Grubb Family Tree

Stanly, John Wright
by Mary S. Hessel, 1994
18 Dec. 1742–1 June 1789

A miniature portrait of a young John Wright Stanly. Image from Tryon Palace.A miniature portrait of a young John Wright Stanly. Image from Tryon Palace.John Wright Stanly, merchant and Revolutionary Patriot, maintained a fleet of trading and privateering vessels that brought in supplies vital to North Carolina's wartime strength. A native of Charles City County, Va., he arrived in New Bern in 1772, in time to become an early member of the town's Committee of Safety and to be among the first to send raiders from that port.

Stanly began life as the oldest son of Dancey, a lawyer and small planter, and his wife, Elizabeth Wright Stanley, of Isle of Wight County. Despite their modest circumstances, the Stanleys had a proud tradition of direct descent from an earl of Derby. Dancey died when John had barely reached the age of fifteen, and Elizabeth promptly remarried. The boy left home to apprentice himself to a Scottish trader in Petersburg from whom he learned the intricacies and disadvantages of colonial commerce under the British mercantile system. The deaths of both his mentor and his mother within two years left him desolate. He worked in Williamsburg (probably as a clerk) until he was twenty-one and could claim his inheritance. Just prior to that time he got into serious trouble leading to an accusation of counterfeiting. His innocence was established before he could come to trial, but his experience in the Williamsburg jail impelled him to leave Virginia as soon as he had sold his property and had a small capital in hand.

Having some acquaintance with Kingston merchants, he began trading in Jamaica, where he had an initial success. This attracted the attention of a Philadelphia merchant, Jonathan Cowpland, who brought a ship regularly to Kingston. He persuaded Stanly (who had dropped the e from his name) to enter into a partnership and then attempted to take over the entire operation. Cowpland accused Stanly of defrauding him and, to blacken the Virginian's name, bruited it about that Stanly had been tried for counterfeiting. But too many people in Jamaica stood ready to defend the young man, so Cowpland took him by force to Philadelphia, where Stanly spent a year in debtors' prison. He managed, finally, to prove that he was the injured party, with Cowpland in his debt, and could once more make a fresh start.

A miniature portrait of Richard Cogdell's daughter Ann Cogdell, who married John Wright Stanly. Image courtesy of Tryon Palace.A miniature portrait of Richard Cogdell's daughter Ann Cogdell, who married John Wright Stanly. Image courtesy of Tryon Palace.This time he chose Charleston as his base of operations and sailed for that city. A storm off Cape Hatteras brought him to New Bern, instead. Acquaintance with, courtship of, and marriage to Ann Cogdell kept him there. Her father, Richard Cogdell, an ardent Whig, brought Stanly into the group pressing for revolt against the repressive measures of Lord North's government. Risking prosecution as traitors, they did all in their power to induce others to rebel, and Stanly was among the most persuasive.

By the time hostilities broke out, he was ready to send out vessels to harass British shipping and to bring in the sinews of war lacking to the Americans. The most famous of his early privateers, the Sturdy Beggar, despoiled numerous English merchantmen. Stanly worked particularly hard during the bitter winter of 1777–78 to get supplies to the men at Valley Forge, and later his General Nash took prizes, after the Battle of Camden, which helped to replace material lost by General Horatio Gates's forces. Far more numerous than those successes were the losses he suffered—privateers reckoned on the capture or wreck of four vessels to the return of one. Stanly managed, however, to make enough money to give substantial financial aid to General Nathanael Greene in 1780, when Greene marched south with a token army and no funds for its equipment.

As the conflict drew nearer to New Bern, Stanly prepared to shift his operations to Philadelphia and took his family there. Before he could get settled, he learned of the capture of St. Eustatius by the British, which meant the loss of fourteen Stanly vessels loading at Oranjestad, Netherlands Antilles. Then came news that a Tory privateer from New York had seized the brig bringing part of the family's possessions to Philadelphia. Worse trouble followed: in that summer of 1781 Tory raiders and British troops entered New Bern and burned all of Stanly's warehouses as well as dismantling his vessels at anchor. In spite of these setbacks, he invested in eleven Philadelphia privateers that sailed within the year, helping to keep British ships occupied on patrol instead of attacking American ports.

