Otway Burns

Otway Burns was born about 1785 in Swansboro, NC. He married Joanna Grant (-1814) on July 6, 1809. On December 4, 1814, he married Jane Hall. At the age of 57, he married Jane Smith on February 22, 1842 and moved to Portsmouth, NC, where he died on October 25,1850.

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In A Brief Biographical Sketch of the Life and Exploits of Captain Otway Burns Jr., Tucker R. Littleton wrote:

"Captain Otway Burns was born on the west side of the mouth of Queen's Creek (near Swansboro, NC). The son of Otway, Sr., and Lisanah Burns, he evidently took to the sea at an early age and soon earned the reputation of a most skillful navigator. Like his father and his grandfather before him, Otway, Jr., was deeply involved in maritime activity at Swansboro. In 1809 Burns married Joanna Grant, daughter of Colonel Reuben Grant, a Swansboro merchant. Owen Burns, the only child of Capt. Otway Burns, was born to this union in 1810, the same year that Burns bought lot number 6 in Swansboro.

"At the time that Burns bought the lot, it contained a dwelling house on the portion lying between Front and Water streets, and Capt. Burns and his young wife may have resided for a time on that lot. The lower portion of the lot, lying between Front Street and the river shore, was subsequently used by Burns for a shipyard. His wife, Joanna, however, had died in 1814, and in 1819 Burns sold his Swansboro lot to William Pugh Ferrand.

"It was his role in the War of 1812 that won Burns his fame and made him Onslow County's most famous native son and the most important figure ever associated with the maritime history of Swansboro. Prior to the War of 1812, Burns was a sailing master operating out of Swansboro, Beaufort, and New Bern, and plying the coast-wise trade with such northern ports as Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and Portland. When the War of 1812 broke out, Burns came to the aid of his country by operating a privateer vessel to prey on British ships and commerce.

SNAP DRAGON 
Model by Jim Goodwin

"In partnership with Col. Edward Pasteur and other owners of the SNAP DRAGON, most of whom were of New Bern, Burns carried the privateer schooner on three of the most successful voyages ever made by an American privateer. His extraordinary bravery, ingenuity, skill, and heroic exploits made Captain Otway Burns a legend in his own time and North Carolina's most famous naval hero of the War of 1812. Throughout the war the United States had only a token and woefully ineffective navy. The country was forced to rely on the help of private-armed vessels like SNAP DRAGON, whose entrance into the war was applauded as a great act of patriotism. When our "Second War of Independence" was over, Burns had captured not only a staggering number of enemy vessels and valuable cargoes but had captured the esteem and admiration of his fellow countrymen.

"Following the war, the enterprising Captain Burns returned to his old trade of shipbuilding and eventually at Beaufort tried his hand at storekeeping, salt making, brick making, and investing in the Clubfoot and Harlowe Creek Canal Company. A Democrat in politics, Burns represented Carteret County in the General Assembly from 1821 through 1835. In the latter year, however, Burns' sense of fairness cost him his political future. The eastern counties controlled the legislature because the western counties were not granted fair representation in the General Assembly. When the Assembly in 1835 voted on the matter of calling a special state constitutional convention to consider, among other things, increasing the representation of the western counties, Burns maintained that the westerners should be entitled to fair representation and therefore voted in favor of calling the special convention. His eastern constituents never forgave Burns for casting the deciding vote in favor of the special convention, with the result that Burns was never re-elected to the Assembly. Yancey County named its county seat Burnsville in honor of Captain Burns and in gratitude for his fairness as a statesman.

"In 1836, President Andrew Jackson, himself a hero of the War of 1812, appointed Burns keeper of the Brant Shoals Lighthouse at Portsmouth. Burns died at Portsmouth on October 25, 1850. He is buried in the Old Burying Ground in Beaufort.

"Today Swansboro's most famous son has two North Carolina towns named in his honor - Burnsville in Yancey County, and Otway in Carteret County. And as of May 6, 1983, North Carolina has two statues of Captain Otway Burns-one at Burnsville atop the mountains, and one at Swansboro in sight of the sea." 

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In Captain Otway Burns and His Ship Snap Dragon, historian Jack Robinson wrote:

"Otway Burns was issued a shipbuilding contract from a Wilmington, North Carolina company, Captain James Seawell & Associated, in the year 1818. He was to build the first ship from North Carolina to be powered solely by a steam engine...[he] designed and built his new ship in his Beaufort shipyard. Prometheus was the name given...Announcements were made that he would soon be leaving Beaufort heading for a major reception at the port of Wilmington.

