{{Short description|American naval officer (1793–1846)}} {{use mdy dates|date=May 2025}} {{use American English|date=May 2025}} {{Infobox person | name = Thomas Breese | alt = | image = | caption = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1793|11|04}} | birth_place = Newport, Rhode Island, U.S. | death_date = {{Death date and age|1846|10|11|1793|11|04}} | death_place = Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S. | spouse = {{marriage| Lucy Marie Randolph|1825}} | children = Kidder Breese | relatives = Francis Malbone (uncle) | module = {{Infobox military person | embed = yes | nickname = | allegiance = {{flag|United States}} | service_years = 1811–1846 | rank = Purser | branch = 22px United States Navy | commands = | unit = | battles = War of 1812<br/>Second Barbary War | awards = }}}} '''Thomas Breese''' (November 4, 1793 &ndash; October 11, 1846) was an American naval officer. Best known for his service under Oliver Hazard Perry during the 1813 Battle of Lake Erie, he served in the United States Navy for another 33 years, including as a paymaster for over two decades.

==Early life and family== Thomas Breese was born in Newport, Rhode Island, on November 4, 1793, the son of a British Army officer, Major John Breese (1738–1799), and Elizabeth Malbone (1755–1832). His mother was the daughter of Colonel Francis Malbone (1727–1785), one of Newport's wealthiest shipping merchants, and Margaret Saunders (1730–1775).<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title = Annals of Trinity church, Newport, Rhode Island. 1698–1821|url = https://archive.org/stream/annalsoftrinityc00maso#page/158/mode/2up/search/Breese|editor-first=George Chaplain|editor-last=Mason|website = archive.org|year = 1890|accessdate = 2015-09-20}}</ref> Major John Breese was among the officers stationed at the{{citation needed|date=May 2025}} Francis Malbone House when the British occupied it during the Revolutionary War.<ref>{{Cite web|title = History of the Inn|publisher=The Francis Malbone House|url = http://www.malbone.com/history/|accessdate = 2015-09-20|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140926064125/http://www.malbone.com/history/|archive-date=2014-09-26}}</ref> While there, he fell in love with the Malbones' daughter, Elizabeth. He returned to England after the war, resigned his commission and returned to Newport to marry her and take up the position of British vice consul at Newport.

John and Margaret Breese had eight children, of whom Thomas was the youngest son.<ref name=munsell1862>{{Cite book|title = Brief sketches of the officers who were in the Battle of Lake Erie|publisher = J. Munsell|location=Albany, N.Y.|date = 1862-01-01|first = Usher|last = Parsons|page = 5|hdl = 2027/mdp.39015071158425|url=http://static.torontopubliclibrary.ca/da/pdfs/37131055429450d.pdf}}</ref> Newport was a small, close-knit seagoing community, with numerous longstanding ties among its families. The Breeses and Wickhams were members of Newport's Trinity Church (Episcopal), as was the family of Breese's future mentor and patron, Oliver Hazard Perry.<ref name=":0" /> Both Breese and Perry were baptized at Trinity as young boys. Their lifelong connection was characteristic of the clannishness that was a feature of the early naval service.{{citation needed|date=May 2025}}

John died when Thomas was six and, despite the Malbones' wealth and connections, he began working at a young age to help support his mother and siblings.{{citation needed|date=May 2025}} He was first employed at T & W Wickham Company, a New York-based shipping company owned by a member of the Newport Wickham family.<ref>{{Cite book|title = The Old Merchants of New York City|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=gkA9AAAAYAAJ|publisher = T. R. Knox|date = 1885-01-01|first = Joseph Alfred|last = Scoville|page = 186}}</ref> After the Embargo of 1807 gradually bankrupted Wickham's business, Breese was forced to return to Newport.{{citation needed|date=May 2025}}

==Naval career== Breese had long been infatuated with life at sea and he eventually asked Oliver Hazard Perry for an appointment as his personal clerk.{{citation needed|date=May 2025}} Perry was in command of a flotilla of ships at Newport when the War of 1812 began. Early in 1813, Perry received orders to go to the Great Lakes.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nps.gov/archive/pevi/HTML/Perry.html|title=Oliver Hazard Perry|publisher=National Park Service|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100521172246/http://www.nps.gov/archive/pevi/html/Perry.html|archive-date=2010-05-21}}</ref> Almost 150 sailors from the Newport area, including Thomas Breese, were sent there with him. The sailors made the arduous trip to Presque Isle, Pennsylvania, on the shore of Lake Erie, in February and March 1813.{{citation needed|date=May 2025}} [[File:BattleofLakeErie.jpg|thumb|right|Perry departing the ''Lawrence'' in a 1911 painting by Edward Percy Moran with sailors who could row the boat.]]

