"Jno P Jones"[[72]]
The Hon'ble Gen'l Whipple
FOOTNOTES
[Footnote 1]: Among the gross slanders by which envy strove to blacken the fame of the great commodore in after years--the foulest, because it attempted to rob a virtuous woman of her crown of honest motherhood and question the legitimacy of Jones' birth--was one which ascribed his paternity to the Earl of Selkirk. To the English snob of that day it may probably have seemed impossible that so much greatness could spring from so plain a stock, and in a left-handed descent from Lord Selkirk was sought an explanation of Jones' fame. The calumny was refuted not only by its antecedent incredibility, but by the testimony of persons in position to affirm as to the high personal character of Jean MacDuff Paul and by the loving and tender family relationship she ever sustained to her husband and children. The family was well known and highly respected. It may be noted, by the way, that the Earl of Selkirk was not conspicuous for ability or anything else, and if it had not been for a subsequent exploit of Jones' he would have been forgotten long since.
[Footnote 2]: See Appendix I.
[Footnote 3]: The Marine Corps was established by the Congress November 10, 1775.
[Footnote 4]: A fictitious house, under the name of which the commissioners sent out military stores.
[Footnote 5]: A coarse thin stuff, a very poor substitute for the ordinary canvas.
[Footnote 6]: English accounts state their casualties at twenty-five.
[Footnote 7]: Italics mine.