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 of the Declaration of Independence, wrote the first draft of the epitaph for the tomb of Captain Barry. It read:
LET THE PATRIOT, THE SOLDIER AND THE CHRISTIAN WHO VISITS THESE MANSIONS OF THE DEAD VIEW THIS MONUMENT WITH RESPECT
HE WAS BORN IN THE COUNTY OF WEXFORD IN IRELAND BUT AMERICA WAS THE OBJECT OF HIS PATRIOTISM AND THE THEATRE OF HIS USEFULNESS.
IN THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR WHICH ESTABLISHED THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE UNITED STATES HE BORE AN EARLY AND AN ACTIVE PART AS A CAPTAIN IN THEIR NAVY AND AFTER BECAME ITS COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF.
HE FOUGHT OFTEN AND ONCE BLED IN THE CAUSE OF FREEDOM.
HIS HABITS OF WAR DID NOT LESSEN HIS VIRTUES AS A MAN NOR HIS PIETY AS A CHRISTIAN.