From March through August of that year, Breese served as Perry's clerk while the Lake Erie fleet was built and prepared for battle, and his signature appears on letters he wrote for Perry. He was eventually appointed the fleet's chaplain, which gave him a higher salary and a berth with the officers on board ship. During the ensuing naval battle with the British, Breese served as the commander's aide, along with Perry's younger brother, James. During the combat, Breese was assigned to Perry's flagship, the {{USS|Lawrence|1813|6}}. The Battle of Lake Erie, sometimes called the ''Battle of Put-in-Bay'', was fought on 10 September 1813. Thomas assisted in firing the last operational gun on the ''Lawrence'' before it went down. He was also likely one of the officers{{citation needed|date=May 2025}} who rowed the longboat that carried Perry roughly a half mile (0.8&nbsp;km) when the sinking of the ''Lawrence'' forced him to transfer his command to the {{USS|Niagara|1813|6}}.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.brigniagara.org/Battlelog.htm|title="Log of the Battle of Lake Erie"|publisher=The Erie Dispatch|date=1913-07-12|via=Erie Maritime Museum|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090616195637/http://www.brigniagara.org/Battlelog.htm|archivedate=2009-06-16}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.brigniagara.org/perryluck.htm|title=Perry Luck|publisher=Erie Maritime Museum|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090616195653/http://www.brigniagara.org/perryluck.htm|archive-date=2009-06-16}}</ref> Many paintings show Perry's brother James in the boat too.{{citation needed|date=May 2025}}

After the battle, Breese, as chaplain, was responsible for conducting the services for those who had died. Using the rites of the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer, he presided over the September 11 burial of common seamen in Lake Erie. The following day, the American and British officers were buried together at Put-in-Bay. Breese was listed as a chaplain in the ship's record, but he served as both chaplain and clerk, which was an official rating of the United States Navy beginning in 1794. Clerks for commanders of naval vessels were termed the captain's clerk.{{citation needed|date=May 2025}}

Breese received a share of the prize money allotted to the crew; he directed that the money (which amounted to over $1200, equivalent to nearly $24,000 in 2025) be sent to his mother in Newport.<ref name="American Papers 1834">{{Cite book|title = American State Papers: Documents, Legislative and Executive, of the Congress of the United States|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=jPxPAAAAYAAJ|publisher = Gales and Seaton|date = 1834-01-01}}</ref>{{rp|566}} Along with other officers, he was also given a medal and a sword for his role,<ref>{{Cite web|title = Officers in the Battle of Lake Erie, 10 September 1813|url = http://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/organization-and-administration/historical-leadership/naval-officers-of-the-war-of-1812/officers-of-ships-in-war-of-1812/officers-in-the-battle-of-lake-erie-10-september-1813.html|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150217050308/http://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/organization-and-administration/historical-leadership/naval-officers-of-the-war-of-1812/officers-of-ships-in-war-of-1812/officers-in-the-battle-of-lake-erie-10-september-1813.html|url-status = dead|archive-date = February 17, 2015|website = www.history.navy.mil|accessdate = 2015-09-20|date=April 21, 2014}}</ref> and a promotion. Becoming a purser, his new rank, required serving at least one year as a captain's clerk, helping with the captain's correspondence and records. Between his time with Perry at Newport and the nine months on Lake Erie, Breese had fulfilled this requirement. The purser had charge of the stores and accounts on board ship. He was stationed at Boston when his new commission became effective on July 8, 1815.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Pursers of the War of 1812|url = http://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/organization-and-administration/historical-leadership/naval-officers-of-the-war-of-1812/pursers-of-the-war-of-1812.html|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150217052549/http://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/organization-and-administration/historical-leadership/naval-officers-of-the-war-of-1812/pursers-of-the-war-of-1812.html|url-status = dead|archive-date = February 17, 2015|website = www.history.navy.mil|accessdate = 2015-09-17|date=April 21, 2014}}</ref>

