Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 10.djvu/377

 12 S.X.APRIL 22, 1922.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 307 of a reminiscence concerning the " Quaker courtier " is noteworthy. This has been handed down in a letter which has just come into the possession of the Society of Friends' Reference Library, Devonshire House, Bishopsgate, London, E.G. 2, from the collection of the late J. J. Green of Hastings. On one occasion [the letter runs], coming to Beading and being about to proceed thence to London in order to attend at the Court of James II., as was his frequent practice, several Friends manifested their uneasiness at his being so much at the Court, expressing their fears that in such a place, and in such company, he would be in danger of departing from that simplicity of demeanour which Friends believed it their duty to maintain. W. Penn, after listening to their observations, expressed his wish to take one of their number with him to the Court of James, and one of them accordingly accompanied him thither. Being duly introduced, he remained with him during the whole time, thus having a full opportunity of observing the tenor of W. P.'s carriage, as well towards the King as towards others with whom he came in contact. Finding that his conduct, mode of address and general conduct were quite in harmony with his profession and practice as a Friend, he was entirely satisfied and was thus put in a position to allay the uneasiness of such of his friends as had entertained doubts on this head. On another occasion during the visit to Reading several Friends spoke to him after Meeting hoisted with his own hands the first American flag on board the Alfred, which was then the first display of the Thirteen Stripes. It is also stated that Jones took several American vessels under his convoy, from Nantz to the Bay of Quiberon, where M. la Motte Piquet was lying at anchor with six sail of the line. . . which he was to take under his protection to the westward of Cape Finisterre. M. de la Fayette was on board this fleet, which was provided with clothing, ammunition, and military stores for America. He reached the bay, February 13, 1778, and sent to demand of the admiral, if he would j return his salute ; and this compliment was I immediately agreed to by that brave officer, period, that a treaty of alliance had been signed between France and America seven days before. This was the first salute received by the American flag from any Power, and occasioned much dispute in the English Parliament. France allied herself with America on Feb. 6, 1778. There appears to be a mistake in the statement that Jones hoisted the flag in 1775, for D. H. Montgomery, in his ' An Elementary American History' (1904), a book written for American boys, and in i my opinion rather one-sided, states : The same year (1778) Captain Paul Jones I hoisted the American flag on an American ship, was the first time the Stars and Stripes had een on the ocean. He crossed the Atlantic, he attacked two British vessels of war modation or provision, &c., for him. At last, a plain, honest woman asked him to her house, saying she could furnish all he could require. W. P. accepted her invitation and accompanied her to her very humble dwelling, in which was a small shop where she sold provisions, &c. She took thence some bread, butter and cheese, and W. P. made a very sufficient dinner, much en- joyed his visit, and, at parting, heartily thanked her for her hospitality and especially for her cordial kindness and hearty welcome. These anecdotes are recorded in a letter of Thomas Mounsey of Sunderland to Thomas Robson of Liverpool, dated March 19, 1850, according to the current Journal of the Friends' Historical Society. He quotes as his authority Joseph Naish of Congresbury, who died in 1822, aged 72, who was acquainted with a man whose father knew William Penn when he resided near Reading. H. W. PEET. THE STABS AND STRIPES. Thomas Richardson's pamphlet, in which he gives the life of Paul Jones, relates that In the early part of 1775, being so highly thought of by the principal leading men of America ... it is a fact that he then them. I presume these vessels were the Serapis and the Countess of Scarborough. I am unable to verify this as I have no book giving details. Montgomery then proceeds to state : Up to that time England had always boasted that she ruled the sea. But Paul Jones showed King George the Third that in future the Ameri- cans meant to rule part of it themselves. He omits to say that Jones was a Scotch- man and a renegade. He was named John Paul, taking the name of Jones later. He supposed to have been the son of the afterwards Governor of the Bahama Islands, in 1 1 do not know if this is noted in ' D.N.B.' Montgomery also states, in a footnote : Washington raised the first flag of the thirteen United British American colonies at the camp of the Continental army in Cambridge on New Year's Day, 1776. That flag was made by taking the British flag, which then consisted of two
 * although neither he nor Jones knew at that
 * 1780.