Son of Providence’s first postmaster, merchant Samuel Chase, Esq. (1722-1802) and Freelove Lippitt (1720-1801) of Boston; Samuel Chase, Jr. was born at Providence, RI on 18 June 1749. The twenty-two year old mariner was married to Rosabella Angell (1748-1781), daughter of Nathan Angell (1718-1808) and Susannah Hopkins (1728-1791) on 2 September 1770 at St. Johns Church, Providence. One year after his marriage, Samuel Chace first emerges in the Rhode Island newspaper shipping notices on Saturday 10 October 1772 which reports “Yesterday Capt. Samuel Chace arrived from West Indies via New York…having lost his vessel at Aux Keys in a violent Gale of Wind the 4th of August last”. In his own defense, Chace adds 27 sail were drove ashore with 17 entirely lost. He is next recorded on 29 November 1773, “Wednesday last arrived sloop Swan, Captain Samuel Chace from West Indies”. Chace is again reported inward bound from Turk’s Island in command of the sloop Swan on 14 March 1774. An 18 July 1774 notice indicates Captain Samuel Chace brought the brig Industry into Rhode Island from Hispaniola. Another newspaper of two days earlier suggests Surinam was another of Industry’s ports of call. Published at Newport, the New Mercury reported on 26 September 1774, Chace sailed outbound again in command of the brig Industry to the West Indies. The New Mercury reports again Captain Samuel Chace, Jr’s inward bound arrival from Hispaniola in the Industry on Monday 28 August 1775.
On what was clearly a voyage to procure military supplies for the rebellion, The Continental Journal and Weekly Advertiser of Boston for Thursday 4 July 1776 reports under the byline of Providence for 29 June 1776, “Yesterday, Capt. Samuel Chace arrived here from West Indies, having on board 10 pieces of cannon, a quantity of sail Duck, some Powder, Salt-Petre, Brimstone, etc.” Thomas Cooke specifies in a 15 July 1776 letter particulars of Chace’s cargo not accounted for in the newspaper account- 14,500 gun flints, 30 cutlasses and 20 small arms. Another 16 July 1776 letter among the Nicholas Cooke Correspondence notes the ten cannon to include “Four 4 Pounders, Six 3 Pounders, and Eight Swivels which are greatly wanted here for privateers”. Just a little over one month later, the captain’s young son Nathan Angell Chace died and was buried at St. John’s Church on 24 August 1776. Several months later, Samuel Chace, Jr. was commissioned to the newly built 20-gun 160-ton RI privateer ship Oliver Cromwell on 21 November 1776, then outfitting in the Taunton River. The owners were listed as Nicholas Brown and William & Joseph Russell, however it can be inferred that Chace also had some investment in the vessel earned during his previous four year merchant marine career. No record can be found of the Oliver Cromwell going to sea in late 1776 or early in 1777, probably due to the British occupation of Newport in December 1776. Landlocked between commands, Samuel Chace, Jr. appears on a 19 April 1777 petition from some Providence men under the command of Col. Joseph Nightingale “on Military Duty at Pawtuxet for the Defence of our Country” protesting that town’s taking action on a question reflecting on the “Conduct of the Present Assessors of Rates” until they could be present.
Captain Chace was again commissioned to the same vessel on 4 August 1777. Although designed for a compliment of almost 200, the privateer was manned by only twenty-three in the dark and foggy early morning hours of 27 August 1777 when in company with the Continental Navy brig Hampden, the Oliver Cromwell attempted to run the British blockade of the Narragansett Bay and get to sea. The shore side guns of the British battery at Fogland Ferry alerted the sleeping guard on the 14-gun sloop-of-war Kingfisher which quickly recovered and engaged the Oliver Cromwell. With no fighting force, Captain Chace altered course to evade Kingfisher’s attack and inadvertently ran the vessel hard aground with all sail set. With Kingfisher keeping up fire and sending a boarding party, the Americans abandoned ship. Unable to float their prize, the British set her ablaze while the Hampden escaped unmolested. According to the “Diary of Frederick Mackenzie” parts of which are published in Volume 9 of “Naval Documents of the American Revolution” and made readily accessible online by Ken Kellows, the British concluded “The want of spirit on the part of the Rebels was very conspicuous… and for a vessel of that force to run ashore from a Sloop of War of 14 Guns and about 90 men, without firing a shot, was perfectly scandalous.” Chace commented that he’d lost “all he hade in the World.” According to some sources, sometime after the loss of the Oliver Cromwell Samuel Chace, Jr. took command of the 20-gun privateer St. Peter which was captured by the British warship Aurora off Antigua on 13 January 1778. The 200-ton vessel was out of Martinique, French West Indies during the fall of 1777 and it thought to be associated with Connecticut naval agent Nathaniel Shaw, Jr. of New London. The prize vessel and compliment of 107 men were sent into Barbados.
