To George Washington from Samuel Nicholson, 16 January 1797
From Samuel Nicholson
Boston January 16th 1797
Sir.
It is with much reluctance I trouble you with the present application, but a great anxiety to provide for a numerous family, must be my appology.1
It has been the practice in the British, and I believe all other Navies, to admit as Midshipmen a Small proportion of Young Men who have not had any experience as Seamen.2 I am very desirous to have my two eldest sons Samuel aged 14 years, & Joseph 13, brought up in the Service of their Country, and to have them appointed Midshipmen, if it should be consistent with Your Ideas of propriety.3 my family is large & my pay and Subsistence is their sole dependence; which at the present high price of all the Necessaries of life afford but a scanty Support. I should do injustice to the feelings of a gratefull heart, were I to omit this opportunity of returning you my most Cordial thanks for the honor you have done me in appointing me to my present command, and it would be an additional gratification to me if I could receive my Commission Signed by You.4
permit me to join with millions of my Countrymen & others, in wishing You health and happiness, & believe me to be with great esteem & respect Sir Yr much Obliged and Humble servt5
Sam. Nicholson
ALS, DLC:GW.
1. In 1780, Nicholson had married Mary Dowse, and the couple had at least six children by early 1797. They included Ann Temple (born c.1781), Samuel, Jr. (c.1783–1798), twins Joseph (c.1786–1821) and Robert (born c.1786), Nancy, Edward, and Maria (c.1794–1859). Mary gave birth to two more daughters by early March 1800 (see , 34; see also Erastus Worthington, “The Frigate Constitution and the Avery Oak,” The Dedham Historical Register 9 [January 1898], 2).
2. Midshipmen in both the British and American navies often entered the service as boys, sometimes as young as 10 or 12 years of age. Midshipmen in the British navy generally came from good families (see Jack Coggins, Ships and Seamen of the American Revolution … [Harrisburg, Pa., 1969], 172–73; see also A. Stenzel, The British Navy [London, 1898], 113–14).
3. Samuel Nicholson, Jr., received his commission as a midshipman in the U.S. navy on 30 April 1798. He died in September of that year during a cruise aboard the frigate Constitution, commanded by his father. Joseph Nicholson, about 11 years old at this time, was commissioned a midshipman in the navy in July 1803, and was assigned to serve on the Constitution (see Robert Smith to Thomas Jefferson, 14 July 1803, in , 41:51). He later was promoted to lieutenant in 1809.
4. In June 1794, GW appointed Nicholson, a former captain in the Continental navy, as captain to command one of the first frigates of the U.S. navy. He later commanded the frigate Constitution, which was launched in the fall of 1797 (see GW to the U.S. Senate, 3 June 1794). No record of GW’s signing Nicholson’s commission has been found.
5. No reply to Nicholson from GW has been found.