John Paul Jones
John Paul Jones, portrait by Charles Willson Peale, 1781.
John Paul Jones
United States naval officer
Also known as: John Paul
John Paul Jones (born July 6, 1747, Kirkbean, Kirkcudbright, Scotland—died July 18, 1792, Paris, France) was an American naval hero in the American Revolution, renowned for his victory over British ships of war off the east coast of England (September 23, 1779). Apprenticed at age 12 to John Younger, a Scottish merchant shipper, John Paul sailed as a cabin boy on a ship to Virginia, where he visited his elder brother William at Fredericksburg. When...