ABSTRACT
William, the eldest, born about 1730, was adopted in 1743 by a well-to-do and childless Virginia planter named William Jones, a native of Kirkbean Parish and a distant relative of the Pauls, while he was on a visit to his old Scottish home, and by virtue of the act of adoption took the name of William Paul Jones. Colonial dames may have been, and charming as their daughters unquestionably were, there is no record that the heart of the sailor-planter was ever touched by one or by the other. The old Scottish-American planter took a great fancy to little John Paul, and wished to adopt him also, offering to get him released from his indentures to Mr. James Younger. In the summer of 1759 Mr. Younger was at Arbigland, looking for sailors to man one of his ships about to sail for the Chesapeake.
