Captain W.S. Stafford

William Josephus Stafford (1781-1823), also known as William S. Stafford and Jose Guillermo Estifano, was a sea captain and privateer during the War of 1812 and afterward.

William Josephus Stafford was born September 12, 1781, probably in Frederick County, Virginia, the oldest of ten children born to Richard Stafford and Catharine Brobeker Stafford. He married Mary Whipple October 1, 1805, in Baltimore, Maryland. Mary was born about 1785 and was said to be the daughter of a William Whipple, and granddaughter of Abraham Whipple. William and Mary Stafford had two sons—William Whipple Stafford born in 1806, and Francis Asbury Stafford born in 1808 —and raised their family in Baltimore. Mary died July 22, 1809 in Baltimore. William married secondly Mary Lauderman Jun 5, 1811 in Baltimore. William Josephus Stafford died February 24, 1823, in Charleston, South Carolina.

He is listed as William Josephus Stafford in the Bible record of his parents, and William J. Stafford in the estate records of his parents, chancery court records, and the census. Transcribed records for Baltimore show his name variously as William Josephus Stafford, William J. Stafford, William S. Stafford, and William L. Stafford. Historical reports of the Battle of the Rappahannock refer to him as William S. Stafford, but the research of Feliciano Gamez Duarte shows that he used that as an alias, as well as Joseph Stafford and Jose Guillermo Estifano.

After his father died in 1808, William administered the estate and purchased 6 steers and a black boy from it. Thomas W. Griffith filed a mortgage foreclosure on a piece of property in Baltimore City in Chancery County against William J. & Mary Stafford in 1817. In 1820, he was named as a defendant with his brothers and sister in a lawsuit filed by their brother Joseph S. Stafford in the Frederick County, Virginia, Chancery Court. Court proceedings continued through at least 1834, with no resolution given in court papers.

William J. Stafford was recorded in the 1820 Census for Baltimore, Maryland.

William J. Stafford was the first of four generations of Stafford men to become a seaman, attained the rank of captain as commander of the privateer Dolphin, a 12-gun schooner renowned for outsailing its foes during the War of 1812. Stafford and Dolphin carried Baltimore's privateering commission No. 2, and Stafford was responsible for the first prize captured on 26 July 1812, a British schooner valued at $18,000.Dolphin operated in the sea lanes from Baltimore to Buenos Aires and across the Atlantic to the coast of Portugal. She captured 11 British ships, nine of which were brought home to Baltimore.

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