ill annexed,
conveying the houses and lots in Fredericksburg which are directed in
William Paul's will to be sold, but the records nowhere show this.
This seems and is strange, because some disposition must have been made
of this property in some way, but I cannot find this here. I then
followed the fiduciary indexes to see if I could find anything about
the enlistment and service of John Paul to John Paul Jones--but this
also was fruitless. William Paul could not have assumed the name of
Jones, as he leaves his last will and testament in the name of Paul,
nor is there any will of record in the name of Paul, nor is there any
will of record in the name of John Paul Jones. I have given this
matter such thought and attention and work, but I cannot find a clue to
anything named in your letter to me and concerning which you make
inquiry.

"As William Paul's property was in Fredericksburg, it may be that the
settlement of his estate and the {296} account of the sale of his
effects is of record there. If you desire to write to the clerk of
corporation court of that city as to that, he will courteously attend
to your matter of inquiry.

"Yours sincerely,

"J. P. H. CRISMUND."

I wrote as Mr. Crismund suggested, but could get no further information.

VIII. The Joneses of North Carolina

Now to revert to the North Carolina account. It comes down as straight
as such a story could. Colonel Cadwallader Jones of North Carolina, in
a privately printed genealogical history of his family, states that he
was born in 1812. His grandmother, Mrs. Willie Jones, died in 1828.
He lived with her for the first fifteen years of his life. He declares
positively that she told him that John Paul had taken the name for the
reasons mentioned. The matter was generally so stated and accepted in
the family. Mrs. Willie Jones was a woman of unusual mental force and
character, and preserved the full use of her faculties until her death.

The same statement is made independently by descendants of other
branches of the Jones family. For instance, Mr. Armistead Churchill
Gordon, of Staunton, Va., had it direct from his great-aunt, who was a
kinswoman of Mrs. Jones, and who heard from her the circumstances
referred to. And there are still other lines of tradition which create
a strong probability in favor of the credibility of the theory.

For one thing, if Jones did represent his sister in the {297}
settlement of his brother's estate