JONES
,
JENKIN
(
1623
-
?
),
captain in the Parliamentary army and Puritan preacher
.
He was b. at
Tŷ Mawr
in
Llanddetty
parish,
Brecknock
, matriculated at
Jesus College
,
Oxford
, in
1639
, and m. as second wife
Barbara
, daughter of
Sir
Anthony
Mansell
of
Briton Ferry
, niece to
Bussy
Mansell
(q.v.)
, who was very prominent on the
Parliament
's side in
Glamorgan
.
Jones
speedily came to the front in the
Civil War
both as
soldier
and as
preacher
; he was convinced that the
Baptists
were in the right regarding the manner of baptizing and who ought to be baptized, but he was willing to welcome other sects to the Lord's Table, and had little sympathy with the exclusionist ideas of
John
Miles
(q.v.)
, and his followers in
south-eastern Wales
. He was named as
Approver
under the
Propagation Act
of
1650
, and was paid also for his services as
itinerant preacher
; so zealous was he in adapting the provisions of that Act to the circumstances of the day that he drew upon himself the fierce protest of three
Brecknockshire
clerics
which was copied into the
True and Perfect Relation
,
1654
. Sometimes he preached as far south as
Llantilio Crossenny
; he spent much time in the
Merthyr Tydfil
district; but in
1657
settled down as
minister
at
Llanddetty
under the benediction of the
Triers
. This is definitely supported by an entry in
Lambeth MS. 998 (137)
that he was in the living by
18 Nov.
, and by a statement in the
Alarum to Corporations
published in
1659
that he was ‘
pastor of a congregated church
’ in the county; it is not easy, therefore, to accept
Calamy
's word that he was
minister
at
Llangattock-juxta-Neath
about the same time. Though
Jenkin
Jones
was a great friend of
Vavasor
Powell
(q.v.)
, there is little proof that he agreed with
Powell
's sanguine views about the Second Coming or with his political outlook; for all that, he was deeply disturbed by
Cromwell
's assumption of the Protectorate, signed the
Word for God
in protest, and went so far (said some of his enemies) as to
gather soldiers
together to fight against the new powers.
There was little hope at the Restoration for opponents of kings and ‘single powers‘;
Jones
soon found himself in
Carmarthen prison
; he was as soon released, but the news that he was gathering followers together and delivering fiery speeches brought him back to prison again. With this second imprisonment he disappears from history. There is not a word of him in the
Brecon
consistory books from
1660 to 1668
; and the effort to equate him with
Jenkin
Jones
of
Kilgerran
(above)
must be unreservedly abandoned. The
Kilgerran
captain
was a
Pembrokeshire
man born and bred; the names of his children are known.
Barzillai
was not among them, for he was the son of the
Puritan captain
of
Brecknock
, and died as
dean of Lismore
in
Ireland
and
chancellor of the cathedral of Waterford
.
Bibliography:
-
Theophilus Jones
,
History of the County of
Brecknock
(3rd ed.), iii, 193-5;
-
Alumni Oxonienses
,
1500-1740
, i, 818, 822;
-
T. Richards
,
Religious Developments in Wales,
1654–1662
, 1923
, 260-1, 395-6;
-
Wales under the Indulgence
, 208;
-
Reference is made to two editions, by E. B.
Underhill, 1847, and Nathaniel Haycroft, 1865. Reference is
also made to Addenda B (pp. 511–9 in 1847 ed)
, Add. B., 512, 513.
Author:
Thomas Richards, D.Litt., (1878-1962), Bangor
