At a meeting with the Governor of Connecticut and Council of Safety on August 16, 1776, it was voted to draw an order in favor of Captain David Hawley for 180 pounds to enable Hawley to raise a crew of seamen for the naval service of the United States on the Lakes to the northward, to which he was appointed Captain.

[3] He was taken prisoner several times, and after being taken with the State sloop USS Schuyler in 1777, he was again exchanged, and continued his service as a privateer in Long Island Sound, bringing several prizes into Black Rock Harbor.

He commanded the USS Guilford, until she fell prey to the British in New Haven harbor in July 1779, when he escaped capture and fitted out a flotilla of armed boats by warrant authority, before being commissioned.

[4][5] In November 1779 he commanded a voluntary force of 20 men from Stratford, Connecticut and the vicinity, crossed the Sound in a daring raid and brought back from Long Island, Thomas Jones, Esq, of Suffolk County, one of the Judges of the Ministerial Supreme Court of the Crown, and delivered him up as a hostage to exchange for General Gold Selleck Silliman who had been taken prisoner earlier that year.

Under his last commission he was especially active in the Sound and performed important naval service in the prevention of illicit trade, seizing and libeling many boats and cargoes in the Fairfield Court.

The home was located at the corner of Water and Gilbert Streets and was used, after Hawley's death as a saddle factory by Seth B. Jones and was the arena of great theological discussions among the workmen, especially; Joshua Lord, William Wright, Edwin B. Gregory and Alexander S.