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William Jumper

naval captain; (1660-1715)

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 6, 2026
Entity authorityQ8013810
Source-derived summary

Sir William Jumper (c. 1660 – 12 March 1715) was an officer of the Royal Navy. He rose to the rank of captain after service in the Nine Years' War and the War of the Spanish Succession. He is known for being one of the first to step onto land during the Capture of Gibraltar in 1704. Jumper's Bastion in Gibraltar was named after him.

Life

Jumper was said for many years to have been born in Bandon, County Cork. His date of birth is unknown, but he was baptised on 8 January 1660 as the second son of William and Elizabeth Jumper of Weybridge in Surrey. Jumper spent ten years working for the Royal African Company off the coast of Africa, as an apprentice to John Love, one of their captains. In 1688 he was appointed to master's mate on HMS Resolution by George Legge, Baron Dartmouth. The following year Jumper obtained a commission as a first lieutenant and is thought to have travelled to the Mediterranean with Vice-Admiral Henry Killigrew. In 1690 he married Elizabeth Willis, and Killigrew moved him to HMS Duke and the following year he earned his commission as a lieutenant of Killigrew's marines.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “William Jumper” as naval captain; (1660-1715). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around William, Jumper and naval.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1660, 1715, 1704, 1688—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1660. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with William, Jumper and naval providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “William Jumper”, the useful work is to connect “naval captain; (1660-1715)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q8013810. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1660, 1715, 1704 and 1688.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from William Jumper” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.