Family and Education

b. c.1667, 1st s. of William Jones of Shrewsbury and Carreghofa, Mont. by Grace, da. of Sir Peter Pindar, 1st Bt., of Edinshaw, Cheshire; gds. of Thomas Jones† of Shrewsbury and Carreghofa. educ. Emmanuel, Camb. 1685.  m. (1) Mary (d. 1712), da. and coh. of Sir Francis Russell, 2nd Bt.†, of Strensham, Worcs., s.p.; (2) lic. 15 May 1714, Jane, da. of Sir Edward Leighton, 1st Bt.* s.p.  suc. fa. 1694.1

Offices Held

Mayor, Oswestry 1689; freeman, Much Wenlock 1698; sheriff, Denb. 1698–9, Salop 1699–1700.2

Biography

Jones’s great-grandfather had been steward of Shrewsbury; his great-uncle had sat for the borough in 1659; and his grandfather, the lord chief justice, had been both its town clerk and MP. He himself, a zealous Whig, stood there in 1702, only to be defeated by the powerful Tory interest in the borough. In the 1708 election he was prominent in support of the Whig candidate, Sir Edward Leighton, but again two Tories were returned. On this occasion however, the Tories were unseated on petition. Leighton was declared elected and Jones secured the other seat with a comfortable victory at the ensuing by-election in January 1710. He was for a time prevented from attending Parliament because of the necessity of visiting his ailing mother-in-law, but he was listed as having voted for the impeachment of Dr Sacheverell. Having been thrown out at the general election in 1710, in which the doctor’s impeachment proved to be a weighty issue among the Shrewsbury voters, he was returned again in 1713. He voted on 18 Mar. 1714 against the expulsion of Richard Steele, but in May was himself unseated on petition, it being accepted by the House that at the election the mayor of Shrewsbury, an ally of his, had wrongfully disallowed a large number of votes for one of his Tory opponents. Jones was classed as a Whig in the Worsley list and two other lists analysing the 1713 and 1715 Parliaments. Jones died on 31 July 1715, soon after the opening of Parliament, and was buried at Shrewsbury.3

Ref Volumes: 1690-1715

Author: D. W. Hayton

Notes

• 1. Trans. Salop Arch. Soc. ser. 2, viii. 168; Add. 38855, f. 147; Mar. Lic. Fac. Off. (Brit. Rec. Soc. xxxiii), 288; PCC 128 Box.
• 2. Hist. Oswestry (1815), p. 134; Salop RO, Forester mss, copy of Much Wenlock corp. bk.
• 3. Bradford mss at Weston Park, John Bridgeman* to Robert Lloyd I†, 2 June 1699, same to (Sir) Arthur Owen*, 9 Jan. 1710, same to Jones, 27 Dec. 1712; Luttrell, Brief Relation, vi. 532; Mont. Colls. xiv. 265–6.