JONES, JOHN PAUL (1747-92). A famous naval officer in the American Revolution. horn in Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland, July 6, 1747. His name was originally Jolla Paul, 'Jones' being subsequently added for reasons unknown. In his twelfth year he was apprenticed to a mer chant of Wnitehaven, who was actively engaged in the American trade, and shortly thereafter sailed for Virginia, where his brother was set tled as a planter. For a time he lived at Fred ericksburg with his brother, devoting his leisure to the study of nautical affairs. In 1766, his indentures being canceled, he made a voyage to Jamaica as chief mate on a slaver. He soon abandoned this business, however. and in 1763 took passage in a brigantine for Scotland. The master and mate dying in the course of the voy age. Paul assumed command and carried the safely into port. For this service the owners appointed him captain and supercargo and sent him on a voyage to the West Indies. He continued this trade and accumulated a fortune by eommereial speculation. in 1773. his brother having died childless and intestate, he returned to Virginia to settle the affairs of the estate which had fallen to him, and for a time gave his attention to planting. It. was then that he as sumed the name of Jones, by which lie was sub sequently known. Upon the outbreak of the Revolution he offered his services on behalf of the Colonies, and was early invited to aid the Naval Committee of Congress with information and advice. He also served on a commission for the purchase of vessels for the new navy. and on December 22. 1775. was commissioned senior first. lieutenant of the flagship Alfred. After a short cruise, during which a successful attack was made on New Providence and a squadron was captured, he was transferred to the Providence with the rank of captain. Ile then made a cruise in the \Vest Indies, and in forty-seven days cap tured sixteen prizes and destroyed a number of small vessels together with the fishery at Isle 1\ladame. He then resumed command of the A./fred, and in November, 1776, sailed from New port. to Nova Scotia, where he captured a number of British coal transports, liberated a hundred Americans confined at hard labor in the mines, destroyed the Cape Breton Fishery. and returned to Boston with several prizes. In June, 1777, Jones was transferred to the command of the Ranger, one of the newly built vessels of the navy, and the one upon which the stars and stripes are said to have been hoisted for the first tittle. On November 1st Jones sailed from Ports mouth, N. H., with instructions to hovel- about the coast of Great. Britain and destroy the Eng lish shipping. Before entering the Channel he stopped in France to deliver to the American Commissioners the officialdispatches . announcing the surrender of Burgoyne. and to confer with them in regard to his mission in Euro pean waters. He then sailed to the north coast of England, seized the port of Whitehaven, spiked its gulls, and burned some of the shipping. it
was then that he conceived the project of captur ing the Earl of Selkirk on his fine estate near Kirkcudbright, and of holding him as a hostage. The project miscarried on account of the absence of the Earl, whose plate, however, was appro priated by the crew of the Ranger and was sold, but was subsequently purchased by Jones and re stored to the rightful owner. In the summer of 1778 Jones captured near the English coast the Drake, a twenty-min warship of superior build, and carried it into Brest with 160 prisoners. His exploits won him great renown in America, and he was placed in command of the ship Dun-us, furnished by the French Government, the name of which he changed to the Ron Homme Richard, and in August, 1779, he sailed with a squadron of five vessels, three American and two French, for the coast of Scotland, creating even greater alarm among the inhabitants than before. Off Flamhorough he fell in with a fleet of forty-one British merchantmen returning from the Baltic and convoyed by two powerful men-of war. the Scrapis. carrying forty gulls, and the Countess of Searboroaah, with twenty On the evening of September 23. 1779. Jones engaged the S'erupis in battle and after three hours' desperate fighting, during the course of which the Scrapes and the Bon Homme Richard were lashed together. the Serapis surrendered.. The Bon Hamm(' Richard, however, was so badly dam aged that it sank two .lays later, the crew in the meantime being transferred to the Serapis.
For this victory Jones was, upon his arrival in Paris, presented by Louis NTI. with a gold mounted sword, and was decorated with the cross of the Order of Military Merit. Upon ills re turn to America in February, 1781. Congress voted him a gold medal, passed a resolution com mending his ''zeal. prudence, and intrepidity,' assigned him to the command of a new ship of the Iine then building, and proposed to create for him the rank of rear-admiral. He also received a eomplimentary letter from General Washington. The British, however, regarded Jones as a pirate, and refused to recognize the validity of his captures. t the close of the war he went to Paris as merican agent for prize money, and later visited Denmark on a claims In 17SS he entered the Russian service with the rank of rear-admiral, and rendered valu able aid to the Russians in their war with the Turks, but on account of the jealousies and in trigues of the Russian officers he resigned. In 1792 he was appointed United States consul at Algiers, but died before his eommission arrived. His death occurred in Paris, July 18, 1792. The charge that he died from neglect is not sub stantiated by the facts, for be was attended by the Queen's physician, was cheered by the pres ence of friends, and was honored with a public funeral by the National Assembly.
Several biographies of Jones have been pub lished, the latest and best being that of Buell (2 vols.. New York, 19110). Consult also Laughton, Studies in Naval History (1SS7).