John Manley ( naval officer ) John Manley ( c . 1733 – 1793 ) was an officer in the Continental Navy and the United States Navy . Early life . Tradition holds that John Manley was born in 1733 near Torquay , Devonshire , in south west England . As a young man , he settled in Marblehead , Massachusetts , eventually becoming the captain of a merchant vessel there . For reasons apparently lost to history , Manley went by the name of John Russell during his time spent in Marblehead , where he married Martha Russell ( née Hickman ) on September 27 , 1764 , and by whom he had at least two sons and three daughters . Outside of Marblehead , John continued to use the surname Manley . Modern historian John L . Nelson acknowledges the above accounts , but suggests that they were " made up " , and that in actuality Manley was likely born and raised in Boston , Massachusetts , where he later became a merchant sea captain and married Hannah Cheevers in 1763 , by which he had one surviving son John . All of the sources place Manley in Boston by 1775 after his services were enlisted for the nascent Continental Navy . Military Service . Manley was appointed captain of the schooner " Lee " by George Washington on 17 October 1775 . He assumed command on 24 October 1775 with a crew of 50 men from John Glover ' s Marblehead Regiment , and on 9 November , Manley sailed from Marblehead flying the new pine tree flag from the main truck . Sources differ as to Manley ' s first prize , either recapturing a small Continental schooner or capturing the British sloop Polly , but on 28 November , he captured one of the most valuable prizes of the American Revolutionary War — the British brigantine " Nancy " carrying much ordnance and military stores for British troops in Boston that proved invaluable to George Washington ’ s army . While not the first British vessel to surrender to the continental fleet , the Nancy was perhaps the first capture of significant consequence , leading John Adams to later remark " I assert that the first American flag was hoisted by John Manley , and the first British flag was struck to him " . Through the end of 1775 , Manley captured several additional prizes carrying cargos of food , rum , coal , dry goods , all badly needed by the Continental forces . In January 1776 , for his " great vigilance and industry , " Manley was appointed commodore of " George Washington ' s fleet " , a group of small armed ships fitted out by him to harass the British and to seize supply vessels , and transferred to the faster sailing vessel " Hancock " . He sailed in the sloop Hancock and her replacement the frigate Hancock until the latter and her prize , HMS frigate " Fox " , were taken in July 1777 . Imprisoned in New York until March 1778 , he then entered privateer service to command " Marlborough " , " Cumberland " , and a prize , " Jason " , until 1782 , except for two more periods of imprisonment , one for two years in Mill Prison , England . His privateer ship " Jason " was a small ship of 18 guns owned by Mungo Mackay and others . On 11 September 1782 , he returned to the Navy with command of frigate " Hague " . On a West Indies voyage , he made a spectacular escape from a superior naval force and , in January 1783 , took the last significant prize of the war , " Baille " . Regarded as one of the outstanding captains of the young Navy , he had captured 10 prizes singlehandedly and participated in the seizure of five others . Captain Manley died in Boston , Massachusetts in 1793 . Namesakes . Three ships have been named USS " Manley " for him .