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John Paul Jones Biography

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JONES, John Paul (1747–92). A famous naval officer in the American Revolution, born in Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland, July 6, 1747. His name was originally John Paul, "Jones" being subsequently added for reasons unknown. In his twelfth year he was apprenticed to a merchant of Whitehaven, who was actively engaged in the American trade, and shortly thereafter sailed for Virginia, where his brother was settled as a planter. For a time he lived at Fredericksburg 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 1768 took passage in a brigantine for Scotland. The master and mate dying in the course of the voyage, Paul assumed command and carried the vessel 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 commercial 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 assumed the name of Jones, by which he was subsequently 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 Dec. 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. He then made a cruise in the West Indies and in 47 days captured 16 prizes and destroyed a number of small vessels together with the fishery at Isle Madame. He then resumed command of the Alfred, and in November, 1776, sailed from Newport to Nova Scotia, where he captured a number of British coal transports, liberated 100 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 time. On November 1 Jones sailed from Portsmouth, N. H., with instructions to hover about the coast of Great Britain and destroy the English shipping. Before entering the Channel he stopped in France to deliver to the American commissioners the official dispatches announcing the surrender of Burgoyne and to confer with them in regard to his mission in European waters. He then sailed to the north coast of England, seized the port of Whitehaven, spiked its guns, and burned some of the shipping. It was then that he conceived the project of capturing 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 appropriated by the crew of the Ranger and was sold, but was subsequently purchased by Jones and restored to the rightful owner. In the summer of 1778 Jones captured near the English coast the Drake, a 20-gun 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 Duras, furnished by the French government, the name of which he changed to the Bon 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 Flamborough he fell in with a fleet of 41 British merchantmen returning from the Baltic and convoyed by two powerful men-of-war, the Serapis, carrying 40 guns, and the Countess of Scarborough, with 20 guns. On the evening of Sept. 23, 1779, Jones engaged the Serapis in battle, and after three hours' desperate fighting, during the course of which the Serapis and the Bon Homme Richard were lashed together, the Serapis surrendered. The Bon Homme Richard, however, was so badly damaged that it sank two days later, the crew in the meantime being transferred to the Serapis.

For this victory Jones was, upon his arrival in Paris, presented by Louis XVI with a gold-mounted sword and was decorated with the cross of the Order of Military Merit. Upon his return to America in February, 1781, Congress voted him a gold medal, passed a resolution commending his "zeal, prudence, and intrepidity," assigned him to the command of a new ship of the line then building, and proposed to create for him the rank of rear admiral. The British, however, regarded Jones as a pirate and refused to recognize the validity of his captures. At the close of the war he went to Paris as American agent for prize money. In 1788 he entered the Russian service against the Turks, with the rank of rear admiral, but on account of the jealousies and intrigues of the Russian officers he resigned. In 1790 he retired to Paris, where he remained in retirement for the rest of his life. In 1792 he was appointed United States Consul at Algiers, but died before his commission arrived. A long search, instituted by Gen. Horace Porter, Ambassador to France, resulted in the discovery of his body in the old St. Louis Cemetery, in Paris, on April 14, 1905. The following July a United States squadron conveyed the body to Annapolis, Md., where it was buried, with the usual naval ceremonies.