Jones, John Paul, Continental Naval Officer

Autograph letter signed (J Paul Jones"), 2 pages (7 7/8 x 6 3/8 in.; 199 x 160 mm) on a sheet of laid paper, L'Orient, 17 August 1785, to Thomas Jefferson, United States Minister to France, at Paris, reception docket by Jefferson at foot of second page ("Jones, J. P. Aug 17. 1785. | recd. Aug. 21 1785."); lightly foxed, very short separation at head of central fold.

Sotheby's, 22 June 1999, lot 75

The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, ed. Boyd, 8:397 (original unlocated; (text from J. H. Sherburne, John Paul Jones [1825], with many errors in transcription)

Captain Jones implores Thomas Jefferson to intervene with the French Naval Ministry to ensure the payment of prize money due Revolutionary War sailors. 

Following his spectacular service during the American Revolution, John Paul Jones was authorized by Congress to collect from France monies owed to the United States as a direct result of his naval operations. Jones reached an impasse with M. Clouet, the marine minister at L'Orient, over the payment of prize money to the American members of the crew of Alliance.

Alliance was part of the small Franco-American squadron commanded by Jones at the Battle of Flamborough Head (where the Bonhomme Richard captured Serapis), and her captain was French-born. Capitalizing on this pretext and exploiting the impatience of the crew to collect their booty, a French merchant named Puchilberg managed, as Jones reported to Jefferson on 29 July 1785, to produce "a Letter of Attorney, which he obtained from the officers and Men of that Frigate when their Minds were unsettled, authorizing him to Receive their Share in the Prizes." In that same letter Jones requested that Jefferson write to the Marquis Charles de Castries, the French Secretary of State of the Navy "to obtain an explicit Order ... to Mr. Clouet to pay into my hands the whole Mass of the Prize-Money that appears due the Alliance" (Papers of Thomas Jefferson 8:326–27).

By the time Jones wrote the present letter, the situation had become even more urgent: "I am still waiting for a decision respecting the claim of Mr. Puchilberg. But I think it my duty to inform you that one or two of the common sailors that served on board the Alliance when that Frigate was under my Orders are now here in a Merchant Vessel, and, as I am this moment informed, they have been persuaded to write to Mr. Puchilberg desiring that their share in the Prizes may not be sent to America but paid to them here. This, I am told, has been urged as a reason to the Marechal to induce him to decide in favor of Mr. Puchilberg's claim. Those two Men will however sail in a day or two for Boston, and perhaps may never return to France: Besides their objection is too triffling to be admitted, as it would greatly injure the other persons both Officers and Men of that Crew, who would in all probability never receive any part of their Prize Money unless they should come from America to L'Orient on purpose; which would not pay their expenses.

"As the Post is just going, I must defer Answering the Letter you did me the honor to write me on the 3d. 'till another opportunity." In a postscript written hastily in the margin, Jones again entreats Jefferson to contact the Navy Secretary, "NB. I beg you therefore to write again to the Marechal de Castries."

Jefferson was already well aware of the urgency of this matter and had in fact written to Castries about settling Jones's claims on the same day that Jones had renewed his appeal (17 August 1785; Papers 8:395–96). Jefferson's petition to Castries finally led to a favorable resolution of the situation, which had been, as he explained to John Jay, then the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, "ruining the officer sollicting the paiment of the money, and keeping our seamen out of what they had hardly fought for years ago (30 August 1785; Papers 8:452).