- Jacob Nagle
Jacob Nagle (1761 – 1841) was an American and British soldier, sailor, and, above all, diarist who provides an exceptional first hand account of many of the dramatic events of his life time. Nagle was born in
Reading, Pennsylvania , and fought in theAmerican Revolutionary War along with his father. He was in theBattle of Brandywine and inGeorge Washington 's artillery atValley Forge . He resigned from theContinental Army in 1778 and enlisted in the tinyContinental Navy . When construction on the "USS Saratoga" was delayed, Nagle took to sea as aprivateer in 1780 on "Fair American", then on "Rising Sun" in 1781. He was captured by the British and taken toSt. Kitts in chains. He was freed when theFrench Navy captured the island in 1782 but was almost immediately arrested again for aiding British sailors. He was then taken toMartinique . From that point on, he served in theRoyal Navy .He sailed to
New South Wales andBotany Bay in 1787 as an able seaman on the flagship "Sirius". After the ship was wrecked onNorfolk Island in 1790, he spent a year on the island. He went to England in 1792 and lived the high life until press ganged aboard the "Hector" the same year, and he served on that ship when the Bounty Mutineers were taken. In 1794, he jumped to a new ship to go toMadras andCalcutta , where he joined with two women convicts who had escapedSydney, Australia to set up abrothel on the subcontinent.In 1795, he returned to England and married. He and his wife had seven children over the coming years. In 1796, he served with Lord Nelson aboard the "Blanche," and in 1798 he served on the "Netley" as "prize-master," which resulted in his making considerable sums. In 1802, there was peace, and so he left the Navy and went to America to visit his family. He then entered the
merchant marine , sometimes in American service and sometimes British. He sailed toBrazil , where he lived from 1811–1821, and he finally retired in 1824.His journal provides a vivid record of the major events and new territories of these decades, and he wrote his "Memoirs" late in his life.
References
*Frost, Alan. "Jacob Nagle" in Matthew, H.C.G. and Brian Harrison, eds. "The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography." vol. 45, 108-109. London: OUP, 2004.
*Shy, John. "Benjamin Gilbert and Jacob Nagle: Soldiers of the American Revolution" in Nancy L. Rhoden and Ian I. Steele, eds. "The Human Tradition in the American Revolution", 329–50. Wilmington, Delaware: Scholarly Resources, 2000. ISBN 0-8420-2748-3.Further reading
* Gillen, Mollie, "The Founders of Australia: a biographical dictionary of the First Fleet", Sydney, Library of Australian History, 1989. (ISBN 0908120699)
* Dann, J. C. ed. "The Journal of Jacob Nagle." 1988.
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