William Josephus Stafford

William Josephus Stafford

1780-1823

Baltimore, Maryland 

William Josephus Stafford was born 12 September 1781, probably in Frederick County, Virginia, the oldest of ten children born to Richard and Catharine Brobacker Stafford.  He married Mary Whipple 01 October 1805 in Baltimore, Baltimore County, 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, and raised their family in Baltimore.  Mary died 22 July 1809 in Baltimore.  William married secondly Mary Lauderman 05 June 1811 in Baltimore.  William Josephus Stafford died 24 February 1823 in Charleston, Charleston County, South Carolina. 

His full name, birthdate, two marriages, and birthdates for his children are recorded in the Family Bible of Richard and Catherine Stafford.  His death date comes from the obituary published in the Baltimore Patriot, 20 March 1823. 

He is listed as William J. Stafford in the estate papers of his parents, chancery court records, and in the census.  Transcribed records for Baltimore available through the Mormon Church 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.  The research of  Feliciano Gamez Duarte shows that he used William J. Stafford as well as aliases William S. Stafford, 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 Court 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 the court papers. 

William J. Stafford’s household was recorded in Baltimore, Baltimore County, Maryland, for 1820, showing two males born 1775-1794, one female born 1775-1794, one female born 1794-1804, and two males born 1804-1810.  This would appear to be William and his second wife Mary, with sons William Whipple and Francis Asbury.  The other two individuals could be siblings, perhaps William’s brother James Bruce Stafford and sister Sarah Stafford—both of whom are otherwise unaccounted for in 1820.  He is not present in the 1830 Census and presumably died before that time. 

The War of 1812

Perhaps it was the business dealings of his father that took William J. Stafford to Baltimore, where he married Mary Whipple in 1805.  One account given by a family member tried to make her the daughter of William Whipple, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and granddaughter of Abraham Whipple who led the raid on the Gaspee, an action that helped lead this country into its Revolution.  However, historical documentation shows that William Whipple was the son of another William Whipple and had no children that survived childhood.  Abraham Whipple did not have a son named William, and his daughter Mary was born a generation earlier than the Mary Whipple who wed William J. Stafford.  She may well have been the daughter of a William Whipple and granddaughter of an Abraham Whipple, but not the famous ones. 

William J. Stafford, 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, Captain Stafford and the Dolphin carried Baltimore’s privateering commission No. 2, operating in the sea lanes from Baltimore to Buenos Aires and across the Atlantic to the coast of Portugal.  He was responsible for the capture of eleven British ships, nine of which were brought home to Baltimore.  After the declaration of war, Captain Stafford was responsible for the first prize captured on 26 July 1812, a British schooner valued at $18,000.   

On 25 January 1813, after two unsuccessful months in the Atlantic, Stafford encountered two British vessels—Three Brothers and Hebe—off the coast of Spain, twenty-six guns total to his ten.  After a spirited battle in which Dolphin lost four men, the British surrendered and Stafford took the prisoners aboard ship, including Captain W.A. Brigham of Hebe, who was wounded during the battle.  It is reported that Captain Brigham, upon boarding Dolphin and finding it captained by the American Stafford, said, “I did not expect to find a damned Yankee privateer in [this] part of the world!”  Stafford replied that he would soon find American privateers capturing ships on the Thames. 

Hebe was recaptured by the British before it reached America, but Three Brothers and the prisoners were delivered to Baltimore.  Captain Brigham was treated personally by Dolphin’s surgeon, Dr. Chidester, and later attributed his recovery to the doctor’s attentions and Captain Stafford’s tender sympathy and goodness.  Brigham actually published a statement in Baltimore acknowledging the kind and humane treatment received by him and his men.  They were all given back their clothing and personal possessions, and all the wounded were diligently attended to.  Captain Brigham made the statement:  “Should the fortune of war ever throw Captain Stafford or any of his crew into the hands of the British it is sincerely hoped he will meet a similar treatment.” 

Captain Stafford was well known for his kindness of manner toward prisoners.  Such was the power of his personality that on several occasions, when it was necessary to extend the sweeps and row to escape the English men-of-war, prisoners would volunteer to do the rowing.  It was that same kind good nature that won Brigham’s admiration.   

On another occasion, George Coggeshall, Connecticut privateer and author of History of the American Privateers and Letters-of-Marque, would write that he became personally acquainted with Captain Stafford while they were both in the French port of Bordeaux, and that he found Stafford to be “a modest, unassuming, gentlemanly man; no one can, for a moment, doubt his unflinching bravery and gallant bearing, when he reflects on the many battles he has gained over the enemies of his country.”  And Coggeshall appeals to the testimony of Captain Brigham which painted Stafford as “generous, kind and humane.” 

On April 1, 1813, a British squadron blockaded the Rappahannock River from Lynhaven Bay.  An expedition under the command of Lieutenant James Polkinghorne encountered four schooners—Arab, Lynx, Racer, and Dolphin—all built in Baltimore and under the command of Captain William Stafford.  Though heavily outnumbered, Stafford anchored his ships in line of battle with portside guns facing the mouth of the Rappahannock, and when Polkinghorne’s ships approached, the Americans opened fire. 

