JONES
,
WILLIAM
(d.
1679
),
Puritan minister
;
Probably
Merioneth
-born, he first comes into prominence by an order of the
Committee for Plundered Ministers
settling him at
Denbigh
and allowing him £100 per annum out of the profits of the rectory (
1647
); he acted also as
chaplain to the Parliament's garrison
in the town; in
1650
he was named as one of the twenty-five ‘approvers’ to work the
Propagation Act
. In the years
1654-6
his profits were in jeopardy because of the hostile attitude of an
Anglican
farmer of the tithes, but in
1657
the finance authorities of the
Protectorate
, the
Trustees for Maintenance
, allowed him an augmentation of £40 annually. The
Restoration
threatened both the original grant and the augmentation, but it was in
Aug. 1661
that he was effectually silenced as a
Puritan minister
, under the
Act of Sept.
(
1660
), not under the
Act of Uniformity
(
1662
). Under the
Five Mile Act
he had to leave
Denbigh
, and found refuge at
Plas Teg, Flints.
, the home of the
Trevor
s
of
Trefalun
(qq.v.)
— the father had been a
commissioner
under the
Propagation Act
of
1650
and the son was active in furthering
Charles
II
's design of a
Declaration of Indulgence
in
1672
; it is said that land was settled upon him to the value of £20 a year; he was at
Plas Teg
when a licence was issued to him to
preach
under the Indulgence of
1672, dated 28 Oct.
A few years later he joined the coadjutors of
Thomas
Gouge
(q.v.)
in
translating religious books into Welsh
— the two which he translated were originally written by
Gouge
himself, and both appeared in
1676
with the titles
Gair i Bechaduriaid, a Gair i'r Sainct and Principlau neu Bennau y Grefydd Christianogol
. Later he seems to have moved from
Plas Teg
to
Hope
, where he d. in
Feb. 1679
. His funeral sermon was preached by
Dr.
David
Maurice
, a ‘conforming
Minister
of
Abergeley
,’ who also penned a
Latin
inscription to be placed on his gravestone (this ‘
minister
’ was during
William
Jones
's latter years
vicar
of
Llanasa,
Flints.
; the ‘
conforming minister
’ and
William
Jones
had m. two sisters).
Bibliography:
-
Calendar of State Papers, Domestic
Series
, Record Publication
,
1654
(329),
1655
-6 (221, 223);
-
Lambeth Manuscripts
. 992 (45), 993 (316);
-
Diaries and letters of Philip Henry, M.A. of
Broad Oak, Flintshire, A.D. 1631-1696
, London,
1882
, 93;
-
Calendar of State Papers, Domestic
Series
, Record Publication
, Charles II, entry book 38A (261);
-
Calamy
,
An account of the ministers…ejected
,
1660–2
, 713;
-
The Nonconformist Memorial; being an Account
of the Lives…and Printed Books of the two thousand
Ministers ejected…
, 1802–3
,
1802-3
, iii, 477-8;
-
Thomas
,
A History of the Diocese of St.
Asaph
, i, 334;
-
History of the Princes, the Lords Marcher,
and the Ancient Nobility of Powys Fadog
, iv, 373.
Author:
Thomas Richards, D.Litt., (1878-1962), Bangor
