Personal Memoir of Daniel Drayton

Personal Memoir of Daniel Drayton, For Four Years and Four Months a Prisoner (For Charity's Sake) in Washington Jail Including A Narrative Of The Voyage And Capture Of The Schooner Pearl.

Excerpts from the book:

I was born in the year 1802, in Cumberland County, Downs Township, in the State of New Jersey, on the shores of Nantuxet Creek, not far from Delaware Bay, into which that creek flows. My father was a farmer,—not a very profitable occupation in that barren part of the country. My mother was a widow at the time of her marriage with my father, having three children by a former husband. By my father she had six more, of whom I was the youngest but one. She was a woman of strong mind and marked character, a zealous member of the Methodist church; and, although I had the misfortune to lose her at an early age, her instructions—though the effect was not apparent at the moment—made a deep impression on my youthful mind, and no doubt had a very sensible influence over my future life.