Tingey, Thomas, 1750-1829

Commodore Thomas Tingey was born on September 11, 1750 in London, England. He served as a Midshipman in the Royal Navy until the Revolutionary War, where he served in the Continental Navy. In 1798, he was commissioned as a Captain in the US Navy and was given the command of the ship, USS Ganges, where he distinguished himself in the Quasi-War with France by taking four prizes and a bloodless encounter with the frigate, HMS Surprise. Cmdre Tingey was appointed to construct the Washington Navy Yard in 1800 at Washington, D.C., where he employed not only white workers, but enslaved black workers leased from Naval Officers, until Robert Smith, the Secretary of the Navy, banned the practice. He married Margaret Murdock on March 30, 1777, in St. Croix, Virgin Islands and together they had eleven children, three of which lived to adulthood, including daughter, Hannah Tingey Craven. Cmdre. Tingey died on Feb. 23, 1829 and is buried in the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C. There have been three U.S Navy Vessels named for him.