During the Second Barbary War, Breese served in the Mediterranean under Perry on the frigate {{USS|Java|1815|2}}. After the conclusion of that war and until 1825, Breese served mainly aboard the {{USS|Constitution}}. In 1825, he was appointed navy paymaster in Newport, a post he held to the end of his career. A drinking song, "Here's a health to thee, Tom Breese," written in 1830 and dedicated to him, became popular among sailors.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Naval Songs: A Collection of Original, Selected, and Traditional Sea Songs|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Hz_aAAAAMAAJ|publisher = Wm. A. Pond|date = 1902-01-01|pages = 94–5}} {{isbn|9785884338883}}</ref>

==Personal life and death== In Newport, on May 25, 1825, Thomas Breese married Lucy Marie Randolph, daughter of Richard K. Randolph, a nephew of future president William Henry Harrison.<ref>{{Cite book|title = The United States Army and Navy Journal and Gazette of the Regular and Volunteer Forces|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Xvg-AQAAMAAJ&q=where+is+thomas+breese+USN+buried%253F|publisher = Army and Navy Journal Inc.|date = 1882-01-01|page = 145}}</ref> Among the Breeses' children was Kidder Breese, who also became a respected naval officer.

Thomas Breese died October 11, 1846, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He is buried in Island Cemetery in Newport.{{citation needed|date=May 2025}}

==Naval assignments== Thomas Breese naval assignments:<ref name="American Papers 1834"/> * 1812 – Newport Frigate {{USS|Revenge|1806|2}} – Clerk to O. H. Perry * 1813 – Battle of Lake Erie – Captain's Clerk / Chaplain / Captain's Aid during Battle * 1814–1817 Frigate {{USS|Java|1815|2}} – Captain's Clerk to O. H. Perry * 1820 – Not on duty – Purser<ref name="American Papers 1834"/>{{rp|p=633}} * 1821–1823 Frigate {{USS|Constitution}} – Purser<ref name="American Papers 1834"/>{{rp|pp=703, 751, 858}} * 1824 – Frigate {{USS|Constitution}} – Purser – ship stationed in Mediterranean<ref name="American Papers 1834"/>{{rp|p=922}} * 1825 – Frigate {{USS|Constitution}} – Purser – on leave of absence<ref name="American Papers 1834"/>{{rp|p=925}} * 1825–1846 Newport Torpedo Station – Purser – Paymaster * 1918 – Frigate {{USS|Constitution}} – Purser<ref name="American Papers 1834"/>{{rp|p=461}} * 1919 – Frigate {{USS|Constitution}} – Purser<ref name="American Papers 1834"/>{{rp|p=594}}

