Family and Education

s. of William Jones of Treowen by his 2nd w. Ann, da. of Sir William Hawley of Suss. m. Johanna. s.p.

Offices Held

Biography

Jones was a Monmouthshire man, with property in the borough of Monmouth, who traded in London as a grocer. He was related by marriage to the Herberts and the Morgans of Machyn, and to these family connexions he owed his return to Parliament for Monmouth. His half-brother, John Jones of Treowen, was a former sheriff of Monmouthshire, and his nephew and heir, William Jones, married the daughter of Moore Gwillim who had represented Monmouth in 1584 and 1586. Jones himself may have been in London at the time of the 1588 elections, a local man conveniently available to be Monmouth’s representative in Parliament. Either he or Walter Jones sat on a committee, 21 Mar. 1589, for the bill against excess of apparel.

Jones may have had some interest in the manufacture or sale of felt, as a petition survives from him to Lord Burghley, dated September 1587, asking that Flemish merchants should be forbidden to transport felts out of the kingdom. He wrote to Michael Hickes asking to be employed on work in connexion with the Low Countries, as he had skill in trade there. During the later years of his life Jones returned to Wales and settled at Hendre-obaith, a house on the site of the present Llanarth Court, a few miles from Abergavenny. He was a generous benefactor to the district, building a town hall and market house in Monmouth, and in his will leaving 200 marks towards building a similar market house at Abergavenny. He died in April 1603, and on the 16th was buried at Llanarth. His will, which he had drawn up in the previous September, made a large number of charitable bequests. In addition to the money for the building at Abergavenny, there were legacies totalling £8 to the poor of Monmouth, Wonastow and neighbouring parishes. The mayor and bailiffs of Monmouth were to have the annual rent, about £120, of his lands and houses at ‘Bayliepitte’ to free all those passing through Monnow bridge gate, or coming into Monmouth with cattle, from paying toll on fair days. Jones also bequeathed sums, in one case £50, for the repair of other local bridges and highways. A number of household servants received 40s. each, and one, ‘Joan Jones my maid servant’, 20 nobles. The vicar of Llanarth was to have 20s. for preaching three sermons. The will gave details of the landed and house property which was to descend to the heir, Jones’s nephew William, who was appointed executor and residuary legatee. The overseers, Moore Gwillim and John Jones, William’s father, were required to see that the widow, Johanna, was ‘decently maintained’.

D. Williams, Hist. Mon. (1796), app. 158-9; Bradney, Mon. i. 302, 306; Clark, Limbus, 260; D’Ewes, 450; Lansd. 107, f. 190; PCC 26 Bolein.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: J.C.H.

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