JONES, Thomas (by 1492-1558/59), of Abermarlais, Carm. and Haroldston, Pemb.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558, ed. S.T. Bindoff, 1982
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Family and Education

b. by 1492, 1st s. of John ap Thomas ap Gruffydd of Abermarlais by Eleanor, da. of Thomas Vaughan of Brodorddyn, Carm. m. (1) Elizabeth, da. of Sir Edward Done of Kidwelly, Carm., 2da.; (2) by 1532, Mary, da. of James Berkeley of Thornbury, Glos., wid. of Thomas Perrot (d.1531) of Haroldston, Pemb., at least 3s. inc. Henry Jones I and Richard 2da. Kntd. ?16 Jan. 1542.1

Offices Held

Groom of the chamber in 1513, gent. usher in 1532; jt. constable, Llandovery castle, Carm. and steward and receiver of the lordship 1527; commr. lands of Rhys ap Gruffydd 1531, sewers, Card., Carm. 1540, subsidy, Pemb. 1544, relief, Brec., Card., Carm., Glam., Pemb., Salop and Haverfordwest 1550, goods of churches and fraternities, Card., Carm. 1553; steward and receiver, Abermarlais and Newcastle Emlyn, Carm., constable, Emlyn castle 1532; steward, Haverfordwest, Pemb. and Laugharne, Carm. 1532, Llansadwrn, Carm. 1539; member, town council, Haverfordwest by 1539-46 or later; sheriff, Pemb. 1540-1, 1548-9, Carm. 1542-3, Card. 1543-4; feodary, Pemb. c.1546; gov., surveyor and receiver, castle and lordship of Narberth, Pemb. 1543; constable, Tenby castle and steward, lordship of Coedrath, Pemb. 1543; burgess, Cardigan, Card. by 1553; j.p. Carm., Glos., Herefs., Salop and Worcs. 1555.2

Biography

Thomas Jones’s father was a younger brother of Henry VII’s supporter at Bosworth, Sir Rhys ap Thomas. Of the father’s part in the Tudor cause little is recorded; he was almost certainly the man granted an annuity of 10 marks out of the exchequer at Carmarthen in 1487, perhaps as a reward for service two years before. It was his son who was to establish the family in the position of strength which it enjoyed during the 16th century. Of Thomas Jones’s early years nothing is known; he is first glimpsed in the expedition which took Tournai in 1513. During the next dozen years he seems to have divided his time between court and country.3

After the arrest in 1531 of his kinsman, Rhys ap Gruffydd, Jones was one of four commissioners appointed to inquire into the traitor’s lands and to seize his goods. Jones was the most active of the commissioners, and it was he who was to derive the greatest benefit from the escheat. Among the forfeited estates were Abermarlais and Llansadwrn: it was at Abermarlais that he first established himself in the house built by his uncle and visited by Leland. Jones also had a house at Haroldston in Pembrokeshire and was described as of that place on his return to Parliament for Pembrokeshire in 1541. His connexion with the shire began with his marriage to the widow of Thomas Perrot of Haroldston, near Haverfordwest. Here Jones became a leading figure; he was lessee of the lordship and manor of Haverfordwest, of the castle, lordship and manor of Laugharne, and of the manor of Castle Walwyn, Carmarthenshire, all part of the inheritance of his stepson John Perrot, whose wardship he purchased in 1533, and for many years he was a prominent member of Haverfordwest town council. Although a frequent attender at court, Jones emerged as one of the leading figures in South Wales at the Union: he was sheriff of each of the counties of Cardigan, Carmarthen and Pembroke between 1540 and 1544.4

Jones is known to have sat in three Parliaments, twice for Pembrokeshire and once for Carmarthenshire: he may also have been re-elected for Pembrokeshire to the Parliament of March 1553, in which his son Henry sat for the first time for Carmarthenshire, although he perhaps stood aside in favour of his stepson John Perrot. During his first Membership Jones is said to have secured the transfer of several lordships, including his own of Laugharne, to Carmarthenshire from Pembrokeshire: the motive appears to have been his wish to consolidate his estates in one county. It was also doubtless he who secured a privileged position for Haverfordwest, including its enfranchisement as a parliamentary seat. He was probably one of those summoned to the Parliament Chamber and there knighted on the opening of Parliament, and it was while serving as a Member that he was twice pricked sheriff, first for Carmarthenshire and then for Cardiganshire. During the second session he presumably delivered the writ for the by-election following the death of the knight for Cardiganshire as he was present at the election of Thomas Eynns as replacement.5

In 1544 Jones went with the King on the French campaign. Two years later he obtained a lease of the capital messuage of Abermarlais, where he had been steward since 1532, and also the lordship of Llansadwrn, Carmarthenshire; until this time he had been described as of Haroldston or Llanegwad, but thereafter he was to be always of Abermarlais. In 1543 he had also acquired the site of Talley abbey, together with several rectories in Carmarthenshire. An ally of the Herbert family and of the 1st Earl of Pembroke, Jones married his son Henry to a niece of the earl and was to name as overseer of his will (Sir) George Herbert, Pembroke’s elder brother. He sued out a general pardon at the accession of Queen Mary and seems to have passed the greater part of her reign in local activity while his sons took his place at Westminster. In 1558, however, he was elected again to Parliament. He made his will on 27 Jan., a week after the assembly. As it included provision for a priest in the parish church of Llansadwrn to pray for him for three years after his death he presumably did not share the religious sympathies of his son Richard. The date of probate, 26 June 1559, leaves it uncertain whether Jones survived to attend the second session of the Parliament in November 1558, but the omission of his name from the list of Members probably relating to that session implies that he did not. His heir was his son Henry.6

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: P. S. Edwards

Notes

  • 1. Date of birth estimated from first reference. Dwnn, Vis. Wales, i. 189, 222.
  • 2. LP Hen. VIII, i, iv v, xiv, xv, xviii; CPR, 1553, pp. 358, 364, 404, 419; 1553-4, pp. 19-20, 23, 25; 1554-5, p. 62; Wards 9/187/7; C219/21/215; Cal. Haverfordwest Recs. (Univ. Wales Bd. of Celtic Studies, Hist. and Law ser. xxiv), 19-21; Req.2/12/82, 8/170; SP11/5/6.
  • 3. CPR, 1485-94, p. 168; 1554-5, p. 62; LP Hen. VIII, i.
  • 4. LP Hen. VIII, v, vi, xiii, xiv; Leland, Itin. ed. Smith, iii. 113; Arch. Camb. cxvi. 168-70, 175-7; Wards 9/187/7.
  • 5. Description of Pemb. (Cymmrod. rec. ser. i), iii. 113-14; C219/18B/117.
  • 6. LP Hen. VIII, xviii, xix; Req.2/8/170, 12/82; APC, ii. 293; iii. 202; PCC 30 Chaynay; CPR, 1553-4, p. 444; Wm. Salt Lib. SMS 264.