He was acting captain on the USS Constitution (Old Ironsides) during the attacks on Tripoli in 1804.

His family had arrived in Maryland in the early Colonial days and had a long history of public service.

The Department of Navy had just been created by Congress in response to increasing attacks on merchant ships.

He served on USS Constellation when she captured the French frigate Insurgente on 1 February 1799, and after serving on USS Constitution in the Mediterranean, commanded the schooners Nautilus and Scourge in Preble’s squadron during the First Barbary War, taking part in the attacks on Tripoli.

He took up plantation life in St. Bartholomew’s Parish in South Carolina, where he died on 29 July 1823.