Family Tree Maker's Genealogy Site: Genealogy Report: Descendants of John Hewitt Mackie

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Descendants of John Hewitt Mackie

Generation No. 1

1. JOHN HEWITT¹ MACKIE was born Abt. 1791 in Isle of Skye, SCOTLAND, and died Aft. 1850 in Greenport, Long Island, NY. He married CATHERINE. She was born 1808 in Ireland (Source: Census of 1850.), and died Aft. 1850.

Notes for JOHN HEWITT MACKIE:
Thought you might just be amused by these notes, including cross-Atlantic Internet e-mail messages, that recount the search for my great-great-grandfather.

This search begins in August, 1943 when John Hopewell Mackie of Bridgeport, CT visits his brother Charles Dickerson Mackie in Pittsfield, Mass. Charles' daughter, Anne Mackie Enright (Nan Gustin) takes notes as her Uncle John tells about her ancestors:
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The Mackie ancestors were originally seafarers--came from the Isle of Skye, Scotland.

2 brothers conscripted on English Man of War to America.

John Hewitt Mackie and his brother (name unknown) helped build the (American) Privateer General Armstrong -- War of 1812 -- stayed with the ship until wrecked.
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      In the 1970s, thanks to Christine Enright Snyder, Nan's daughter, I got these notes together with much other genealogical material. And I intended -- for 2 decades -- to pursue these clues. Finally, thanks to the deep and wide New York Public Library Research Branch, I come across a reference to the General Armstrong in a 1913 book of biographies of 19th century personalities: one essay is called "The Last Fight of the General Armstrong". It begins:

      We leaned over the rail of the Hamburg, Colonel Roosevelt (yes, President Teddy Roosevelt!) and I, and watched the olive hills of Fayal (in the Portuguese Azores in the mid-Atlantic) rise from the turquoise sea. Houses white as chalk began to peep from among the orange groves; what looked at first sight to be a yellow snake turned into a winding road; then we rounded a headland, and the U-shaped harbor, edged by a sleepy town and commanded by a crumbling fortress lay before us.
      "In there," said the ex-President, pointing eagerly as our anchor rumbled down, "was waged one of the most desperate sea-fights ever fought, and one of the least known; in there lies the wreck of the General Armstrong, the privateer that stood off twenty times her strength in British men and guns, and thereby saved Louisiana from invasion."

At about the same time, I found a book from 1833 with this reference to the Armstrong:

      After burning the privateer, (the British captain) Van Lloyd made a demand of the governor to deliver up the Americans as his prisoners, which the governor refused. He threatened to send five hundred men on shore and take them by force. The Americans immediately retired with their arms to an old Gothic convent; knocked away the adjoining drawbridge, and determined to defend themselves to the last. The Van, however, thought better than to send his men. He then demanded two men, who, he said, deserted from his vessel when in America.

TWO MEN ... TWO BROTHERS
ENGLISH MAN OF WAR TO AMERICA... TWO MEN, WHO, HE SAID, DESERTED FROM HIS VESSEL WHEN IN AMERICA.

COULD IT BE?

Did an angry English captain and our ancestors save Louisiana from invasion?

Did they change the course of world history?

Here's one email sent in pursuit of these questions:

TO: Scottish Institute of Maritime Studies

Dear Michael Dun (webmaster of The Privateer Web Page):

First, may I tell you how enormously I've enjoyed your Web Page. It's well designed, has substantial resources and promises even more in the future.

My interest centers on some genealogical research I'm doing which you might be able to help me with and which is already producing some material you'd be welcome to use on your Page.

The direct connection is between 2 ships: your privateer PRINCE DE NEUFCHATEL and another American privateer also built by the brothers Adam and Noah Brown, in New York harbor around 1812, the GENERAL ARMSTRONG.

As you probably are already aware, the GENERAL ARMSTRONG fought 3 British men-of-war in the Azores in September, 1814; a number of historians contend that the battle delayed the British invasion at New Orleans, possibly wrecking the likelihood that the whole Mississippi Valley would have been taken from the United States.

Earlier, in 1812, my great-great-grandfather, John Hewitt Mackie, and his brother, were Scottish fishermen from the Isle of Skye. Our family history says that they were picked up and impressed into service on an English Man of War headed to America. Somewhere along the Long Island or Connecticut coastline, they were able to jump ship, make their way to New York harbor, and join the Brown brothers in the construction of the GENERAL ARMSTRONG. They then joined the crew.

This ship had numerous expeditions, several near the Surinam River in the part of northeastern South America that faces the Caribbean.

On the 26th of September, 1814, the GENERAL ARMSTRONG, while taking on water and supplies at the neutral Portuguese port of Fayal (Faial) in the Azores, met and battled with HMSs Plantagenet, Rota and Carnation. The British commander, Robert Lloyd, seemed to irrationally delay his mission which was to join the flotilla assembling in the Caribbean for the Battle of New Orleans. He lost over 200 men attacking the ARMSTRONG (to 2 Americans) and, even after the privateer was scuttled, wanted to pursue the American crew on land on the Azores and "demanded two men, who, he said, deserted from his vessel when in America" <<<<<from a letter by a British eyewitness on shore on the Portuguese Azores on September 26, 1814. From "A Collection of Sundry Publications and other Documents in relation to the attack made during the late war upon the Private Armed Brig General Armstrong of New York". New York, John Gray, 110 Fulton Street, 1833.

In any case, the story of this privateer became a widely known subject of poetry and song in the USA of the early 1800s. And the (fanciful?) speculation I'm working on is that my great-great-grandfather and uncle were the ones who so enraged Captain Lloyd that they changed the course of world history!

To pursue this fancy, or at least put together some good history, could you give me any direction, thoughts or guesses as to where I could find:

Crew list of British Navy ships in 1812, including impressed crewmembers.

Muster Lists of American privateers (like the wonderful one you have for the Armstrong's sister ship, PRINCE DE NEUFCHATEL).

Any record of men who participated in a ship's construction (in 1812 in New York Harbor).

Any information, especially service records, courts martial, inquiries, or observations on the character of, British Captain Robert Lloyd.

Any other info that you think might enhance this history.

I have at least seven 1000-3000 word accounts of the Battle of the General Armstrong and I'll be getting it together electronically in a short time; there are also several period paintings of the Battle. You'd be welcome to them for your Page.

Thanks for your attention. Hope you find it an interesting extension of the subject you've presented so well.

Robert Rowen
Brooklyn Heights, NY
USA

You can read a still more detailed account, with illustrations, at http://libraryautomation.com/warof1812 and http://libraryautomation.com/1812paper

Children of JOHN MACKIE and CATHERINE are:

2.	i.		JOHN HOPEWELL² MACKIE I, b. December 10, 1827, New London, CT; d. January 9, 1909, Bridgeport, CT.
	ii.		CAROLINE CRAWLEY, b. 1836, ENGLAND.

Notes for CAROLINE CRAWLEY:
Possibly the child of widowed sailor away on a voyage?

iii.

JOHANNA MULLINS, b. 1847, ENGLAND.

Notes for JOHANNA MULLINS:
According to the US Census of 1850, Johanna, age 3, and Caroline Crawley, age 16, lived with the Mackies in Greenport.

Possibly they are the children of widowed sailors away on voyages? .

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