Commodore Joshua Barney manuscript collection

Commodore Joshua Barney, widely regarded as a naval war hero, served in both the American Revolution and War of 1812. His command of the Chesapeake Flotilla during the War of 1812 helped propel the Americans to victory over the British. Barney was born near Baltimore, on Bear Creek off the Patapsco River, on July 6, 1759 to William and Francis Holland Watts Barney. His parents had inherited a significant amount of farmland on the river. He was one of fourteen children, but his family’s fortune allowed him to attend school. Barney left school at ten years old, having decided he had learned all he could, and in 1769, he was apprenticed to a merchant in Alexandria, Virginia.

By 1771, he had decided to pursue a career at sea instead and took a position aboard a pilot-boat schooner that traversed the Chesapeake. He later joined his brother-in-law Captain Drysdale’s crew on the “Sidney.” In 1775, Drysdale fell sick and died leaving the 15-year-old Barney to captain the ship. This led to a dramatic series of events when Barney finally got his ship to port, including his imprisonment and the temporary confiscation of his schooner. By the time he arrived back in Baltimore, the Revolutionary War had broken out at Lexington and Concord. In 1776, he decided the join the Continental Navy. He became renowned for his valor, engaging the British in serval battles. His biggest victory came during the Battle of Delaware Bay when his much smaller, outgunned “Hyder Ally” handily defeated the “HMS General Monk.” After the war, he spent a time with the French Navy, where he was put in charge of a squadron and earned the commodore rank.

During the War of 1812, he returned to the American Navy. He was first a privateer which successfully harassed and took captive several British ships. He then went on to defend the Chesapeake Bay as a captain for the Navy. His flotilla kept the British preoccupied and prevented the from wreaking more havoc along the shores of the Bay. Barney and his sailors also fought at Bladensburg in 1814 to defend the Capitol. The Americans lost and Washington, D.C. was burned, but Barney and his men held out as long as they could, even as the rest of the American force retreated. Barney was shot in the leg, a wound that would eventually prove fatal. After the battle, he returned to Elkridge, Maryland, but eventually decided to move to Kentucky. En route to his new home in 1818, his battle wound flared, as the musket ball was never removed. He died in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on December 1.

Barney’s life on the high seas often kept him away from his family for long stretches. In 1780, Barney married Anne Bedford (1755-1808), and they had five children. Until Barney could make enough money to support his family, his wife lived with her brother in Philadelphia. She died in 1808, possibly of complications related to a broken hip. Barney shortly remarried to Harriet Coale of Anne Arundel County, and they had three more children together. After Barney’s death in 1818, Harriet and her children lived in Kentucky.

Their daughter, Adele (1813-1849) married Isaac Everett, and started the Kentucky branch of Barney descendants. Everett (1803-1873) was from a family of pioneers. He worked as a dry goods merchant. He then partnered with Avis Throckmorton and ran the Galt House, a Louisville hotel, which hosted meetings of Union generals during the Civil War. They had two children, Joshua Barney and Harriet.

Harriet Everett (1840-1906) married John C. Bonnycastle (1826-1884), the son of Charles and Anne Mason Tutt Bonnycastle, in 1857. Charles Bonnycastle, an Englishman, was invited by Thomas Jefferson to teach mathematics at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, where John C. was born. After attending the United States Military Academy at West Point, Bonnycastle fought in the Mexican-American War and was later stationed in California and other Western territories. He attained the rank of captain before retiring from the military at the outbreak of the Civil War. With his military career finished, he worked in insurance in Louisville. He and Harriet had nine children.

Mary Shaw Bonnycastle (1860-1930), John C. and Harriet’s daughter, married Richard Tubb Yoe (1860-1943), the son of Rhodeham and Elizabeth Tubb in 1891. Yoe worked as a physician and served in World War I as a contract surgeon. He owned his own medical practice. Yoe also owned a significant amount of land in Oklahoma which he used to sell the oil, mineral, and timber rights. Mary and Richard had two children, Richard Rhodeham and Adele Everett.