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Kirkbean

About two miles south of the village are the famous, semi-tropical Arbigland Gardens, set around a secluded bay. They were originally laid out in the 1730s by a gardener named John Paul. One of his sons, also named John, was a lively youth who became a sailor boy at the age of 11 and later spent 5 years on an American slave ship. In Tobago he managed to get himself charged with murder and to avoid arrest changed his name to John Paul Jones, the name by which he is honoured in the United States as the “Father of the American Navy”. The tiny white-washed cottage in which he was born in 1747 is now the John Paul Jones Birthplace Museum. The cottage has been restored to its mid-18th century appearance and houses some fascinating exhibits connected with the Admiral’s eventful life. Outside stand two flagpoles, one flying the Stars and Stripes, the other carrying Scotland’s St Andrew’s Cross. The latter, incidentally, is identical to the Empress Catherine of Russia’s flag under which the restless John Paul Jones sailed as Admiral of her Black Sea Fleet during the Russo-Turkish war of 1788-89.

Inside Kirkbean Parish Church, which was built in 1776, is a font presented by the American Navy in 1945. And to continue the American theme, Dr James Craik, Physician General of the United States Army during the American Revolution, was also born on the Arbigland estate. However, James was not born in the same humble circumstances as John Paul Jones. His father Robert was a Member of Parliament and owned the estate.