James H. Blake

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Front page of the Daily National Intelligencer from August 24, 1814, with notice from James H. Blake urging all remaining citizens of Washington to come to the city's defense.

Dr. James Heighe Blake (1768 - 1819) was the third mayor of Washington, D.C., elected by the council of aldermen in 1813 and serving until 1817.

Born in Calvert County, Maryland, on June 11, 1768. He relocated to Georgetown in 1795 and set up a medical practice; after moving for several years to Fairfax County, Virginia, he returned to the District in 1809, settling in Washington City. He served as an alderman from 1810 to 1811. In 1813, the council elected Blake mayor over both of his predecessors, Robert Brent and Daniel Rapine, who were also candidates for the office.^[1]

Blake's accomplishments in the city included the creations of a reform school and a city Health Officer, as well as improvements to the city streets and the first navigation of the Eastern Branch, now known as the Anacostia River.

Blake was the mayor of Washington when British troops laid siege to the city on August 24, 1814, as part of the War of 1812. He put the city on alert a few days before the siege, insisting that "I would exert myself to the last moment and agree to die in the streets rather than give up the city, but, if all resistance was given over, and our military abandoned it, I would then also leave it and not surrender myself a prisoner to the enemy." ^[2] It was Blake who urged Dolley Madison, the First Lady, to flee Washington before the British arrived. He then rounded up men to defend the city, so occupied with its fortification that his wife and four children were forced to make escape on their own. ^[3]

Once the army forces in Washington had surrendered, and most of the city's residents fled, Blake made a desperate last effort to hold off the British, distributing flyers and handbills and placing an ad in the evening newspaper The Daily National Intelligencer, urging "all able-bodied Citizens remaining here" to meet at the steps of the U.S. Capitol and then proceed to an arsenal at Bladensburg, Maryland to arm themselves and defend the city. ^[4] It was too late, however, to save the capital from being burned, and Blake himself finally fled across the Potomac River on the night of the 24th when it became evident that his only alternative was to be taken prisoner.

Despite much criticism of his inability to save the city, Blake was instrumental in its recovery and reconstruction after the British attack.

He died in 1819 and was buried in Congressional Cemetery in Washington.