JONES, John II (c.1613-92), of Bartholomew Lane, London.

Jones’s background is obscure. In his will he states he was born in the parish of St Chad’s, Shrewsbury, and he seems to have attended the local grammar school before moving to London to serve an apprenticeship in the Grocers’ Company.19GL, MS 4374/1, unfol. After obtaining his freedom in 1637 he settled in Broad Street ward, where in 1640 he was listed among the third rank of inhabitants.20GL, MS 11592A; Inhabitants of London, ed. Harvey, 5. Over the next few years he became an active member of the High Presbyterian parish of St. Bartholomew near the Exchange, holding several parochial offices and being instrumental in the appointment of Thomas Cawton, a leading Presbyterian divine, as minister. His wealth was also increasing during this period, and in the spring of 1642 he was able to invest £200 in the Irish Adventure scheme.21Bottigheimer, Eng. Money and Irish Land, 185.

With the outbreak of civil war, Jones supported the parliamentarians. In November 1642 he contributed £25 to the city loan for supplying the parliamentary army; in September 1643 he subscribed the Solemn League and Covenant; and in the following October he was actively involved in raising money to pay the Scottish army.22St Bartholomew, Exchange i. pp. xx, 144; ii. 4, 11. Enlisting in the new City regiments raised to guard the fortifications in the same year, Jones quickly rose to the rank of captain of foot in the blue auxiliaries.23SP28/237, unfol. He was almost certainly the ‘Captain Jones’ who fought under Sir William Waller* at Winchester in 1644 and published a pamphlet praising the role of the London trained bands and the Presbyterian Major-g eneral Richard Browne II* in the victory.24Letter from Capt. Jones ... (1644), unpag. (E.40.2).

In 1645 Jones was involved in negotiations between the City and Parliament about raising money for the relief of Taunton.25St Bartholomew, Exchange i. p. xxv. After the discovery of a letter from the parliamentary Independents offering ‘very dangerous’ propositions to the king in June of that year, Jones was approached by the agents of the Scottish commissioners to organize support for the Presbyterian and Scottish interest in the City.26Letters and Jnls. of Robert Baillie, ed. D. Laing (3 vols. Edinburgh, 1841-2), ii. 282-5. In November he was appointed to the committee to examine all royalist deserters.27A. and O. In the same month he was one of the ‘substantial’ citizens who signed a petition, addressed to the common council but later presented to Parliament, calling for ‘the complete establishment of ... power upon all the several elderships ... according to the word of God and the example of the best reformed churches’.28CLRO, Jor. 40, f. 153v. He was elected to the common council in December, and resigned all parochial offices to concentrate on his civic duties, becoming over the next few months one of the most prominent Presbyterians in the City.29St Bartholomew, Exchange ii. 15-16; Brenner, Merchants and Revolution, 482-3. In April 1646, when the corporation decided to support church government ‘according to the Solemn League and Covenant’, Jones was appointed to a City committee to draft a remonstrance to Parliament demanding the suppression of separatist congregations and sectaries, the preservation of the alliance between England and Scotland, and the renewal of peace negotiations with the king.30CLRO, Jor. 40, f. 176; Humble Remonstrance… of the City of London (26 May 1646, E.338.7). Despite the opposition of several ‘considerable’ citizens, including Robert Tichborne*, the remonstrance was accepted on 22 May and Jones was one of the two representatives who ‘went to the Lords’ House and spoke with my lord general [the 3rd earl of Essex] to know what day it should be delivered’.31Juxon Jnl. 21, 123. When the remonstrance was attacked by Independent pamphleteers, Jones published a defence of the common council and the Scots.32[Capt. Jones], Plain English, or the Sectaries Anatomized (1646, E.350.11); M. Tolmie, Triumph of the Saints (Cambridge, 1977), 134-5. At the end of June he was appointed to a common council committee to consider a suitable reply to the king’s letter to the City expressing his desire to return to his capital and to reach a peaceful settlement, and he was also a member of the deputation which requested Parliament’s permission to dispatch the reply.33CLRO, Jor. 40, f. 186v. In an indication of Jones’s standing at this time, on 9 October he was made a trustee for the sale of bishops’ lands.34A. and O.