Samuel Chace entered Continental Navy service as Purser on the 28-gun frigate Providence, then under the command of Captain Abraham Whipple, sometime prior to April 1778 at Providence, RI. The purser is an officer on a ship who handles financial accounts and various documents relating to the ship and who oversees the vessel’s money and valuables for safekeeping. The term “purser” comes from the word “purse”, which referred to the pouch in which this person kept the ship’s money. Chace was likely assisted in obtaining this position by his wife’s uncle Continental Navy Commodore Esek Hopkins, his mother-in-law Susannah’s older brother. Purser Chace was well-connected through other family relationships as well, his brother-in-law Dr. Henry Malcolm was a ship’s Surgeon in the Continental Navy on the Columbus and Andrew Doria and another brother-in-law William Blodget was aide-de-camp to Rhode Island’s native Revolutionary War hero Nathaniel Greene, who was at that time Quartermaster General of the Continental Army. About 1775, the gifted Major William Blodget executed at least three pastel portraits now on display at the Rhode Island Historical Society, demonstrating a competency in the fine arts complementing his talent in the performing arts. The subjects include his wife’s sister Rosabella Angell Chace, her husband Samuel Chace, Jr. and Continental Army chaplain Rev. Dr. Enos Hitchcock, future pastor of the First Congregational Church of Providence. Blodget would later serve in 1779 on the Continental Navy frigate Deane as Chaplain.
The Continental Navy frigate Providence had been launched in May 1776 but was blockaded in the Providence River for over a year before running for open sea on the night of 30 April 1778. The ship sailed “within half a pistol shot” and was engaged by the 40-gun British frigate Lark and 68-gun frigate Renown before escaping to complete her mission to France conveying important dispatches while seeking guns and military supplies for other Continental Navy vessels then under construction. It is said Captain Abraham Whipple succeeded in deceiving the enemy within earshot by screaming orders for the Providence’s helmsman to “Pass her on the Narragansett side” while quietly directing him to do precisely the opposite. While at sea on 2 May 1778, Purser Samuel Chase joined five other Providence officers, including his wife’s relative Acting Lieutenant William Hopkins, in petitioning Captain Whipple for “proper Navy Uniform [s to be] procured” in order to standardize their clothing and present a professional appearance. The frigate Providence under Captain Abraham Whipple was at Paimboeuf by 30 May 1778, staying until 8 August 1778 when she sailed for Brest. Joining the frigate Boston under Captain Samuel Tucker there, the two sailed for home on 22 August, arriving at Portsmouth, NH on 15 October 1778 laden with clothing, arms and ammunition. The pair took three prizes on the homeward bound cruise. The Samuel Tucker Papers at Harvard reveal that Joseph Proctor was appointed Prizemaster of the brig Sally on 24 August 1778 and William Atkins in command of the prize snow Adventure on 15 September 1778. Just one month after returning from France, the tragedy of two years earlier was repeated with the death of the captain’s young daughter Susannah Chace who was buried near her brother at St. John’s Church on 18 October 1778. It is suspected that the frigate Providence’s Purser Samuel Chace had not made it home for his daughter’s burial as he executed a 2 November 1778 receipt at Portsmouth to Continental Agent John Langdon for “Forty Pounds, sixteen Shillings” on the ship’s account.
Captain Samuel Chace Jr.’s precise activities in the two years between October 1778 and September 1780 are not known, however he clearly continued to sponsor merchant and privateering endeavors as a part owner in vessels. Along with John Jenks and others, Chase owned an interest in the 60-ton sloop Joanna, built in Providence in 1773. The vessel was registered on 28 November 1778 and again on 18 February 1779 with Stutely Williams named as master. With Martin Thurber and James Wheaton, Jr.; Chace also owned part of the 15-ton sloop Dolphin built at North Kingston in 1770. This vessel was placed under the command of Lewis Thomas who had previously served in 1776 as lieutenant aboard George Washington’s armed schooner Warren under Captain William Burke. An April 1779 newspaper advertisement suggests that Captain Chace was sticking close to home while “Selling choice Connecticut Flax and Flax Seed.” The 22 May 1780 edition of Boston’s Independent Ledger notes “Yesterday arrived at Providence in 26 days from Cape Francois in a [unnamed] sloop laden with salt, molasses, sugar, etc.” Samuel Chace, Jr. is again in command of an unnamed sloop “belonging to Messrs. Welcome Arnold and Company, of Providence” by September 1780 when his father petitioned the Rhode Island Assembly to authorize the exchange of British Captain Aaron Martin who was taken by the ship General Washington for his son, then a prisoner in New York. The junior Chace apparently was captured by the ship Earl of Dunmore. A review of the muster rolls of prisoners held on the Jersey Prison Ship indicates that after his transfer to the Jersey from the Royal Oak or Strombolo on 12 October 1780, Samuel Chase was paroled on 30 October 1780.
Tragedy struck the Chace household yet again when Mrs. Rose Chace died at the age of thirty-two on 26 April 1781. The 31 May 1783 edition of the Providence Gazette notes Captain Samuel Chace, Jr. on the ship Junius Brutus “arrived at Boston from Cape Francois”. Fourteen months later on 17 July 1784, the Providence Gazette reported the death of Captain Samuel Chace, Jr. in Providence on “Sunday last [11 July 1784] in the 36th year of his age”. The Continental Navy Purser was buried in the Episcopal Burying Ground at St. John’s Church with his family on Tuesday 13 July 1784. His death followed that of his sister-in-law Ann Phillis Chace Blodgett on 18 May 1784 by less than two months.
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