Arab was boarded and run aground by its captain.  Racer and Lynx were quickly taken and their crews surrendered.  When Polkinghorne went for Dolphin, Captain Stafford put up a stubborn fight that lasted fifteen minutes.  Five Americans were wounded before Dolphin surrendered.  Lynx, Racer and Dolphin were all taken into British service, with Dolphin retaining her name.  Because he was well known for having treated British prisoners well, Captain Stafford was treated in kind, and on 7 April, Captain Stafford and Doctor Chidester were paroled and sent ashore. 

By November 1813, Stafford was in command of another privateer.  Attacked just outside Charleston Harbor by five boats from a British man-of-war, Stafford ripped one of the boats apart with discharges of grapeshot.  The attack failed, and the man-of-war fired a broadside at the privateer before sailing away. 

South America

Following the end of hostilities with the British in 1814, American shipping interests found themselves at a loss while making the transition from wartime to peace.  Many sailors were out of work, and ship owners were forced to look for new ventures.  Many privateers turned to smuggling, among them Captain William J. Stafford and his friend Jose Joaquin Almeida, a Portuguese-born immigrant who had settled in Baltimore in 1797. 

While in New Orleans, Almeida heard about the Spanish expedition to retake Venezuela from the rebels and decided to use the situation to his financial advantage.  Almeida, Stafford, and other sailed for the port of Cartagena, arriving in December 1815 shortly after General Pablo Morillo had taken the city for Spain.  The privateers unwittingly sailed into port and were immediately seized by the Spanish.  Their ships and cargoes were confiscated.  The men were stripped naked and beaten with rifle butts before being thrown into prison. 

Almeida described their transfer to Santa Marta as “the most difficult march, during which we suffered more than we can describe.”  The battered prisoners were forced to march barefoot the 140 miles from Cartagena to Santa Marta, and several men died as a result.  Though they were soon released and returned to Baltimore, these privateers had lost everything and were marked with a deep desire for revenge.  Almeida said “the resentment that burned in my abuse and the loss of my private property led me to enlist in the South American service.” 

The South American provinces were in rebellion against Imperial Spain, and the American privateering interests saw it as the perfect opportunity to plunder Spanish ships both for their treasures and for the satisfaction of revenge for the mistreatment of sailors such as Almeida and Stafford.  In Baltimore they met Thomas Taylor, an American who had long ago moved to Buenos Aires.  A privateer himself, Taylor had come to Baltimore seeking partnerships with American privateers in the cause of South American Independence.  If American businessmen would put up the funding and the ships, their South American counterparts would take care of everything else. 

Respected Baltimore businessmen like David Burke of David Burke and Sons Merchant House, pillars of the community often serving in positions of responsibility and trust, were joined by men of lesser means such as John Craig in these ventures.  Craig and his partners operated a wharf, in addition to owning scows and chartered vessels, and selling groceries and sailing supplies.  Some sea captains like James Chaytor and Almeida also bought interests in the vessels they would be commanding.  Chaytor had been with Captain William J. Stafford at the Battle of the Rappahannock. 

Once a suitable ship had been outfitted—at the cost of an estimated $40,000—the next step was obtaining a crew and supplies in such a way that would escape the notice of the authorities.  In those years when America was at peace, it was illegal for American citizens to act in the interests of other governments against nations with whom America had treaties.  In 1817 and 1818, many charges were leveled against Stafford and the other American privateers by the Spanish government, charges that included piracy of Spanish ships and smuggling of captured Spanish goods into the United States by various means.  However, the laws were either difficult to enforce, or the authorities chose to look the other way, as very few privateers were ever prosecuted. 

All vessels departing Baltimore for foreign ports were required to file clearance papers naming the ship’s owner, master, destination, cargo, arms, and demographics of the crew.  In order to avoid unwanted scrutiny from the customs house, many captains engaged in an elaborate ruse that involved leaving Baltimore without their full crew, armaments, and cargo. 

Captain William J. Stafford in command of the new Brigantine Patriot (also known as Paz), financed by investors John Craig, John Barron, and John Lowell, sailed from Baltimore in early 1817 with a crew complement of twenty.  Dropping anchor at New Point Comfort near the mouth of Chesapeake Bay, he rendezvoused with a boat, a sloop, and the schooner Jane to take on more men from Baltimore.  A pilot boat sent to Norfolk returned with twenty-three men to join the crew, bringing their complement to 112.  These vessels also brought muskets, pistols, sabers, powder, ammunition, shot, and fourteen carronades. 

It was not uncommon for privateers to experience disturbances and mutinies for various reasons.  Sometimes it was over the booty taken.  At other times, it was due to the fact that the crew had signed on under false pretenses.  Upon learning that Captain Stafford intended a privateering cruise instead of a merchant voyage, Patriota’s crew grew unruly.  Some would later testify that they felt betrayed and entrapped.  Forty days out to sea, they erupted into full-scale mutiny. 

In the standoff that followed, Captain Stafford alternated between threats of blowing up the ship himself and promises of making their fortunes.  After eighteen hours, Stafford won over enough men that the mutineers had no choice but to submit. 

