User:MMWOOD1958/sandbox/Thomas Masterson - Midshipman, Virginia State Navy

Thomas Masterson - Midshipman, Virginia State Navy new article content ...

Born about 1750 in Fairfax County, Virginia, Thomas Masterson was the son of Edward Masterson and his wife Mary.

Thomas Masterson was trained as a ship’s carpenter, earning him the rank of Midshipman when he was commissioned in the Virginia State Navy on 6 February 1778.

His call-to-arms was printed 7 March 1778 in the Virginia Gazette, issued by Captain Celey Saunders.

He served aboard the Virginia Navy brig "Tempest" during the Revolutionary War. Naval Documents show him listed among the “Officers on board the Tempest in Sept. 1778,” and again in “A Return of Spirit for the ship Tempest, December 7, 1779.”

On 27 April 1781, the brig "Tempest" was lost to the British in a skirmish at Osbourne's on the James River. Several officers were taken prisoner.

Thomas, then living in Loudon County, died insolvent around 1791. His death was reported in a 1803 A British Mercantile Claim.