ Mill:136-137
6. ↑ "United States Rosters of Revolutionary War Soldiers and Sailors, 1775-1783," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QG2M-HTFS : 1 March 2021), Jeremiah Hibbert, 18 Jun 1777; citing Military Service, Newburyport, Essex, Massachusetts, United States, Citing various published state rosters, United States; FHL microfilm 101711086.
7. ↑ Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts. United States: The Society, 1923.Pg 411.
8. ↑ NDAR9 Pg. 678
9. ↑ NDAR10 Pg 949.
10. ↑ ^{10.0 10.1} Howe pg 400,
11. ↑ Klotz:45
12. ↑ Naval Documents of the American Revolution Vol 9 Pgs 657-658, Ordered out of Corunna 678.
13. ↑ NDAR10 Pg. 949.
14. ↑ Naval Documents of the American Revolution Vol. 10, pgs 870-871, 878-879, 903, 911, 928, 937, 938, 949, 968-969, 971, 1085, 1094, 1104, 1145, 1146, 1155, 1157, 1205
15. ↑ The Hawke and the Dove, a Cautionary Tale: The Northern Mariner/le marin du nord, XVIII Nos. 3-4, (July-October 2008), Pgs 49-66.
16. ↑ "Jeremiah Hibbert in the Massachusetts, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1635." 1991 https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/3636095:9069?indiv=try&h&_phsrc=Hkx1098&db. Accessed 3 Jul. 2021. Notes Detail Source Name: Jeremiah Hibbert Gender: Male Residence Date: Abt 1776 Residence Place: Manchester-by-the-Sea, Essex County, Massachusetts Will Date: 29 Oct 1776 Massachusetts, USA inferred Death Place: Massachusetts, USA Others Listed: Martha Hibbert Wife, John Hibbert Brother
17. ↑ Dove Pg 55 (pdf page 7 of 18.
18. ↑ Essex County, Massachusetts, probate records Old Series : Probate records, vols. 353-354, Book 53-54, 1777-1781. Film No. 7704830, Image 555 of 572.
19. ↑ Essex County, Massachusetts, probate records Old Series : Probate records, vols. 355-356, Book 55-56, 1781-1784. film No. 7704831, Image 227 of 614.

• Howe, Octavius T. (Octavius Thorndike), b. 1851,Beverly privateers in the American revolution 1922, Publisher Cambridge, J. Wilson and Son. Pg 400
• See also: Hough, Granville W., AMERICAN MARITIME UNITS AND VESSELS AND THEIR SUPPORTERS DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR, 1775-1783, (INCLUDING FRENCH AND SPANISH); American War of Independance-At Sea. Hawke.