Mary (Unknown) Jones (abt. 1617 - abt. 1650)

Born about 1617 in England [uncertain]

Wife of Thomas Jones — married 1640 (to 5 Sep 1650) in Guilford, Connecticut

Descendants

Died about 5 Sep 1650 at about age 33 in Guilford, Connecticut

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Mary (Unknown) Jones migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640). Join: Puritan Great Migration Project Discuss: pgm

Disputed Origins

The first wife of Thomas Jones was previously shown as Mary Howard, born at Arundel Castle, Sussex; but no source was listed, and after significant efforts, none has been found. No record of the birth of a person of that name has been found in Arundel, Sussex, nor has there been located any record of the marriage of Thomas Jones to anyone of that name, in the appropriate time period. The closest match found is the 1617 baptismal record of a Maria Haiward, daughter of Johannis, at Storrington, some half-dozen miles NE of Arundel;^[1] but there is no known subsequent indication of her marriage to anyone, let alone to Thomas Jones.

The maiden surname of Mary Jones has thus been changed to "Unknown".

Biography

The first wife of Guilford Covenant signer Thomas Jones, and the mother of his four children, was named Mary; her maiden surname is not known. Her birth was presumably in a year close to that of her husband, say 1617; her 1650 death is reported in Elizabeth Carol Cass's 1952 "John Hooker Williams: his ancestors and descendants" as occurring on 5 December of that year, but this differs from both a Guilford burial record showing 5 September, and the town's death record, which shows 16 September. (Thomas's remarriage to the widow Mary? Carter -- presumably after moving his family to Saybrook -- must have taken place not long after the death of his first wife, as he is known to have returned to England by 1652; he died there, reportedly of smallpox, in 1654.)

Sources

1. ↑ FreeReg UK, parish register, St. Mary, Storrington, transcribed by Charlotte Ryan; https://www.freereg.org.uk/search_records/59afc4a1f493fd4c577d1bd0/maria-haiward-baptism-sussex-storrington-1617-12-21?locale=en

• Death/burial: "Mary, w. of Thomas, d. Sept. 16, 1650"/"Mary, w. of Thomas, bd. Sept. 5, 1650" -- Connecticut: Vital Records (The Barbour Collection), 1630-1870 (Online Database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2011.) From original typescripts, Lucius Barnes Barbour Collection, 1928; https://www.americanancestors.org/DB414/i/12535/151/139012976 (subscription)

• John Hooker Williams: his ancestors and descendants, by Elizabeth Carol Cass, Princeton, Ill. : Phillips Letter Shop, 1952, p. 64; https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89062448352&view=1up&seq=70

• The Ancestry of Jane Maria Greenleaf, by William Francis Boardman, Case, Lockwood & Brainard Co., Hartford, Conn., 1906, p. 38; https://books.google.com/books?id=RzVPAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA38