"SEA WIZARD."

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 301, 19 December 1936, Page 4 (Supplement)

"SEA WIZARD."

MAN OF MYSTERY.

GRAVEYARD PROBLEM.

4CTYE changed his name for reasons unknown." So says history of John Paul Jones, the "wizard of the sea." He was a man of mystery from first to last. He was born with the surname of Paul. John Paul and no more he had been a3 a Scots laddie, when his bare, feet had scampered over the heather; and liis father, an honest Scots gardener, had been John Paul, pure and simple. Indeed, it is a wellknown fact that John Paul had been a good enough name for our hero until he arrived at the age of 20 or 27, when he must needs don the extra surname which scores of men have gone into court to doff that they might have surer identity.. This precocious youth when 24 was captain of a Scottish brig, which he took upon two trips to the West Indies. During one of these cruises occurred .an incident which was held by some to account for his changing his name. Becoming involved in a quarrel with his ship's carpenter, Maxwell by name, he is said to have flogged that insubordinate. One account says he shot him. Charges of cruelty were thereupon preferred against the Scots skipper, but were dismissed as frivolous. When in a few weeks, however, his alleged victim died, the charges were revived. Some say that John Paul was charged with the murder of Maxwell and was indicted by a grand jury at his old home in Scotland. In any event he was not arrested, but the incident preyed upon his mind, and to prove his innoceiice he sent affidavits to his family in Scotland. It was to escape the possibility of identification in the event of his capture that he added Jones to his name, according to this theory. Varied Accounts. Other accounts give quite a different motive. His brother, William Paul, had come to America in 17C0, had bought a large plantation in Virginia and had entered at Charlotte, N.C., into a meieantile business in which he was engaged Eit the time of his death in 1772. His store was in the same building in which George Washington was initiated as a Mason. John Paul came to Virginia in 1773 to administer to his brother's estate. According to one tradition, his deceased brother William, on coming to America, aad been adopted by a rich, but childless relative of the name of Jones and William had taken this name of his foster parents, who had provided that in case William Paul Jones died intestate, his younger brother, John Paul, might inherit the property if he also should take the name of Jones, which he did. According to a third theory, the little mariner went from Virginia to North Carolina to settle the , estate in. that State and there met two brothers, Allen and Willie (pronounced Wylie) Jones, men of a wealthy and distinguished family, who had been educated' at Eton and who were very influential in political.