The following information was assembled from numerous sources and cannot be used directly as proof of Qualifying Service or Lineage.
It is considered a research aid and is intended to assist in locating sources that can be used as proof.
State of Service: PA
Qualifying Service: Sailor
Birth: Strabane / County Tyrone / Ireland Death: 1787 Philadelphia / Philadelphia / PA
Qualifying Service Description:
Purser, man-of-war ship USS Bonhomme Richard, commanded by Commodore John Paul Jones, 1779
Wounded: suffered severe head injury while manning the quarterdeck guns while in naval battle with British frigate HMS Serapis. Had trepanned skull surgery and returned to station the next day
Purser, sloop-of-war ship USS Ariel, commanded by Commodore John Paul Jones, 1780-1781
Additional References:
Hoffman, Donald B. Searching for the Navy’s first Purser, Navy Supply Corps Foundation, Searching for the Navys first Purser.pdf (usnscf.com)
McGee, Thomas D'Arcy. History of the Irish Settlers of North America, accessed via LibraryIreland.com
Sherburne, John Henry. Life and Times of Chevalier John Paul Jones: A Captain in the Navy of the United States During Their Rev War, Vanderpool & Cole, Printers, New York. 1825.; accessed Library of Congress (LOC.gov). pgs 121, 141 (as Mathurin Mease), 174-176
“To Benjamin Franklin from Matthew Mease, 9 June 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-24-02-0111. [Original source: The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, Vol 24, May 1 through September 30, 1777, ed. William B. Willcox. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1984, pg 143–144.]
“From Benjamin Franklin to Jonathan Williams, Jr, 30 November 1777,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-25-02-0151. [Original source: The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, Vol 25, October 1, 1777, through February 28, 1778, ed. William B. Willcox. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1986, pg 214–215.]
Spouse: Children: Members Who Share This Ancestor
None*
*This means that the NSSAR has no applications for this Patriot on file.
Instead the information provided is best effort, and from volunteers who have either researched grave sites, service records, or something similar. There is no documentation available at NSSAR HQ to order.
Patriot biographies must be the original work of the author, and work submitted must not belong to another person or group, in observance with copyright law. Patriot biographies are to be written in complete sentences, follow the established rules of grammar, syntax and punctuation, be free of typographical errors, and follow a narrative format. The narrative should unfold in a logical manner (e.g. the narrative does not jump from time period to time period) or have repeated digressions, or tell the history of the patriot's line from the patriot ancestor to the author. The thinking here is that this is a patriot biography, not a lineage report or a kinship determination project or other report published in a genealogy journal. The biography should discuss the qualifying service (military, patriotic, civil) of the patriot ancestor, where the service was rendered, whether this was a specific state or Continental service, as well as significant events (as determined by the author) of the patriot's life. This is the entire purpose of a patriot's biography.
Additional guidelines around the Biography writeup can be found here:
Send your submission1, in a Microsoft Word compatible format, to patriotbios@sar.org for inclusion in this space 1Upon submission of a patriot biography, the patriot biography becomes the property of the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, and may be edited to conform to the patriot biography submission standards.
Additional Information:
No DAR Record found - August 2023.
Fold3.com - possible correlation with commissary and financial settlement records related to Matthew Maus - August 2023.