[[Image:James Lawrence.jpg|right|300px|thumb|James Lawrence]]
'''James Lawrence ''' was born in Burlington, New Jersey, on 1 October 1781. Though educated in the field of law, he joined the infant [[United States Navy]] in September 1798 as a Midshipman and served in the ship USS ''Ganges'' and frigate USS ''Adams'' during the undeclared [[Quasi-War]] with France. Commissioned in the rank of Lieutenant in 1802, he served in the schooner USS ''Enterprise'' during the War with Tripoli, taking part in a successful attack on enemy craft on 2 June 1803. In February 1804 he was second in command during the daring expedition to destroy the captured frigate USS ''Philadelphia''. Later in the conflict he commanded the ''Enterprise'' and a gunboat in battles with the Tripolitans. He was also First Lieutenant of the frigate USS ''John Adams'' and in 1805, commanded the small Gunboat Number 6 during a voyage across the Atlantic to Italy, a daring feat for the daredevil Lawrence, as the boat had only six inches of freeboard.
Subsequently, Lieutenant Lawrence commanded the warships ''Vixen'', ''Wasp'' and ''Argus''. In 1810 he also took part in trials of an experimental spar-torpedo. Promoted to the rank of Master Commandant in November 1810, he took command of the sloop of war USS ''Hornet'' a year later and sailed her to Europe on a diplomatic mission. From the beginning of the War of 1812, Lawrence and ''Hornet'' cruised actively, capturing the privateer ''Dolphin'' in July 1812. Later in the year ''Hornet'' blockaded the British sloop ''Bonne Citoyenne'' at Bahia, Brazil, and on the 24th, still operating off northern South America, ''Hornet'' encountered HMS ''Peacock'', a somewhat smaller and less powerful brig-rigged sloop of war. The two warships closed from opposite directions and, shortly before half-past five in the afternoon, opened fire on each other. ''Hornet's'' gunnery was so much more effective that ''Peacock'' surrendered within fifteen minutes, having lost her commanding officer and seven men killed or mortally wounded. ''Peacock'' was so badly shot up that she sank in shallow water shortly after the end of the action. ''Hornet'', which had suffered one fatality among her crew, took aboard ''Peacock's'' survivors (except for a few who escaped to shore) and quickly repaired her own damages. Badly overcrowded, she then sailed for the United States, arriving at Martha's Vineyard on 19 March.