As tensions between the City Presbyterians and the Independents in Parliament continued, on 5 March 1647 Jones, together with Thomas Adams* and John Langham*, asked to be relieved of his appointment as trustee for bishops’ lands, ostensibly ‘because they cannot constantly attend and execute the same, by reason of their other necessary occasions’. In the following May, however, Parliament agreed to return control of the militia to the City and Jones was appointed to the Presbyterian-dominated commission.35A. and O. On 29 June the Commons, under pressure from the army, ordered the committee for impeachment to bring articles against Jones and other City troublemakers.36HMC 7th Rep., 687. Jones was openly involved in the ‘forcing of the Houses’ at the end of July. With Adams and Langham he was later accused of playing a leading role in the events of 26 July, when a mob forced both Houses of Parliament to revoke the Militia Ordinance and return responsibility for the trained bands to the City commission. He signed warrants of the militia committee on 27 July, 4 and 5 August, and was paid money in his capacity of captain of the Blue Regiment on 2 August.37SP28/237, unfol. After the army’s arrival in London, Jones was one of the Presbyterian leaders examined by the committee to examine the ‘force and violence’ against Parliament. Their report, presented by Miles Corbett on 25 September, accused Jones of ‘high crimes and misdemeanours’, and his impeachment was voted by the Commons by a margin of nine, with Sir Arthur Hesilrige and Thomas Chaloner as tellers for the yeas, and Harbottle Grimston and William Jesson for the noes. It was then resolved that Jones was to be committed to the custody of the serjeant-at-arms while a trial could be arranged.38CJ v. 316b; Perfect Weekly Account no. 38 (22-30 Sept. 1647), unpag. (E.409.21); CSP Dom. 1645-7, p. 601. Jones and the other City prisoners remained in custody until the outbreak of the second civil war in the spring of 1648. Fearful of a royalist invasion and dependent on the City for protection, both Houses gave in to a petition from the City authorities and ordered Jones’s release on 23 May.39LJ x. 278a; CJ v. 570b; Rushworth, Hist. Collns. vii. 1124-6. He later claimed his imprisonment ‘sufficiently expressed his loyalty in the worst times’.40A. Grey, Debates of the House of Commons (1769), ii. 134-5.

Jones’s activities after his release are not easy to discover. He may have been the John Jones investigated by the Derby House committee in October and November 1648 and the council of state in September 1649 and January 1650, but the evidence is far from conclusive.41CSP Dom. 1648-9, pp. 313, 315; 1649-50, p. 496, 546. It seems more likely, with the defeat of the Presbyterians in the City and their seclusion from Parliament by Pride’s Purge, that he kept a low profile. In October 1650 he declined to represent the Grocers’ Company at the swearing in of the new lord mayor, Thomas Foote*, ‘in regard of a journey by him to be made for his extraordinary occasions’, and was fined £10.42GL, MS 11588/4, pp. 254, 26. He made a brief appearance in public affairs in December 1653 when he was appointed to a City deputation to invite Oliver Cromwell* and his council to a feast to mark the establishment of the protectorate.43CLRO, Jor. 41x, f. 92v. At the elections to the first protectorate Parliament in July 1654 Jones was nominated, but not eventually elected for the City.44Harl. 6810, ff. 164-5. He was more successful in August 1656 and was one of the ‘very good religious men’ elected by the City to the second protectorate Parliament, but, with his two colleagues, Thomas Adams and Richard Browne II, he was immediately excluded.45TSP v. 337; Clarke Pprs iii. 70; Little and Smith, Cromwellian Protectorate, 303-4. He does not appear to have taken his seat in January 1658, at the readmission of the excluded Members. Re-elected for London in January 1659, Jones made little impact on the House.46Clarke Pprs. iii. 173. He is recorded as having made three speeches. On 5 February he recommended leniency towards William King, found attending the Commons although he was not an MP, arguing that he was but ‘a madman’.47Burton’s Diary iii. 82. Jones showed his deep conservatism when he spoke on 22 February and 8 March in favour of readmitting ‘ancient Lords that have not forfeited their rights’ to places in the Other House.48Burton’s Diary iii. 424; iv. 82. On the latter occasion he urged the Commons to consider the wider implications of restricting membership:

The old lords have most seasonably, successfully and faithfully served you. It appears to me that it is most reasonable their rights should be restored. You are now upon peace. The meanness of governors makes the government mean. Every tendency to that end of righteousness and peace ought not to be obstructed. I find this to be the great block in your way. It is a great sense to do right to them and to the nation.49Burton’s Diary iv. 82.

Jones’s only other involvement in this Parliament came on 1 April, when he was appointed to the committee for Irish affairs.50CJ vii. 623a. The City paid him 4s a day for his service during this Parliament.51CLRO, Rep. 69, f. 319v.

Jones survived the political upheavals of 1659 and 1660 unscathed. Despite the opposition of the court party, which still considered him ‘a Presbyterian man’, he was elected to the Cavalier Parliament and served until its dissolution in January 1679.52CSP Dom. 1660-1, pp. 539, 542; Pepys’s Diary ii. 57; HP Commons 1660-1690. He died on 21 May 1692 and was buried at St Bartholomew’s.53Garside, Hampton Sch., 112. He was a very wealthy man: his estate was valued at almost £28,000, and in the absence of surviving children, he left most of his money to charities in London and Shropshire, with a considerable bequest to Hampton school, Middlesex.54C7/614/3; PROB11/412/252. Although his will was not witnessed and was thus contested by more distant relatives, it seems that most of his wishes were subsequently fulfilled.55C7/614/3; Garside, Hampton Sch. 111-18, 150-6, 237-44.