The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1900-01-14
CAVE OF M. DUPONT, WHO CLAIMS PAUL JONES' GRAVE.

the benefit of foreign Professionals. under
the charge of the chaplain of the Dutch
embassy, who was the French Protestant
minister, Marion. who officiated at the
funeral of John Paul Jones. Five years
previously French Protestants, for the
first time since the revocation Of the edict
of Nantes, had been allowed to worship
publicly, and to be buried under their own
names, a liberality explained by growing
revolutionary sentiments. 1t had also
been decided that French Protestants
might be buried in this cemetery, and it's
courtyard. heretofore unused for burials.
was assigned to them. Two registers
were to be kept, one for foreigners and
one for Frenchmen Now here is where
the first difficulty rises in the way Of M.
de Ricaudy's theory. No. / Rue des
Ecluses- Saint-Martin is over the courtyard
assigned exclusively to French Profess
tants. Yet he would find the body of Paul
Jones in it. He satisfies himself by rea-
soning on the character of the soil further
down the block, which indicates that it
was filled up first. The letter of the old
law, nevertheless, is against him, and the
body of Paul Jones ought legally to have
been buried in the older portion of the
cemetery, set apart by law for foreign
Protestants. But that would extend the
search for him today all through the
block.
Ecluses- Saint Martin still another suppo-
sition must be granted. The body of Paul
Jones, being one of the last buried in it,
M. de Ricaudy says 1t should be looked
for near the gate as the last locality likely
to be filed up M. Duponts door IS where
the old gate was. This reasoning, how
ever, Is based only on likelihood.
A far more serious objection rises in
connection with the Saint-Martin Profess
tant cemetery itself. M. de Ricaudy, quot
ing the acte d'inhumation discovered by
Charles Read in 1859, admits that the
act does not name the place of burial
Charles Read says he copied it from reg
lister No. So, making part of a series re-
lating to the civil status of Protestants.
M. de Ricaudy says that this register No.
50, begun in 1779, concerned first a Prot.
estant cemetery near the Porte-S Saint Mar
tin and afterward the other Protestant
cemetery with which we have been con-
cerned. He does not give his authority
for this, whether it be Charles Read or
another
Another Last Resting Place.
''Were there not still other Protestant
cemeteries at this time, five years after
the official recognition of the Protestant
religion?" I asked Mr.. Gowdy.
''You have struck a curious point" was
his answer.
He touched an electric bell. A clerk
appeared. Fetch me the Paul Jones
dossier."
Look at that" he said, handing me a
paper. 'It is the report one of my own
men made to me in January, 1892" 1t
runs as follows, and is most surprising:
January 81, 1899
1.-THE Hon. ]. X. Gowdy, United States
Consul General, Paris:
Dear Generation learning your de-
sire to ascertain the resting place of Ad-
miral Jones. who died in duly, 1892. in
this city. appealed to the authorities of
the city hall and to the parochial author
tiles, spent several days in the national
library and in the archives, visited all
the cemeteries. searched through the
records of the archbishop, went to the
public worship offices, etc, ETC., and fin
ally brought up at the admiralty, where,
although unsuccessful at first, I persist
ed, secured letters of recommendation,
and finally ELECTED the fact that Admiral
Paul Jones was buried in the Protestant
cemetery, near Notre Dame cathedral,
the site of which cemetery is now built
over, part of the same being where the
Hotel Dieu now stands. The admiral, hav-
ing been buried in leaden coffin, and
his obsequies having been attended by
znamhers nf narliament am convinced