Page 17 - bonsal_efbeale1912
P. 17
EDWARD FITZGERALD BEALE
CHAPTER I
EARLY DAYS
Beale s Birth and Parentage Born in the Navy A Fistic
A
Encounter and its Consequences Jacksonian Mid
shipman at Fourteen On the Schoolship Independ
ence Passed Midshipman and Ordered to the Congress
44 as Acting Master Secret Mission for Commodore
Stockton Tradition of the Service British Designs
on California.
FITZGERALD BEALE was born
EDWARD of
on his father s estate in the District
Columbia on February 4, 1822. He was
1
the son of Paymaster George Beale who served
with distinction under McDonough in the Battle
of Lake Champlain and of Emily the youngest
daughter of Commodore Truxtun of the Constel
lation. As the son and the grandson of distin
guished naval officers, young Beale had what was
regarded in the old Navy as a prescriptive right
to enter the service and this was also his wish from
earliest years. With the advent of Jackson and
1 See note on next page.