"Burns also built two large vessels--the Warrior in 1823 and the Henry in 1831. These vessels were used to carry cargo from North Carolina to various ports, to include as far away as South Africa and the West Indies.

"The shipyard of Otway Burns was known for quality and workmanship of the vessels that were built there. After building the last of the two Brigs, little is known about additional construction at the shipyard. Captain Burns constructed a personal vessel for himself. 

 

"Possibly out of the loss of Snap Dragon during the War of 1812, Captain Burns built himself another vessel and also named it Snap Dragon. This ship was sleek and known to have been very fast. He also built into the construction of this vessel the first-known 'center-board' used in the waters of North Carolina. This innovation introduced by Burns gave way to a new medium in ship building for his state. This is an example of just one of the little known contributions that Captain Otway Burns gave to the State of North Carolina." - MORE from Jack Robinson.

Prometheus

1814 Letter from Burns

In Jack Robinson's book, Captain Otway Burns and his ship Snap Dragon, he also included an 1814 request of marque and reprisal written from Beaufort, where Burns made his home and built a shipyard.

Thus Prometheus was built in 1818 in Beaufort, not in Swansboro as claimed.

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Walter Francis Burns' 1905 book online

Grandson Walter Francis Burns wrote:

"Captain Otway Burns married in 1809 a Miss Grant, daughter of Reuben Grant of Onslow County. By his marriage he had one child, Owen Burns, born in 1810, who became a lieutenant in the United States Navy. After the death of his first wife, he married December 4, 1814, Miss Jane Hall of Beaufort and for her a handsome residence was built in Beaufort near the spot where the Atlantic House Hotel afterwards stood; he resided there for twenty-two years. Burns' shipyard was in Beaufort. After Jane's death, he married Miss Jane Smith of Smyrna, N.C., on February 22nd, 1842, and moved to Portsmouth, N.C., where he lived until his death." (Captain Otway Burns - Patriot, Privateer and Legislator, Walter Francis Burns, New York, 1905)

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SYNOPSIS OF FAMILY 

FRANCIS BURNS, the immigrant, was born about 1710 in Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland. He settled in the Onslow County area of North Carolina in 1734 and died about 1793. Francis and his wife Mary Otway had five sons: Otway (the father of Captain Otway Burns), Richard, Joseph, Frederick, and Jesse.

OTWAY BURNS SR., the elder, born about 1750, and unknown spouse were parents of Mary Ann Burns (born about 1780) and Otway Burns (1785-1850), both born in Swansboro, Onslow County on the family homestead overlooking Bogue Sound, near Queens Creek. On January 28, 1798, Mary Ann married John Sanders in Onslow County; they were parents of John, Otway Burns, and Eli Walter Sanders.

Captain OTWAY BURNS was born about 1785 on the Onslow County family plantation. On July 6, 1809, he first married Joanna Grant (-1814). Their only son OWEN BURNS was born in 1810. In 1814, Joanna left Otway Burns, with son Owen; she died that same year, leaving her young son with family for five years before Burns obtained legal guardianship of Owen. Owen served in the US Navy from 1834 until 1840. On November 18, 1849, their 39-year-old son Owen married 15-year-old Martha Ann Armstrong (1834-1913) of Baltimore.

On December 2, 1814, Captain Otway Burns' second marriage was to 18-year-old Jane Hall. They had one daughter, HARRIET HALL BURNS (1827-1882), who married Richard Cornelius Canaday on February 21, 1844.

OF NOTE: Descendants of Owen Burns have always denied that Owen had a half-sister Harriet Hall Burns. It is said that Owen hated his younger sister so much that when Otway went to sea, he arranged for her to stay in Onslow with the Canaday family. Harriet was raised by Cornelius Canaday and his wife Jane Bell, and ended up marrying their son Richard.

On February 22, 1842, after Jane Hall's death, Captain Burns married Jane Smith (1794-1859) of Smyrna, and moved to Portsmouth, N.C. where he lived until his death, October 25, 1850.

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Burns' connection to Beaufort's Old Town-New Town Boundary Marker - Northwest corner of Front and Pollock Streets

When established, October 2, 1713, Beaufort contained about 100 acres. To meet the requirements of a township, when incorporated in 1723, Beaufort was increased to 200 acres. 

The marker "indicates the dividing line between Old & New Town and was erected in place of a cannon which formerly stood here; said cannon being part of the armament of the U.S. Privateer Snap Dragon commanded by Cap't Otway Burns in the War of 1812-15." 

The Old Burying Ground cannon monument was erected by Burns' descendants. The unveiling took place July 24, 1901. Chief Justice Walter Clark was orator.  

 

Image from Walter Francis Burns' book