Biography - John Trevett

Captain of Marines

Source: Marines in the Revolution, Smith, Charles, History and Division, Headquarters, USMC, Washington, D.C., 1975, p. 472 – 473.

John Trevett, the son of Eleazar and Mary (Church) Trevett, was born at Newport. Rhode Island in 1747. He was reputed to have been in the merchant service before the Revolutionary War.

In November 1775, Trevett sailed from Providence, Rhode Island for Philadelphia on board the sloop Catea or Katy, Abraham Whipple commanding. On their arrival in Philadelphia, Catea's name was changed to Providence. Trevett was commissioned a midshipman in the ship Columbus. During the cruise of Hopkins' fleet to New Providence, Bahamas, Trevett was commissioned a first lieutenant of Marines and was a participant in the taking of Forts Montagu and Nassau. With Lieutenant Henry Dayton and another lieutenant of Marines from Philadelphia, he took Governor Monfort Browne captive.

The fleet returned to New London, Connecticut in April 1776 and Trevett was transferred to the brig Andrew Doria, Captain Nicholas Biddle. She departed Provìdence, Rhode Island, with brig Cabot on a short cruise on 19 May. On the 29th, Andrew Doria captured two British transports, the Oxford and Crawford, each containing a company of Scottish troops. Lieutenant Trevett went on board Oxford as prize-master's mate, second in command to Navy Lieutenant John McDougall. They proceeded to Providence, Rhode Island in company with Andrew Doria and the other prize. Enroute, pursuit by five enemy ships forced them to separate, Oxford sailing westward. On 11 June, the prisoners rose and retook the ship and sailed her into Virginia's James River. There, aided by the Virginia Navy, Oxford was retaken, and the enemy troops were marched off to prison. Lieutenants Trevett and McDougall were given funds for travel by Virginia authorities and proceeded overland to Philadelphia. There they heard Thomas Mifflin read the Declaration of Independence in the square before the State House on 6 July 1776.

Leaving Philadelphia on 12 July, they reached Newport in August and reported on board Andrew Doria. The brig sailed almost immediately on another cruise, in company with Columbus. She captured four ships, of which one, the merchant brig Lawrence with an assorted cargo, was taken into Providence, Rhode Island on 7 September, with Lieutenant Trevett as master. Trevett then joined the brig Hampden as her Marine officer. She sailed from Newport on 27 September with Alfred and Providence but struck a sunken ledge. Trevett and his Marines were transferred to Providence, Captain Hoysted Hacker. On 12 and 13 November 1776, they took the brig Active and ship Mellish off Cape Breton. The latter was loaded with clothing for Burgoyne's army, which was sent to General Washington, then retreating across New Jersey.

Providence put back into Rhode Island the last of November, and Trevett apparently took a month's leave of absence.

During early December, the British took Newport, and Trevett's family was forced to leave its home. He reported back on-board ship and burned a large quantity of stacked hay on Gould Island to prevent its use by the enemy. Providence then stood up the bay for Warwick Neck. The sloop attempted to sink the British frigate Diamond which was aground there but failed. Shortly after, he and two midshipmen disguised themselves and went aboard a cartel ship for Newport. Trevett landed on the Long Wharf, where he knew most of the residents, and conducted a short spying mission mingling with the British ashore.

In February 1777, the sloop ran the blockade. Shortly after, she took a transport brig loaded with British soldiers, and Lieutenant Trevett took her into New Bedford, Massachusetts.

Captain John Peck Rathbun took command of Providence in May 1777 and began fitting her for sea. At this time Trevett heard of the capture of his brother, Constant Church Trevett,

in a merchant vessel bound from the West Indies to the Carolinas. He was sent to the Jersey prison ship in New York. John Trevett immediately procured a British captain for an exchange, but it was too late, for his brother had died from ill treatment.

Trevett was promoted to captain of Marines in mid-June 1777. In November, Providence sailed again, bound for South Carolina. Michael Moulton, also of Newport, had

since been commissioned her lieutenant of Marines. Outside Charleston harbor, she took a British privateer and carried her into Georgetown, South Carolina. There, Captain Rathbun conceived the idea of raiding New Providence a second time. Captain Nicholas Biddle tried

to talk him out of it, and implored Trevett to come on board frigate Randolph, both to no avail.

