near
Havre-de-Grace, Maryland, Barry's health did not permit him to go. On
August 19, 1802, Barry, Dale and Bainbridge were appointed a Board to
examine applicants for admission to the Navy--the Barbary Powers were
again giving trouble to our merchant traders and imprisoning American
seamen, and an idea that a more vigorous navy was needed and that
paying tribute in money was degrading was gaining headway even among the
Republicans. So that on December 22, 1802, the Secretary of the Navy
notified Captain Barry, "We shall have occasion to keep a small force in
the Mediterranean and we shall expect your services on that station."
But the old Warrior-Sailor was nearing another Station. Ill health was
enfeebling him, destroying his wonted activity. The flame of the fire of
his ardor to serve his country was flickering so much as to remind him
that death might be nearing.

So on February 27, 1803, he made his will. During the summer at his
country residence at Strawberry Hill in the Northern Liberties he remain
incapacitated for any further sea or other services useful to the
country, or beneficial to mankind in general. He died September 13,
1803, and was buried from his City home on Chestnut Street below Tenth,
south side, then No. 186. He was interred at St. Mary's graveyard the
next morning, according to the custom of those days. St. Mary's was the
church where Commodore Barry "was a constant attendant when in the
City," as Bishop Kenrick wrote Colonel B.U. Campbell, of Ellicott Mills,
January 15, 1844. [Balto. Archives, C.D. 14.] His estate amounted to
$27,691. He is buried within a few feet of the entrance to the graveyard
in the rear of the church. In the grave with him his two wives are
interred--Mary died in 1771, Sarah in 1831.

Beside him northward lies his friend Captain John Rosseter, also of the
County of Wexford, Ireland.

At the head of his grave to the northward is interred Captain Thomas
FitzSimons, a signer of the Constitution of the United States, an
officer in the Revolution, a merchant of Philadelphia and Representative
in Congress.

Also at the head of Barry's grave, southward, lies the mortal remains of
George Meade, a patriot of the Revolution and a merchant of
Philadelphia.

This is the most Catholic Irish-American historical plot of ground in
the United States.

Three of these patriots were born in Ireland--George Meade, born in
Philadelphia of Irish parents.

Dr. Benjamin Rush, a signer