{{Short description|United States Navy officer}} {{Other people|Stephen Decatur}} {{Use mdy dates|date=November 2011}} {{Infobox military person | name = Stephen Decatur Sr. | image = Stephen Decatur, Sr., head-and-shoulders portrait, left profile LCCN2007676971.tif | image_upright = | alt = | caption = 1802 portrait of Decatur by Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin | birth_name = | birth_date = June 1751 | birth_place = Newport, Rhode Island, British America | death_date = November 11, 1808 | death_place = Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. | burial_place = St. Peter's Church<br />Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. | allegiance = United States | branch = United States Navy | service_years = | rank = Captain | rank_label = | commands = ''Royal Louis''<br />''Fair American''<br />USS ''Delaware'' | battles = {{tree list}} *American Revolutionary War *Quasi-War **Capture of ''La Croyable'' {{tree list/end}} | awards = | memorials = | spouse = Ann Pine<!--Add spouse if reliably sourced--> | children = 3, including Stephen Jr. | relations = }} {{Multiple image | header = Decatur house in Newport | align = right | direction = | total_width = 290 | perrow = 2 | image1= Stephen_Decatur_House_in_Newport,_RI.jpg | caption1 = | image2= Stephen_Decatur_House_in_Newport,_RI_detail.jpg | caption2 = }} '''Stephen Decatur Sr.''' (June 1751&nbsp;– November 11, 1808) was a United States Navy officer and privateer who served in the American Revolutionary War and the Quasi-War. He was commissioned as a captain in the United States Navy, and was the father of Stephen Decatur.

== Life == Born in Newport, Rhode Island, baptized June 7, 1752. Decatur was a merchant captain before the Revolution. He married Ann Pine, daughter of John and Nancy Pine, in Philadelphia on December 20, 1774. They had 7 children, including Commodore Stephen Decatur (1779-1820), James Bruce Decatur (1782-1804), Ann Pine Decatur (1776-1819, and John Pine Decatur (1786-1832).{{Citation needed|date=January 2026}}

During the American Revolution he commanded the ''Royal Louis'' and the ''Fair American''.<ref>MacKenzie, 1846 [https://books.google.com/books?id=ONw5AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA9 p.9]</ref>

With the outbreak of the Quasi War with France, Decatur was commissioned as a captain in the United States Navy on May 11, 1798.{{Citation needed|date=January 2026}}

On May 5, 1798, Decatur was placed in command of the converted merchant ship {{USS|Delaware|1798|6}} and sailed in the first American Navy squadron to cross the Atlantic along with his son Stephen Decatur Jr.<ref>MacKenzie, 1846 [https://books.google.com/books?id=ONw5AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA22 p.22]</ref><!--A crewman aboard the ''Royal Lewis'' was James Forten.--><ref name="Delaware">{{cite DANFS | title = Delaware II (Ship) | url = https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/d/delaware-ii.html}}</ref> ''Delaware'' captured a French privateer, ''La Croyable'', off Great Egg Harbor, N.J., on 7 July 1798. The U.S. Navy purchased ''La Croyable'' on 30 July 1798, and renamed her {{USS|Retaliation|1798|6}}.<ref>{{cite DANFS | title = Retaliation II (Schooner) | url = https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/research/histories/ship-histories/danfs/r/retaliation-ii.html}}</ref> From 14 July to 23 September, ''Delaware'' cruised in the West Indies, often in company with the frigate {{USS|United States|1797|6}}, and together the ships took two privateers prize. During her second cruise in the West Indies, between 15 December 1798 and 20 May 1799, she took another prize.<ref name="Delaware"/>

In 1800, Decatur commissioned ''Philadelphia'', the very vessel that his son later burned several months after it ran aground and was captured near Tripoli harbor in 1803.{{Citation needed|date=January 2026}}

In accordance with the Peace Establishment Act of 1801, which greatly reduced the United States Army and Navy, Decatur was discharged from the Navy on October 22, 1801.{{Citation needed|date=January 2026}}

He died in 1808, at his country home "Millsdale" in Frankford, Pennsylvania. He is interred next to his famous son at St. Peter's Church in Philadelphia.{{Citation needed|date=January 2026}}

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== {{Commons category}} *[http://www.lineofbattle.org/sdsr133.html Drawing of Decatur] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929224903/http://www.lineofbattle.org/sdsr133.html |date=September 29, 2007 }} *{{Find a Grave|11900978|accessdate=2008-03-28}}

==Bibliography==

* {{cite book |title=Life of Stephen Decatur: a commodore in the Navy of the United States |ref=MacKenzie |last=MacKenzie |first=Alexander Slidell |year=1846 |location=Boston| publisher=C. Little and J. Brown}} * {{cite book |title=The life and character of Stephen Decatur |ref=Waldo |last=Waldo |first=Samuel Putnam |year=1821 | url = http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/USN/Navy/lifecharacterofs01wald.pdf |publisher=P. B. Goodsell |location=Hartford, Conn.}} * {{cite book |title=The Decatur Genealogy 1746-2003 |author=William Decatur Parsons |date=1921 |location=New York }}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Decatur, Stephen Sr.}} Category:1751 births Category:1808 deaths Category:Continental Navy officers Category:United States Navy officers Category:American military personnel of the Quasi-War Category:Military personnel from Newport, Rhode Island Category:People from colonial Rhode Island Category:Burials at St. Peter's churchyard, Philadelphia