Early on the morning of 28 January 1778, Trevett, Moulton, and 26 Marines landed outside Fort Nassau and took possession of the fort from only two sentries. They held it for three days by deceiving the citizens as to their true strength. Five vessels were taken in the harbor, including the 16-gun ship Mary. American prisoners were released, and the magazine was stripped of all its powder. Providence and Mary, the latter under the command of Captain Trevett, departed the Bahamas, and arrived at New Bedford early in March.

In July 1779, Providence was fitting out at Boston for the Penobscot expedition. Captain Trevett foresaw that the British would be ready for the invasion and stated that he had no inclination to participate. He remained behind to transact some personal business.

In February 1780, he joined the privateer brig Rattlesnake, 14 guns, at Newport, for a cruise. Only four days out, two British ships overtook her, and the Galatea ran Rattlesnake ashore off Shrewsbury, New Jersey. Most of the crew made it to the beach, but the brig was burned by the enemy. Trevett reached Newport again only two weeks after sailing.

Trevett sailed from London early in May 1780 as a volunteer in the frigate Trumbull, Captain James Nicholson. Off Bermuda, she captured the British privateer Queen Charlotte

and sent her into Philadelphia. On 1 June, Trumbull engaged the letter of marque Watt, in which David Bill, another volunteer, and Lieutenants Jabez Smith, Jr. and Daniel Starr were killed, and Captain of Marines Gilbert Saltonstall was wounded. Trevett lost his right eye and was wounded in the right foot. He received only his prize money from the privateer, and had to hire a horse to carry him to his temporary residence at East Greenwich, Rhode Island, arriving there 23 June.

His wounds still healing, he signed on board the frigate Deane, Captain Elisha Hinman on

2 July 1780, but his station is unknown. He left his father's family 30,000 Continental dollars and some Rhode Island state securities to tide them over. Off the Banks of Newfoundland, the brig Elizabeth was taken. A Navy officer and Trevett were assigned to take her into Boston, but they were retaken shortly after by another armed British ship. Both officers were carried into St. Johns, Newfoundland and sent on board the prison ship Porteas. There, Trevett met Winslow Warren, a brother of lieutenant of Marines James Warren, Jr., who was a "prisoner at large", having been left there as a hostage for one "Capt. MacNeail." It appears that Trevett was given considerable freedom, both on board the prison ship and ashore. He continually resisted British attempts to put him in the crews of British merchant vessels sailing from there. Through the efforts of a friendly British Navy captain. he managed to get on board a vessel going to the West Indies. The ship was subsequently taken by the French frigate Amazon and Trevett was taken into L'Orient, France.

Captain John Paul Jones endeavored to sign him on board Ariel for America, but Trevett sensed animosity in his old commander and declined. He made his way to Brest, where he went aboard a prize ship commanded by an Irishman named Luke Rion [Ryan?). In her, he made two cruises in the English Channel, returning each time to France. With another American, he traveled overland to Amsterdam, arriving there in March 1781. They went on board the frigate South Carolina, Commodore Alexander Gillon, and sailed in September. A roundabout cruise took them to Spain, the Canary Islands, and the British Bahamas where, with a Spanish fleet, New Providence was captured on 11 May 1782. South Carolina arrived at Philadelphia 28 May 1782 and Trevett was paid off at the rate of four pounds sterling per month.

Trevett returned to Newport, where he was a mariner and later a ship's Joiner, until incapacitated by illness. In 1786, he figured in a landmark legal case testing the validity of the issue and circulation of paper money. A butcher named Weeden refused to take Trevett's script at par value in payment of a debt. Both apparently had able and prominent attorneys, and William Channing was the Attorney General. The court ruled in favor of Trevett, to the great joy of witnesses.

Trevett was pensioned by the United States in 1818, and in 1820 his family consisted of his wife, Elizabeth, a daughter 30 years of age, and a grandchild of five. His wife died 22 January 1823, aged 73, and Trevett, who had been totally blind the past four years, died 3 November 1823, at the age of 76.