Thomas Jones (abt. 1617 - 1654)

Born about 1617 in Essex, England [uncertain]

Husband of Mary (Unknown) Jones — married 1640 (to 5 Sep 1650) in Guilford, Connecticut

Husband of Mary (Unknown) Jones — married 1651 in Saybrook, Connecticut

Descendants

Died 1654 at about age 37 in England

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Thomas Jones migrated to New England during the Puritan Great Migration (1621-1640). (See The Directory, by R. C. Anderson, p. 188) Join: Puritan Great Migration Project Discuss: pgm

Biography

William Francis Boardman's Ancestry of Jane Maria Greenleaf offers this short summary biography of Thomas Jones: "He was the emigrant ancestor of this family. He was of Guilford in 1639, returned to England and died there of smallpox in 1654. His wife Mary died in 1650. He married 2nd, Widow Carter."^[1]

At greater length, the NEHGR of October, 1905, includes the article "Thomas Jones of Guilford, Connecticut, and Some of His Descendants", which notes that "Thomas Jones was one of the pioneer settlers of Guilford, and came with Mr. Whitfield. His name is sixth on the plantation Covenant signed June 1, 1639, on the passage of Mr. Whitfield's company to Guilford."^[2] An estimated birth date in the latter months of 1617 or early months of 1618 is based on the assumption that he should have been at least 21 by June of 1639, in order to sign the Guilford Covenant. At Guilford he was chosen Marshal from before 1646 until 1650; not long thereafter, following the death of his first wife, he removed to Saybrook.

While it is known that Thomas married a woman named Mary about 1640 at Guilford,^[3] the identification of Thomas's first wife -- by whom he had all four of his known children -- as Mary Howard must be regarded, in the absence of a defined primary source, as speculative. His second wife, the widow Carter -- given name and maiden surname unrecorded -- had a daughter Mary (by her previous marriage) who successfully sued his estate for £40 in 1656, leaving only a little over one pound remaining for distribution to Thomas's children.^[4]

The case for Thomas's parentage is also speculative at best. If proof can be found that he was in fact born in Essex (as early recorded, and for the present retained, in this profile), previously-shown parents Anne/Anna Vassal/Vassall -- and husband John Jones -- are geographically and chronologically reasonable candidates, as the Vassall family is from Essex and Anna (Vassall) Jones's will refers to the distribution of land held there.^[5] However, a case can and has been made that the Jones line of John & Anna is a different one, and may lead to Virginia, not to Connecticut.^[6].

Research Notes

The death of a Thomas Jones, son of Roger, is recorded at St. Oswald's, Oswestry, Shropshire, on 20 January 1654; see [1] or [2] (subscription required). There is however no way of ascertaining from this index-only record that this Thomas Jones is Thomas, late of Connecticut, and it is more likely that the record refers to a different Thomas Jones of Shropshire whose marriage is recorded there during the time period. 1653/54 and 1654 deaths/burials of other Thomas Joneses are shown online at Bristol in Gloucester, at Ashley and West Bromwich in Staffordshire, at Staunton in Worcestershire, and at Keynsham in Somersetshire; this last might be of particular interest as Somerset was a center of Puritanism, and Thomas Jones was among those who emigrated to Connecticut with Puritan minister Rev. Henry Whitfield in 1639. (Whitfield recruited most of the signers of the Guilford Covenant, however, from among farmers in Surrey and Kent.)

