Jeremiah O’Brien

Jeremiah O’Brien (1744 – September 5, 1818) was an American military officer and early naval commander in the American Revolutionary War who later served in public office as a member of the Adams Party representing Maine. He was born in 1744 in Kittery, in the District of Maine, then a part of the Province of Massachusetts Bay. O’Brien was the eldest son of Irish immigrants Morris and Mary O’Brien. During his youth, his family moved first to Scarborough, in what is now Maine, and by the 1760s had settled in Machias, where they engaged in the lumber trade and owned two sawmills. The O’Brien family’s economic activities in this frontier community placed them among the more prominent local residents in the years immediately preceding the Revolution.

O’Brien’s early adult life was closely tied to the maritime and lumber economy of Machias, a small but strategically situated settlement on the Maine coast. By the mid-1770s, tensions between the American colonies and Great Britain were escalating, and news of the battles of Lexington and Concord reached Machias by early May 1775. These reports galvanized local Patriots, including O’Brien and Benjamin Foster, who helped rally the townspeople at Job Burnham’s tavern to resist British authority. The community’s defiance was soon focused on British efforts to secure lumber for military use in Boston, where British troops were constructing barracks and other facilities.

In June 1775, Machias merchant captain Ichabod Jones sailed his vessels Unity and Polly to Boston with a cargo of lumber and returned with food for sale in Machias. Under pressure from British authorities, Jones agreed to deliver another cargo of lumber for the British military. Admiral Samuel Graves ordered the British schooner HMS Margaretta, commanded by Captain James Moore, to accompany Jones’s ships to Machias to ensure the lumber was loaded and to discourage interference from local rebels. When the ships reached Machias on June 2, 1775, Moore saw the town’s liberty pole and demanded its removal, as well as the loading of the lumber. The townspeople refused both demands. Foster and other Patriots plotted to seize the British officers when they attended church on June 11, but the officers escaped and retreated downriver aboard Margaretta.

On June 12, 1775, Jeremiah O’Brien led the decisive action that would make him a notable figure in early American naval history. He pursued Margaretta aboard the merchant vessel Unity, originally one of Ichabod Jones’s ships. Foster intended to participate in the pursuit aboard the packet boat Falmouth, but when Falmouth ran aground, O’Brien, together with his five brothers—Gideon, John, William, Dennis, and Joseph—and a party of Machias men, continued the chase in Unity alone. Under O’Brien’s command, thirty-one townsmen, armed with guns, swords, axes, and pitchforks, engaged Margaretta in an hour-long battle after Captain Moore had threatened to bombard the town. During the engagement, John O’Brien leapt aboard Margaretta as the vessels closed, but was forced overboard by the British crew and then rescued by his compatriots. Unity again closed with Margaretta until their rigging became entangled. Although Unity was subjected to grenades and small-arms fire from the British, Margaretta ultimately surrendered after Captain Moore was mortally wounded. This action, known as the Battle of Machias, is often regarded as the first time British colors were struck to those of what would become the United States, predating the formal establishment of the Continental Navy. The United States Merchant Marine later claimed Unity as one of its own and this engagement as a foundational moment in its history.

Following the capture of Margaretta, O’Brien and his men brought their prize into Machias. The captured schooner was subsequently renamed Machias Liberty, and O’Brien continued as her captain for approximately two years. In August 1775, he led or participated in the successful raid on Saint John (in present-day New Brunswick), further disrupting British operations in the region. Recognizing his leadership and success at sea, the Massachusetts authorities commissioned O’Brien as a captain in the Massachusetts State Navy in 1775, and he is often credited with receiving the first captain’s commission in that service. During the war years he met with General George Washington on more than one occasion, reflecting his standing among Patriot leaders and the importance of his naval activities along the northeastern frontier.

O’Brien’s Revolutionary War service was not without personal cost. In 1780 he was captured by British forces and taken to England, where he was imprisoned. Demonstrating the same resourcefulness that had characterized his earlier exploits, he escaped from captivity, made his way to France, and from there returned to North America. Upon his return, he continued his military involvement and was commissioned as a colonel in the Massachusetts Militia, underscoring his continued value to the Patriot cause and his leadership within the military structure of Massachusetts, which then still included the District of Maine.

In the post-Revolutionary period, O’Brien remained an influential figure in Machias and the surrounding region. His maritime experience and Revolutionary reputation contributed to his later public service. As a member of the Adams Party representing Maine, he served three terms in office, participating in the legislative process during a formative period in the early republic. In this capacity he took part in the democratic governance of the time and represented the interests of his constituents from the District of Maine, which remained part of Massachusetts until 1820. His legislative service occurred against the backdrop of evolving national politics in the early nineteenth century, when questions of federal authority, maritime commerce, and relations with Great Britain remained central concerns.

O’Brien also held federal office in the years leading up to his death. President James Madison appointed him federal customs collector for the port of Machias in 1811, a position of considerable responsibility in a coastal community whose livelihood depended on shipping and trade. As customs collector, he oversaw the enforcement of federal revenue and trade laws during a period that included the War of 1812, when maritime regulation and security were of particular importance. He held this post continuously from his appointment until his death on September 5, 1818, in Machias.

Jeremiah O’Brien’s legacy endured long after his death, particularly in naval and maritime commemoration. Six ships have been named in his honor. Five of these were United States Navy vessels: USS O’Brien (TB-30), a torpedo boat built in 1900 that served until 1909; USS O’Brien (DD-51), an O’Brien-class destroyer in service from 1915 to 1922; USS O’Brien (DD-415), a Sims-class destroyer that served from 1940 until she was sunk by an enemy torpedo in 1942; USS O’Brien (DD-725), an Allen M. Sumner-class destroyer in commission from 1944 until 1972; and USS O’Brien (DD-975), a Spruance-class destroyer launched in 1976 and serving until 2004. During the Second World War, the Liberty ship SS Jeremiah O’Brien, an EC2-S-C1-class vessel, was also named in his honor; launched in 1943, she served until 1946 and later became an operational museum ship based in San Francisco. His name was further commemorated on land when Bangor and Aroostook Railroad bicentennial locomotive number 1776 was named Jeremiah O’Brien. His exploits as a Patriot and seafarer have also entered American historical fiction; he is the central figure in the novel “The Irish Yankee,” which recounts his adventures in the fight for American independence.