John Paul Jones

John Paul Jones

The Bonhomme Richard vs. The HMS Serapis

John Paul was born in the small fishing village of Arbigland, Scotland on July 6, 1747. To his parents John Paul and Jean MacDuff he was the fourth child. They had seven children but unfortunately all but two died in infancy. The family was originally from Fife but John Paul's father had taken the family and moved to Arbigland where William Craik, the owner of a large estate their had met him and hired him to be his gardener.

John Paul grew up on this estate and to those who watched him grow up, it seemed that he always had a fascination and a passion to sail something. Whether it was a leaf as a child or a bit of wood blown by a small paper sail, John Paul was a seaman from birth. He attended Kirkbean School but spent much of his time at the small port of Carsethorn on the Solway Firth. As he grew up others often found him teaching his playmates to maneuver their little boats to mimic a naval battle, while he, taking his stand on the tiny cliff overlooking the small river, shouted shrill commands at his imaginary fleet.

At the age of thirteen he boarded a ship to Whitehaven, which was a large port across the Solway Firth. There he signed up for a seven year seaman's apprenticeship on The Friendship of Whitehaven, whose captain was James Younger, a prosperous merchant and ship owner. His first voyage took him across the Atlantic Ocean to Barbados and Fredericksburg, Virginia at which he stayed with his older brother William, a tailor, who had left Scotland for America over thirteen years before, and who now was living comfortably and flourishing.

John Paul was released from his apprenticeship at age 17 after which he went straight into the slave trade as third mate on King George of Whitehaven. After some time he became disgusted with the slave trade and returned home. John Paul had become a captain at the age of twenty-one. When on one of his missions, John Paul was accused of assaulting and killing one of his sailors, and was then arrested but found not guilty by the Tobago courts because of lack of evidence and testimony on his behalf. Because of this he fled to America and changed his name to John Paul Jones of which he was called for the rest of his life.