Lot 17 John Paul Jones

Autograph document signed (“Jn P. Jones” ) 1 1/2 pages, 6 May 1776, to Ezekiel Hopkins, Commander in Chief of the American Fleet, proceedings of a court martial held on board the Alfred, additionally signed by Dudley Saltonstall, Nicholas Biddle, John Hazard, Samuel Nicholas, John Welsh, Rhodes Arnold, Hoysted Hacker, Elisha Hinman, Jonathan Maltbie, Matthew Parke and Henry Dayton.

Sheet size: 9 1/4 by 15 in.

The trial Abraham Whipple requested to disprove his cowardice, perhaps the earliest Court Martial proceedings in US Naval History: “...the Glasgow firing Stern Guns together with his firing Bow Guns and now and then a Broad Side he was Unable to make his Attack Closer than he did….”