or--as "Tar-heel mythology," stated that John Paul assumed
the name of Jones out of friendship and regard for the justly
celebrated Jones family of North Carolina, and especially for Mrs.
Willie Jones, who is not unknown in history, and who was one of the
most brilliant and charming women of the colonies. Members of this
family had befriended him and assisted him pecuniarily, and had
extended to him the bounteous hospitality of the famous plantations,
Mount Gallant and The Groves, near Halifax. It was through their
influence with Congressman Hewes that Jones received his commission as
a lieutenant in the Continental Navy. {291} In further explanation it
was suggested that on casting his lot with the rebellious colonies John
Paul, who was somewhat erratic as well as romantic and impulsive,
determined to take a new name and begin life over again.

Here are two utterly irreconcilable theories. I at once wrote to
Colonel Buell asking him to inform me what was his authority for his
statement. I quote, with his permission given me before his lamented
death, from several letters that he wrote me:

"My first authentic information on the subject was from a gentleman
named William Louden, whom I met in St. Louis in 1873, when I was
attached to the _Missouri Republican_. Mr. Louden was a great-grandson
of Mary Paul Louden, sister of John Paul Jones. He was the only
surviving blood-relative of Paul Jones in this country, being his
great-grandnephew. He told me substantially the history of the change
of names as related in my first volume.

"Two years later I met the late General Taliaferro of Virginia in
Washington, and he corroborated the version, together with the history
of the Jones plantation.[2]

"One would naturally judge that the great-grandnephew of the man
himself, and the gentleman who had subsequently owned the property,
ought to know something about the antecedents of both the man and the
land. . . . I doubt whether documentary evidence--such as would be
admitted in court--can ever be found."

Colonel Buell also called my attention to the fact {292} that in none
of Paul Jones's letters to Joseph Hewes is there any reference to the
North Carolina Jones family; and further, that Jones and Hewes became
acquainted in commercial transactions before Jones settled in America.

VII. Search for Historical Evidence

In an attempt to settle the matter I wrote to all the Virginia county
clerks on both sides of