I had read that British towns were burned by the Patriots during their Revolutionary War. I couldn’t find any mention of that online. Did John Paul Jones burn any towns on the British coast?
So he did set fire to Whitehaven. Any other towns?
I’ve read that he set fire to a few ships on the harbour, not exactly burning the town down.
I recall a visit to Windsor Catle decades ago, where the guide pointed out a fan of muskets on the wall of one of the main rooms. He said they were captured off American invaders. Apparently someone had gone to France with a bunch of Americans, and organized a landing party on the English coast. They didn’t get too far.
Reading his account, just the one. Then they tried to capture an Earl but couldn’t find him, so they robbed his silver and went home.
I had no idea that any Americans attacked England during the war.
From their perspective that’s all we were doing.
I know but all I remember from school were the battles in the former thirteen colonies, plus some activity near present-day Canada and of course some sea battles.
I knew what you meant. I think I heard one sentence about this in 8th grade history class while our naval obsessed teacher did 2 weeks on Jones’ most famous sea battle. A cleverer student than I commented “He has not yet begun to stop talking about boats”.
ETA: Did they ever tell you we lost the War of 1812?
John the Painter (real name James Aitken) was a Scottish-born ne’er-do-well who spent a few years in the American colonies and developed sympathy for the revolutionary cause. After his return to Britain, he set fire to the Rope House at the Portsmouth Royal Dockyard, which was destroyed. He also attempted other acts of sabotage and arson with less success. He was caught, tried, and hanged a few months after the Rope House fire. He had nothing to do with John Paul Jones as far as I know, but he did receive some sort of (probably minor) support from Silas Deane, then U.S. envoy to France.
Wikipedia article on John the Painter
page about him from the Portsmouth Royal Dockyard Historical Trust
Augustus Buell’s biography of Jones, though used as the basis for the film with Robert Stack, is not to be relied upon (like all of Buell’s other biographical works).
John Paul Jones carried out some raids in Ireland and captured some British vessels. I stayed a few times at a small hotel called “The Lanterns” in Glin, County Limerick, which was called after one of Jones’s exploits - I don’t remember the details but somehow he evaded the British in the Shannon Estuary and the story involved lanterns.
On an unrelated (but also interesting) note, a naval battle of the US Civil War took place in the harbour of Cherbourg.