Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 07.djvu/239

 MAFFITT

MAFFITT

of the Catholic University of America and was president of the Eucharistic congresses. He de- voted much time to the study of the early history of the Roman Catholic church in the west ; edited the Emanuel, the organ of the Eucharistic league, and contributed to Roman Catholic periodicals. He is the author of Life of Rev. Charles Nerinck (1880).

MAFFITT, John Newland, evangelist, was born in Dublin, Ireland, Dec. 28, 1794. His father died in 1806 and the son was educated in an academy in Dublin and afterward settled in business there as a merchant tailor. He joined the Methodists in 1813, and began praying and exhorting in public and soon evinced power as an evangelist. In spite of the opposition of his mother and his wife, he finally gave himself wholly to the work of the church, and owing to domestic troubles came to New York in April, 1819. He joined the New England conference of the Methodist Episcopal church in 1822, and was sent as a missionary to Boston, Mass. He was stationed successively at Fairhaven, New Bedford, and Barnstable, Mass., 1823-24; Dover and Somers- worth, N.H., 1828-29, and Boston, Mass., in 1830 ; and in 1832 he became a local preacher in New York city. He became associated with the Rev. Lewis Garrett in publishing the Western Metho- dist, afterward known as the Christian Advocate, at Nashville, Tenn., in 1835, and also continued his preaching in the south and southwest, adding thousands of converts to the church. He was agent for La Grange college, Ala., 1836-37, and was subsequently elected to the chair of elocution and belles lettres. He was chaplain to the U.S. house of representatives in the 27th congress, 1841-43. He travelled in the Atlantic states, preaching, 1843-45 ; and edited the Calvary Token, Auburn, N.Y., 1845-46. In 1847 he was married to Frances Smith of Brooklyn, N.Y., from whom he shortly afterward separated and left New York, retiring to Arkansas, where he joined the Methodist Episcopal church south, and received a second license to preach. He continued his labors in various cities in the south with none of his former success. He is the author of : Tears of Contrition (1821); Pulpit Sketches (1828) ; Poems (1839) and an Oratorical Dictionary. He died near Mobile, Ala., May 28, 1850.

MAFFITT, John Newland, naval officer, was born in Dublin, Ireland, Feb. 22, 1819 ; son of John Newland Maffitt, the Methodist preacher. He came to the United States with his motlier several years after his father's arrival in America, and after their separation resided with his mother in New Orleans, La., and Galveston, Texas. He was appointed to the U.S. Naval academy from North Carolina as a midshipman, Feb. 25, 1832, and promoted passed midshipman.

June 23, 1838 ; lieutenant, June 25, 1848 ; was placed on the reserve list, Sept. 14, 1855, and re- signed from the U.S. navy. May 2, 1861, to join the Confederacy. He was appointed 1st lieuten- ant in the Confederate States navy. May 8, 1861, and served in the naval defence of Hatteras and Port Royal as commander of the Savannah under Commodore Josiah Tattnall in 1861. He took a cargo of cotton to England in the spring of 1862, and while there was directed to take charge of the steam cruiser Florida, which bore the dock- yard name of Oreto, and was constructed by Wil- liam C. Miller & Sons, Liverpool, under contract with Capt. J. D. Bullock, naval agent of the Con- federate States. The vessel was delivered to Lieu- tenant Maffitt at Nassau, April 28, 1862. Be- tween that date and Aug 1, 1862, she was twice seized by the British government on the complaint of the U.S. consul that she was in- tended for the Confederate service, but the evi- dence was such that the admiralty court ordered her release. Lieutenant Maffitt took her to Green Cay, one of the Bahama islands, and there, on Aug. 10, 1862, her armament, which had been transported on a schooner, was transferred to her decks, and she was regularly commissioned as a Confederate States naval cruiser. On leav- ing there to run the blockade. Captain Maffitt's crew of eighteen men was reduced to one fireman and four deck hands, by an epidemic of yellow fever, and the ship was run into Cardenas, Cuba, for medical attendance and from there to Havana. He sailed from that port, Sept. 1, 1862, ran the blockade at Mobile, Ala., and found shelter under the guns of Fort Morgan, where the vessel was fully fitted out and manned, and on Jan. 15, 1863, made her escape, in spite of the fact that the blockading fleet had been strengthened with a view to her capture. A few days afterward Lieutenant Maffitt captured his first prize, a small brig, off the west of Cuba. He was promoted commander, April 29, 1863 ; captured two other prizes, and on Jan. 25, 1864, arrived at Nassau, where he took in a cargo of coal. From there he went to Barbadoes, made a stop at Green Cay, and on the Windward islands captured and burned the clipper ship Jacob Bell, bound for New York from China, with a cargo valued at $1,500,000. He reached Pernambuco, Brazil, May 8, 1863, and along that coast captured several prizes. He touched at the Bermudas in July, and in August, 1863, reached Brest, France, where the vessel was put in dock for six montlis' repairs. He was relieved from duty by ('apt. C. M. Morris, being broken in health. He was appointed to the command of the Albemarle, June 2, 1864, relieving Commander James W. Cook, but only served a short time, being relieved in turn by Capt. Alexander F. Warley. During his com.