Josiah Fox

by Merle Westlake

For two hundred years historians have debated the role Josiah Fox played in the design of the USS Constitution. This biography records what he had to say about the situation, his experiences as a naval constructor during the Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Madison administrations, and expels the idea that Joshua Humphreys alone designed the first frigates built by the United Sates government. In addition it explores his early life in England and a return visit forty years later; the frictions generated by his Quaker attitudes in this country as well as in England; and the life of a naturalized American citizen in Philadelphia, Norfolk, Washington, D. C., and the Ohio River valley. Included is his disownment by the Philadelphia Monthly Meeting and his involvement in the Hicksite Separation that occurred at Mount Pleasant, Ohio. Forty years of correspondence with his brothers and sisters in England provide a glimpse into family life in the early nineteenth-century.

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004