T.S. Currier, author of The Cruise of the General San Martin, published in 1944, writing from the perspective of a researcher and historian, said of Captain William J. Stafford that he was a man who had all the features of the seasoned and unscrupulous privateer, tough and able to impose his personality upon a crew that was diverse in language and nationality, obsessed with booty, rebellious and often mutinous.  Feliciano Gamez Duarte wrote in his Doctoral Thesis at the University of Cadiz that Stafford must have been a man of great courage with a strong personality and the ability to control his riotous crew by the power of his own will.  Such was his own confidence in himself that Stafford often had his wife traveling with him. 

It was during those years of privateering in Spanish waters of the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico that Stafford, like other privateers, adopted a Spanish name—Jose Guillermo Estifano, a rough equivalent of his own.  Records of the period show that he variously used William S. Stafford and Joseph Stafford as other aliases.  He apparently had several ships at his disposal, including Maria (which was confiscated in Haiti), Veinticinco de Mayo, Santafecino, Patriota/Paz, and most notably General San Martin.  It was to the latter’s three voyages that Currier devoted his study. 

Stafford’s brother James Bruce Stafford sailed with him in the period of 1818-1819.  One of their prizes was so valuable that the Captain put his brother in command and gave him specific instructions on how to load the booty, and who to make contact with in Baltimore and Savannah. 

Seafaring Staffords

Captain William Josephus Stafford was the father of two sons:  William Whipple Stafford, born 18 November 1806, and Francis Asbury Stafford, born 01 November 1808, both in Baltimore, Maryland.  Francis was baptized 27 September 1813 in Baltimore, and was apparently present in his father’s household in 1820, but no record afterward has been found of him. 

William Whipple Stafford married Elizabeth Jane McCay 18 June 1829 in Baltimore, Maryland.  She was born 06 January 1805 in Maryland, the daughter of John McCay Jr. and Ann “Nancy” McDowell.  They had three children:  William John, born 1830; Ann E., born 1834; and Joseph Beale, born 1839.  According to the 1850 Census, he was a seaman. 

William John Stafford was born 23 July 1830 in Baltimore, Maryland.  He married Caroline Elizabeth Gardner 06 March 1855 in Baltimore.  They had five children:  William Gardner, born 1855; James B., born 1859; Mary E., born 1862; Joseph McDowell, born 1864; and George Irwin, born 1867.  According to the 1860 Census, he was a master sailor.  He commanded merchant ships, namely Leila and Casilda, on runs across the Atlantic during the 1850s and 1860s.  On 16 March 1869, Captain Stafford and Casilda were lost at sea during a storm. 

The last of the seafaring Staffords was William Gardner Stafford, born 18 December 1855, in Baltimore.  He had plans to enter Princeton University, but after the death of his father, he felt the financial burden upon his widowed mother would be too great.  Instead, he ran away to pursue the ancestral calling to the sea.  He left Baltimore as a sailor and spent two years on the high seas.  In 1876, he arrived in San Francisco, where he settled and devoted his energies to the coal industry.  In 1893, he founded W.G. Stafford & Company, serving as president and active executive until his death in 1908. 

Separating Myth from Fact

In 1924, a biography for William Gardner Stafford was submitted for publication in History of the San Francisco Bay Region, probably written by his daughter Marjorie Housman Stafford-Fitch.  It was not uncommon in those kinds of publications to find prominent families trying to appear even more important, and being a writer herself, Marjorie seems to have embellished the family record just a bit. 

The founder of the Maryland branch of the Stafford family came to this country with Calvert, Lord Baltimore.  There may indeed have been a Stafford among those early Maryland colonists in 1634, but our Stafford family was not among them.  It is clear that our line—this line—descends from Richard Stafford, who came to this country from Ireland during the American Revolution. 

By the marriage of one of its members to a Miss Whipple, the late William G. Stafford was descended directly from Abraham Whipple, leader of the expedition to sink the Gaspee, one of the first exploits at the opening of the American revolution, and also of his son, William Whipple, singer of the Declaration of Independence.  William Josephus Stafford did indeed marry Mary Whipple in Baltimore, in 1805, and her father may have been a William Whipple.  But the signer of the Declaration of Independence died in 1785 with no children to survive him, and he was certainly not the son of Captain Abraham Whipple who sank the Gaspee.  That Abraham Whipple of Rhode Island was neither the father nor grandfather of our Mary Whipple. 

Another member of the family, William Bayard Stafford, was lieutenant under John Paul Jones on the Bonhomme Richard.  There was a member of some Stafford family who served under Jones during the Revolution, but his name is uncertain and, again, he was not in our direct line. 

The history also claims that William G. Stafford’s uncle Joseph was a major on the staff of Confederate General Jubal Early during the Civil War.  This has yet to be verified. 

It would seem the only thing this biography got right about William G. Stafford’s ancestry is that his great-grandfather William Stafford was indeed the man who captained a privateer during the War of 1812, but it gives no indication of the true nature of his exploits as detailed in the many sources consulted for this history.