John Percival
| John Percival | |
|---|---|
Captain John "Mad Jack" Percival
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| Nickname(s) | Mad Jack |
| Born |
3 April 1779 West Barnstable, Massachusetts |
| Died | 7 September 1862 (aged 83) Dorchester, Massachusetts |
| Buried at | West Barnstable, Massachusetts |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Service/branch | Navy |
| Years of service | 1809-1862 |
| Rank | Captain |
John Percival known as Mad Jack Percival (3 April 1779 – 7 September 1862) was a celebrated officer in the United States Navy during the Quasi-War with France, the War of 1812, the campaign against West Indies pirates, and the Mexican-American War.
Born in West Barnstable, Massachusetts, Percival left his Cape Cod home at thirteen to work as a cabin boy on a Boston coaster. He moved to the merchant service, became a second mate, and while at Lisbon, he was impressed by the Royal Navy. First sent to the HMS Victory under Lord Jervis, he soon received an assignment to a prize crew on a captured Spanish merchantman. Benefiting from lax discipline, Percival led an uprising and escaped to the American merchant ship Washington. Again impressment interrupted his homeward journey - this time by the Dutch Navy. Managing to escape a second time, once home, he decided to enter the U.S. Navy in 1799. Subsequently, he served in the Quasi-War with France as a master’s mate and midshipman. He was discharged in the demobilization of 1801 and went back to the merchant service.
Percival married Maria Pinkerton of Trenton, New Jersey in 1809. The couple did not have children although they informally adopted a relative, Maria Weeks.
In 1809, he returned to the U.S. Navy as a sailing master, assigned to the Syren at the Norfolk Navy Yard. After a leave, he moved to the New York yard under Commodore Jacob Lewis. Placed in command of Gunboat No. 6, he engaged in several skirmishes with British forces plaguing American shipping. As a stratagem, Percival borrowed the fishing smack Yankee on the Fourth of July in 1813, using it to capture the unsuspecting HMS Eagle (1812), the tender of the 74-gun HMS Poictiers (1809). Percival joined the USS Peacock (1813) on 9 March 1814 and made three cruises during which the ship sloop captured nineteen merchantmen and two warships, HMS Epervier (1812) and the East India Company armed brig HMS Nautilus, 12 percent of the total taken by the U.S. Navy during the war. For his gallantry in the capture of HMS Epervier, he was promoted to lieutenant and presented with a special sword by Congress, shown in the accompanying portrait from about 1860.
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