Jones, John Paul

Letter signed ("Jn P Jones"), 1 page (9 x 7 1/8 in.; 228 x 180 mm), On board the Bonhomme Richard at L'Orient, France, 14 June 1779, addressed in Jones' hand to "Captain M[atthew] Parke of the Marine Troops"; formerly folded, margins strengthened touching one letter, fold tear mended. Together with:  a reproduction of a mezzotint portrait and a commemorative medal with portrait after Jean-Antoine Houdon and caption on verso "America claims her illustrious dead — Paris Annapolis 1905." Green half-morocco clamshell box. 

John A. Spoor (his sale, Parke Bernet, 26 April 1939, part of lot 456)

John Paul Jones aboard the Bonhomme Richard, three months before the capture of HMS Serapis.

The outfitting of the Bonhomme Richard at the port of L'Orient was a four-month effort as the ship was given Jones in February and was only ready for sea in June. Her crew was originally formed of prisoners taken from English ships by the French. A group of these had evidently conspired to capture the ship, and Jones ordered their court martial to be held 15 June aboard the ship.

The present letter directs Captain Matthew Parke, USMC, a friend of Jones who had served with him on the Ranger, to attend the court martial: "You are hereby required and directed to attend a Court Martial to be held on board the Bonhomme Richard tomorrow for the Trial of James Enion, John Atwood, John Lomney, John Balch, John Layton, Andrew Thompson, George Johnson, William Carmichael, Alexander Cooper, William Hanover, Thomas Cole and Nathaniel Bonner — all of whom have been put under confinement by Lieutenant John Brown for mutinous beheaviour[sic] and for refusing to do their duty on board the American ship of War the Bonhomme Richard — you are also to try any other person or persons belonging to the American service who may in the Course of the evidence appear to have been — principally concerned in that Mutiny — For which this shall be your Order."

The medal commemorates the exhumation and re-burial of Jones' body from beneath the streets of Paris to its final resting place in Annapolis, Maryland, in 1905.