JONES
,
EDWARD
(d.
1586
),
conspirator
,
was the eldest son of
Edward
Jones
of
Plas Cadwgan, Denbs.
, and of
Cornhill
,
London
—
tailor
to
Mary
Tudor
and
master of the wardrobe
to
Elizabeth
I
— who was the son of
John ap David ap Robert
, a descendant of
Cynwrig ap Rhiwallon
.
Edward
Jones
the elder
(
sheriff of his county
in
1576
), d. at
Cadwgan
in
1581
, leaving substantial legacies to
North Wales
relations and money for
founding a grammar school
at
Wrexham
— subject to conditions, however, which remained unfulfilled. He recommended his son and namesake to his
patron
, the
earl of Leicester
. In
London
the younger
Edward
Jones
became the friend and admirer of
Thomas
Salusbury
of
Lleweni
(q.v.)
,
Leicester
's ward, under whose influence he abjured
Protestantism
, turned with his friend against
Leicester
as
Protestant champion
and
‘oppressor’ of North Wales
, and was initiated by
Salusbury
into
Babington
's plot on behalf of
Mary
,
queen of Scots
. The two friends were denounced as having discussed, on
13 June 1586
, plans for a rising on her behalf in
Denbighshire
, and after
Babington
's arrest on
14 Aug.
they fled to
Cheshire
, where they were arrested and carried to
London
for trial (or
Salusbury
escaped alone and
Jones
was arrested in
London
).
Jones
made avowal of his faith, and admitted having concealed his friend's treason and helped him to escape, but declared that he had tried to dissuade him from the plot and affirmed his complete loyalty to the
queen
. He was, nevertheless
executed for treason
on
Tower Hill
on
21 Sept. 1586
, and his estate (including
Plas Cadwgan
) was forfeit.
Bibliography:
-
A. N. Palmer
,
History of the thirteen country townships of
the old parish of Wrexham, and of the townships of Burras
Riffri, Erlas, & Erddig Being the fifth and last part
of "A history of the town and parish of Wrexham"
,
1903
, 8-12 (correcting
J. Y. W. Lloyd
,
History of the Princes, the Lords Marcher,
and the Ancient Nobility of Powys Fadog
, iii, 40), and
History of the town of Wrexham its houses,
streets, fields, and old families. being the fourth part of
"A history of the town and parish of Wrexham"
,
Wrexham, 1893
, 105 (corrected in
Trafodion Cymdeithas Hanes Sir Ddinbych /
Denbighshire Historical Society Transactions
, ii,
1953
, 45-6);
-
J. H. Pollen
(ed.),
Mary, Queen of Scots, and the Babington
Plot
, Edinburgh, 1922
(Scot. Hist. Soc., third series, iii,
1922
), cxx-cxxi, clxxii-clxxiii, 87;
-
Catholic Record Society
, iii,
1906
, 25;
-
D. Mathew
,
The Celtic Peoples and Renaissance Europe. A
study of the Celtic and Spanish influences on Elizabethan
history
, 1933
, 65-7;
-
E. G. Jones
,
Cymru a'r Hen Ffydd
, 24, and in
Trafodion Cymdeithas Hanes Sir Ddinbych /
Denbighshire Historical Society Transactions
, vi,
1957
, 11-15.
Author:
Emeritus Professor Arthur Herbert Dodd, M.A., (1891-1975), Bangor