== References == {{Reflist}}

==General references== {{more footnotes needed|date=May 2025}} *{{cite magazine|last=Altoff|first=Gerard T.|date=November 1988|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/206509291|title=War of 1812: Leathernecks on Lake Erie|magazine=Leatherneck|volume=71|issue=11|pages=36–43|id={{ProQuest|206509291}} }} *{{cite book| last=Altoff| first=Gerard T.| title=Oliver Hazard Perry and the Battle of Lake Erie| publisher=The Perry Group| location=Put-in-Bay, OH| year=1999| isbn=978-1887794039 |ref=Altof}} *{{cite book|title=Serving Two Masters: The Development of American Military Chaplaincy, 1860–1920|first=Richard M.|last=Budd|publisher=University of Nebraska Press|date=2002|isbn=0803213220}} Also: {{ISBN|978-0803213227}} *{{cite book|last=Cooper|first=James Fenimore|url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_WK3mWOlYYNsC|title=History of the navy of the United States of America|date=1839|publisher= G.P. Putnam|location=New York}} *{{cite book |last=Dillon |first=Richard |title=We have met the enemy: Oliver Hazard Perry, wilderness commodore |publisher=McGraw-Hill |year=1978 |isbn=978-0-07-016981-4 |ref=dill |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/wehavemetenemyol00dill }} *{{cite book|title=History of the battle of Lake Erie (September 10, 1813,) and reminiscences of the flagship "Lawrence," |first=W. W.|last=Dobbins}} *{{cite book|last=Lossing|first=Benson John|title=The Pictorial Fieldbook of the War of 1812: A facsimile of the 1869 edition with a foreword by John T. Cunningham|location=Somerworth, NH|publisher=New Hampshire Publishing Company|year=1976|isbn=0-912274-31-X |ref=Loss}} *{{cite book|title=The Life of Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry|volume=1|first=Alexander Slidell|last=Mackenzie}} * {{cite book|author-link=Alfred Thayer Mahan|last=Mahan|first=Alfred Thayer|date=1905|url=https://archive.org/details/seapowerwar181201mahauoft|title=Sea Power in Its Relation to the War of 1812|location=Boston|publisher=Little Brown}} *{{cite book |last=Mason |first=George Champlin |year=1894 |title=Annals of Trinity Church, Newport, Rhode Island|volume=2 |publisher=Trinity Church |location=Newport, Rhode Island |ref=Anals}} *{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0vfVCDgxRzIC|title= The New England Historical and Genealogical Register |publisher=New England Historical & Genealogical Register|volume=17|date=1863|pages=21–3}}; contains a verbatim excerpt on Breese/Breeze from Parsons' ''Brief Sketches''. *{{cite book|title=Niagara|type=Pamphlet|publisher=Flagship Niagara|location=Erie, Pennsylvania|date=1990}} *{{Source-attribution|no-icon=y}} {{cite book|last=Niles|first=John M.|date=1821|url=http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000405647|title=The Life of Oliver Hazard Perry|edition=2nd|location=Hartford|publisher=O. D. Cooke}} *{{cite journal|title=The Military Surgeon: Usher Parsons (1788-1868), Surgeon, United States Navy|last=Pleadwell|first=F. L.|journal=Journal of the Association of Military|volume=51|number=4|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015075802812&seq=737|date=October 1922}} *{{cite book|title=The Building of Perry's Fleet on Lake Erie: 1812–1813.|first=M.|last=Rosenberg|location=Harrisburg|publisher=Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission|date=1997}} *{{cite journal |last=Severance |first=Frank H. |title=The Dobbins Papers |journal=Publications of the Buffalo Historical Society |volume=VIII |publisher=Buffalo Historical Society |year=1905 |oclc=17311624 |ref=Sever}} *{{cite book|last1=Skaggs|first1=David Curtis|first2=Gerard T.|last2=Altoff|date=1997|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4VKAE3RcsLUC&pg=PA213|title=A Signal Victory: The Lake Erie Campaign, 1812–1813| location=Annapolis, Maryland |publisher=Naval Institute Press|isbn=978-1-55750-892-8}} *{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SAA05BcoIkgC&dq=Skaggs%20Oliver%20Perry&pg=PP1|last=Skaggs|first=David Curtis|date=October 2006|title=Oliver Hazard Perry: honor, courage, and patriotism in the early U.S. Navy|location=Annapolis, Maryland|publisher=Naval Institute Press|isbn=978-1-59114-792-3}} Also: {{ISBN|1-59114-792-1}}. *Letter from Thomas Breese to his Mother dated September 12, 1812. (Breese descendants' private collection){{original research inline|date=May 2025}}

== External links == * [https://web.archive.org/web/20120128200013/http://www.ohiohistory.org/onlinedoc/war1812/lake_erie Transcriptions of the War of 1812 in the Northwest] via ohiohistory.org (2012 archive)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Breese, Thomas}} Category:1793 births Category:1846 deaths Category:Military personnel from Newport, Rhode Island Category:People from colonial Rhode Island Category:United States Navy officers Category:History of the United States Navy Category:People from Rhode Island in the War of 1812 Category:United States Navy chaplains Category:Sailors from Rhode Island