Blazon of Arms:
Shield: Quarterly: 1st and 4th Gules a stag statant Or,
2nd and 3rd Ermine on a fess Azure three cross-crosslets Argent.
SOURCE, NOTES AND CREDITS: Illustration for background and the caption’s text adapted for the entry from the internet entry for “Bolton’s American Armory”, Boston: F. W. Faxon Co, 1927, pp 93-94, and “Famous American Admirals” by Clark G. Reynolds, Van Nostrand Reinhold Co. 1978, pp 166-167, plus the Wikipedia article on John Paul Jones.
Commodore John Paul Jones, was born John Paul on 6 July 1747 in Kirkbean, a Solway costal village, in south western Scotland near the Irish Sea.
He was an officer who served in the US Continental Navy during the American Revolutionary War. Often referred to as the “Father of the American Navy”,
Two examples: In 1778 in the US 18 gun sloop “Ranger” he defeated and captured the 20 gun English sloop “Drake” in British waters. Later in 1778-79, in the 42 gun US frigate “Bonhomme Richard”, Jones defeated the larger English frigate “Serapis”.
Jones was knighted by King Louis XVI of France in 1780 and apparently then designed his own arms and wished to be known as Chevalier John Paul Jones.
Jones is regarded by many as one of the greatest naval commanders in the military history of the United States. Commodore Jones died on 18 July 1792 in France. In 1906 his remains were exhumed and identified and brought over to the US and finally buried in 1913 in Annapolis, MD at the Naval Academy.
The artwork is an interpretation of John Hamilton Gaylor.
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