Research Notes from Abandoning America

1. Origin: southeast England; Thomas migrated with Henry Whitfield's company, and he signed the "plantation covenant" aboard ship, 1 June 1639.
2. Lived: in Guilford; member of the church Whitfield organized; voted as the first marshall of the plantation, and was chosen yearly until 17 June 1650 when a different man was chosen "to succeed in his room in that office when he removes."
3. Left: for England about 1652, leaving his children in New England; "and may have joined Samuel Desborough in Scotland." A letter from William Leete on 10 Oct 1654 was sent to Leith for Desborough, with the request "to remember my respects to Mr Jones". Soon after, Thomas Jones died; on 10 Mar 1654/5, John Davenport wrote that "Mrs Disborough, and Goodman Jones, of Gillford, dyed of the small poxe in England or Scotland" .
4. Stepdaughter Mary Carter: demanded £40 from estate on 12 Jun 1656, which was distributed to her; the residual £1 3s 8d of the estate in New England is all that was left for division among children Samuel, Nathaniel, and Sarah. "Nathaniel Jones of Branford died in 1668, leaving £52 6s, of which £45 15s was due him as portion of his father's will in England."
5. Wm Chittenden, who had arrived in Guilford in 1639 with Jones, oversaw his business transactions as his agent after Thomas Jones left New England; Chittenden sold Jones's property in early 1650's, with the permission of Jones's son Samuel.

Sources

1. ↑ The Ancestry of Jane Maria Greenleaf, by Boardman, William Francis (Case, Lockwood & Brainard Co., Hartford, Conn., 1906), p. 38; https://books.google.com/books?id=RzVPAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA38
2. ↑ "Thomas Jones of Guilford, Conn., and His Descendants", The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Boston, MA: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1847-. (Online database: AmericanAncestors.org, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2001-2018.), pp. 386-387; https://www.americanancestors.org/DB202/i/11590/386/241118531 (subscription required)
3. ↑ New England Marriages to 1700. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2008.) Originally published as: New England Marriages Prior to 1700. Boston, Mass.: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2015; https://www.americanancestors.org/DB1568/i/21175/870/426892795 (subscription required)
4. ↑ "Thomas Jones of Guilford, Conn., and His Descendants", as above, p. 386; https://www.americanancestors.org/DB202/i/11590/386/241118531 (subscription required)
5. ↑ Genealogical Gleanings in England, Vol. 2, by Henry Fitz-Gilbert Waters, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1901, p. 1316; https://books.google.com/books?id=caNCAAAAYAAJ&lpg=PA1317&ots=Npqn7adAVU&dq=anna%20vassall%201595%20john%20jones&pg=PA1316#v=onepage&q&f=true
6. ↑ The Ancestry of Robert Jones of Fleet's Bay, by M. Stanhope, 2015; https://harrisancestors.webs.com/jonesoffleetsbay.htm

• Marriage (1): New England Marriages to 1700. (Online database. AmericanAncestors.org. New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2008.) Originally published as: New England Marriages Prior to 1700. Boston, Mass.: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2015, https://www.americanancestors.org/DB1568/i/21175/870/426892795 (subscription required)

• 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

• A Genealogical Dictionary of The First Settlers of New England, Before 1692, Volume #2 Jones - Jones, by James Savage; http://www.usgennet.org/usa/topic/newengland/savage/bk2/jones-jones.htm

See Also:

• The Great Migration Directory, by Anderson, Robert Charles, New England Historic Genealogical Society (2015), p. 118 (see 5th one in the list of Jones, Thomas. He cites: Guilford Hist; NEHGR 59:386-87; Abandoning. see next.)

• A History of the Plantation of Menunkatuck and of the Original Town of Guilford, Connecticut: Comprising the Present Towns of Guilford and Madison, by Steiner, Bernard Christian, Baltimore: Steiner (1897); https://archive.org/details/historyofplantat00steiuoft/page/45; see at archive.org

• Abandoning America, Life-Stories From Early New England, by Moore, Susan Hardman, The Boydell Press, Woodbridge. (2013), p. 163, purchase from publisher or find in a library (WorldCat). (she cites: History of Guilford, by Steiner, NEHGR 59; and "Davenport's Letters" (see next; unable to locate online.)

• Letters of John Davenport, Puritan Devine, by Calder, I. M., New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. (1937), p. 102.

• Connecticut Historical Collections, by John Warner Barber, Durrie & Peck and J.W. Barber, 1849, p. 214; https://books.google.com/books?id=aOxHAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA214

• [Note that entries in this file are considered reliable ONLY if specific primary or highly reputable secondary sources are cited] The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, "Pedigree Resource File," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/2:2:9W37-2M3 : accessed 2016-03-07), entry for Thomas JONES, submitted by dclarsen2753739.