Stanly returned to New Bern with his family in 1782 and at war's end started a coastwide shipping operation that he later reduced, as he found the distillery business more profitable. He had two tremendous satisfactions: appointment as judge of the Admiralty Court of Beaufort and completion of the handsome house in New Bern that still remains as a memorial to him. But enjoyment of both title and house lasted for only a few short years. He succumbed to yellow fever in June 1789—just a month before his wife. They left six living children (three had died in infancy) of whom the eldest, John, became a member of Congress and a leader of the North Carolina bar.

From: Genealogical Records Committee, N.S.D.A.R.

John Wright Stanley's place of residence during the Revolution was NewBerne, North Carolina.

His Service was: At the beginning of the Revolution he armed and equipped his fleet of more than sixteen merchant vessels and presented them to the American Colonies. He gave them his store houses with all their valuable contents. When General Nathaniel Green appealed to him for money for the support of the continental troops, John Wright Stanley gave him $80,000.00. He also gave $300,000.00 in gold to the state of Georgia, to aid her in the Revolution. He received his appointment from General Washington as Judgeof the Court of Admiraly, which was the first Federal and Supreme Courtin this country. He was called to Philadelphia in August 1781, by the request of Robert Morris, financier of the Revolution, to help raise money for the Revolution.

He had nine children.[353] He died of yellow fever.[353] An extensive history of his life is in [353], a copy of which is in the library of David L. Moody, or can be obained from the Tryon Palace, New Bern, North Carolina. He had red hair, blue eyes and small hands and feet.[354] A Bill of Exchange was drawn on the Clothier General by Raymond Demere in favour of John Wright Stanley, Esq, for 1,562 1/2 dollars, dated Savannah, 1 November 1777. (U.S. Continental Congress, Journals of 328.731 C2 Vol IX p. 1053.) He set up as a merchant, first in Nova Scotia, next in "Isle of Spain”, and then in Philadelphia. He first went to New Berne, North Carolina by land on his way to Charleston, South Carolina. While at the Governors Ball in New Berne he met Anne Cogdill (who had opened the Ball with the Governor) and later married her at the Cogdill house. On 27 Jan 1773-6 he was appointed to the Commission for the relief of Salem, Massachussetts. He was a very large ship owner and builder and lost 14 ships in the Revolutionary War. He was a Captain of ships and probably a Privateersman. Col. J. D. Whitforn stated that John W. Stanly gave various sums of money for the support of the Continental Army. General Nathaniel Green obtained $3000 from him for the Army; it was never repaid. He employed a Mr. Hanks to build the Stanly House in New Berne at a cost of over $30,000. [354] John Wright and Ann Cogdell Stanly's home in New Bern, NC was completed during the 1780's. It stood at Middle and New Sts. At John's death, he bequeathed the house to his wife Ann Cogdell Stanly for life, then to their children. When the real estate was divided in 1798, the home went to their oldest son John who lived there many years with his wife Elizabeth Franck Stanly and their children. After 1834 the house passed through varied ownerships. During the Civil War it was headquarters of Gen Ambrose E. Burnside who captured New Bern on 14 March 1862 with Union forces; then it became a "Convent of Mercy".

In 1932 the US Government bought the lot on which the Stanly home stood for a Federal Building and Post Office. The house was moved to an adjoining lot on New Street and was purchased in 1935 by the New Bern Library. The house was renovated and used for 30 years as a library with rental apartments. On 4 November 1965 the Tryon Palace Complex accepted the house and moved it to its present location on George Street near the Tryon Palace.

353. “The Stanly (Stanley) Family and the Historic John Wright Stanly House” Carraway, Gertrude S., Hall Printing Company, High Point, North Carolina 1969 (copy in David Moody file Beckwith.
354. “The Beckwith Collection”, Papers of Edmund Ruffin Beckwith, 1753-1949, Southern Historical Collection, University of North Carolina Wilson Library, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-3926 (copies of some pages in David Moody file Thomas Beckwith)