JONES, Alexander (d.1609), of Bridgwater, Som.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603, ed. P.W. Hasler, 1981
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Family and Education

s. of Henry Jones of Bridgwater by his w. Alice. m. Margaret, s.p.

Offices Held

Inspector of the port of Bridgwater 1560; alderman to 1607, mayor 1587-8, 1598-9; customer by 1599.

Biography

Jones was a vintner, innkeeper and local official of Bridgwater. Unusually for this borough there is no record of a payment of parliamentary wages to him: possibly they were included in the £40 paid to him as mayor. He is not named in the proceedings of the House, but, as a burgess for a Somerset borough, he could have served on the committee about rebuilding Langport Eastover (10 Nov. 1597). By his will, dated 6 Apr. 1608 and proved 20 June 1609, he bequeathed a messuage in Bristol, and the Crown in Bridgwater to his nephew Alexander. Five leases in Bridgwater and numerous monetary bequests went to relations, and his widow, the executrix, was the principal beneficiary. She received a house in Bridgwater and an interest, or adventure, of £600 in a ship, the Eagle of Northam. £100, owed him by his nephew Robert Jones, was to go to the mayor and aldermen of Bridgwater ‘to be used for reasonable gain’, for the benefit of poor people living in almshouses he had built. John Michell, mayor of Bridgwater, Nicholas Street, son of the town clerk, and Henry Jones, his brother, were overseers. Jones was buried on 11 Apr. 1609.

Rylands Eng. ms 311; CSP Dom. 1547-80, p. 169; Bridgwater archives, nos. 623, 1478, 1579, 1937, 2083, 2122/4; APC, xxix. 468; Townshend, Hist. Colls. 103; PCC 67 Dorset; New Eng. Hist Gen. Reg. lxxxi, lxxxii.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: R.C.G.

Notes