Lewis Warrington

Lewis Warrington (3 November 1782 – 12 October 1851) was an officer in the United States Navy during the Barbary Wars and the War of 1812. He temporarily served as the Secretary of the Navy.

Born at Williamsburg, Virginia on 3 November 1782, Warrington was the son of Rachel Warrington and Donatien-Marie-Joseph de Vimeur, vicomte de Rochambeau, who was stationed in Williamsburg during the winter of 1781-1782, following the battle of Yorktown. The matter of his parentage has long been confused by historians and writers, as other French officers, such the Comte de Lauberdière, recorded flirtations with a number of Williamsburg's women, including Rachel Warrington and her sister Cecilia, at the same time. However, more recent research has discovered extended unsuccessful attempts by members of his mother's family to persuade Rochambeau to openly acknowledge his child, along with indications that Rochambeau offered to legitimize his son after Warrington had achieved success and notoriety.

He briefly attended the College of William and Mary before accepting an appointment as a midshipman in the Navy on 6 January 1800. His first duty, in the frigate Chesapeake, took him to the West Indies, where his ship cruised with a squadron during the last year of the Quasi-War with France. His ship appears to have engaged in one action near the end of the cruise. On New Year's Day 1801, she took the French privateer La Jeune Creole.

Following the cessation of hostilities with France, Midshipman Warrington remained in the Navy. His ship spent most of 1801 in ordinary at Norfolk, Virginia. The following year, Warrington was transferred to the frigate President for service in the Mediterranean against the Barbary pirates. Over the next five years, he remained with the Mediterranean Squadron, serving successively in President, Vixen, and Enterprise. Promoted to lieutenant in February 1807, he returned home to assume command of a gunboat at Norfolk. In 1809, Lt. Warrington voyaged to Europe in Syren as a dispatch courier. He next served a tour of duty in Essex.

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