Thomas Johnes (abt. 1492 - bef. 1559)

Born about 1492 in Wales

Ancestors

Descendants

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Biography

Thomas Johnes was born in Wales.

Thomas Jones was born by 1492,^[1] the first son of John ap Thomas ap Gruffydd of Abermarlais by Eleanor^[2] daughter of Thomas Vaughan of Brodorddyn, Carm. Thomas married twice: (1) Elizabeth (daughter of Sir Edward Done of Kidwelly, Carm.), by whom he had two daughters,^[3] and (2) by 1532, Mary (daughter of James Berkeley of Thornbury, Glos., wid. of Thomas Perrot (d.1531) of Haroldston, Pemb.), by whom he had at least 3 sons, including Henry and Richard, and two daughters.^[4]

Family

With first wife, Elsbeth Dwnn, daughter and sole heiress of Sir Edward Dwnn, Knight^[5]

• Frances, m Raff Lee
• Ann, m John Koton

Thomas Johnes/JONES Sir Knt married Mary BERKELEY. Sir Thomas Johnes of Abermarlais, Kt., Sheriff of Carmarthenshire and Cardigan married 1st Elizabeth Dwnn (s.p.) and 2nd, as her second husband Mary Berkeley.^[6]

Sir Thomas Jones was Mary Berkeley's second husband. Her first husband was Thomas Perrot, by whom she was mother of Sir John Perrot, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Mary Berekley's parents were Sir James Berkeley and Susan Fitz Alan.^[7]

Thomas married second the widow Mary (Berkeley) Perrot. Thomas and Mary had three sons and two daughters:^[4]

• Syr Hari Johns marchog,^[8] heir^[4]
• Richard Johns,^[4] esquire^[8]
• Jams Johns, esquire^[8] (see also #James below, which calls him James ap Meurig and mentions a sister Margaret)
• Elnor m Gruffydd ap Rys^[9] of Newton^[8]
• Katrin m first Tomas Vachan^[10] of Pembrokeshire and second Richard Bassett^[8]

Gwedi marw Tomas Perot sgwier i priododd hi Syr Tomas Johns marchog 1 ; Ai fflant o hono ydoedd Syr Hari Johns marchog; ai vab yr Syr Tomas Johns, braw dir Syr Hari oedd Richiart Johns, 3 oedd Jams Johns, sgwiers oeddynt. Elnor i chwaer a briododd Gruffydd Rys o Drenewydd sgwier, Katrin a briodd yn gyntaf Tomas Vachan o Benbre[10] sgwier ag wedi hynu Richiard Bassett o'r Bewper[11] sgwier.^[11]

[10] In Carmarthenshire

[11] in Glamorganshire

Evidence for a son "James Meurig" (and sister Margaret) for Thomas ap John:^[12]

• Sir Rhys ap Thomas testified that he had absolved James ap Meurig ...
• James ap Meurig had evidently died intestate sometime in August 1522...his sister and heir Margaret
• James [adopted] the name of Meurig. His full name in true patronymic style would have been James ap Thomas ap John ap Thomas ap Gruffydd ap Nicholas.

John ap Thomas

Thomas, son of John ap Thomas and his wife, daughter of Thomas and Elinor (Whitney) Vaughan, was named after his grandfather, Sir Thomas:

Gwehylyth Syr Thomas Johns Marchog y Ryfel

Visitations of Wales chart, pp 189-190, showing John as son of said Sir Thomas Johns, warrior knight of Abermarlais, in the Vale of Towy, Carmarthenshire

John ap Tomas ap Gruffydd ap Nikolas^[13] married Elinor, daughter of Tomas Vachan of Frodorddyn and Elnor, daughter of Robert of Chwitne, son of Ystans of Chwitne^[14]

• Syr Tomas Johns marchog, ap John ap Tomas eldest son
• Morgan Johns, Esquire, 2nd son, married Mawd
• William, father of Syr Jams Williams
• Watkin
• Elsbeth gwraig Tomas Lloyd brawd hynaf David Lloyd ap Robert^[15]
• Sioned sans isyw^[16]

Offices Held

from History of Parliament Online's biography of Sir Thomas Jones:

Groom of the chamber in 1513, gent. usher in 1532; jt. constable, Llandovery castle, Carm. and steward and receiver of the lordship 1527; commr. lands of Rhys ap Gruffydd 1531, sewers, Card., Carm. 1540, subsidy, Pemb. 1544, relief, Brec., Card., Carm., Glam., Pemb., Salop and Haverfordwest 1550, goods of churches and fraternities, Card., Carm. 1553; steward and receiver, Abermarlais and Newcastle Emlyn, Carm., constable, Emlyn castle 1532; steward, Haverfordwest, Pemb. and Laugharne, Carm. 1532, Llansadwrn, Carm. 1539; member, town council, Haverfordwest by 1539-46 or later; sheriff, Pemb. 1540-1, 1548-9, Carm. 1542-3, Card. 1543-4; feodary, Pemb. c.1546; gov., surveyor and receiver, castle and lordship of Narberth, Pemb. 1543; constable, Tenby castle and steward, lordship of Coedrath, Pemb. 1543; burgess, Cardigan, Card. by 1553; j.p. Carm., Glos., Herefs., Salop and Worcs. 1555.2"

Sheriff of each of the counties of Cardigan, Carmarthen and Pembroke between 1540 and 1544.

Jones is known to have sat in three Parliaments, twice for Pembrokeshire (1542, 1547) and once for Carmarthenshire (1558): he may also have been re-elected for Pembrokeshire to the Parliament of March 1553, in which his son Henry sat for the first time for Carmarthenshire, although he perhaps stood aside in favour of his stepson John Perrot.

Residences

"of Abermarlais" after 1546; described as "of Haroldston or Llanegwad" previously^[17]

Abermarlais (forfeited estate "of his kinsman, Rhys ap Gruffydd," who was arrested in 1531. "Jones was one of four commissioners appointed to inquire into the traitor’s lands and to seize his goods. Jones was the most active of the commissioners, and it was he who was to derive the greatest benefit from the escheat. Among the forfeited estates were Abermarlais and Llansadwrn: it was at Abermarlais that he first established himself in the house built by his uncle and visited by Leland."^[4])

Haroldston in Pembrokeshire ("Jones also had a house at Haroldston in Pembrokeshire and was described as of that place on his return to Parliament for Pembrokeshire in 1541. His connexion with the shire began with his marriage to the widow of Thomas Perrot of Haroldston, near Haverfordwest."^[4])

Haverfordwest ("Here Jones became a leading figure; he was lessee of the lordship and manor of Haverfordwest, of the castle, lordship and manor of Laugharne, and of the manor of Castle Walwyn, Carmarthenshire, all part of the inheritance of his stepson John Perrot, whose wardship he purchased in 1533, and for many years he was a prominent member of Haverfordwest town council."^[4])

During his first Membership (1542) Jones is said to have secured the transfer of several lordships, including his own of Laugharne, to Carmarthenshire from Pembrokeshire: the motive appears to have been his wish to consolidate his estates in one county.^[4]

Death

Sir Thomas Jones^[18] made his will January 27, 1558/9.^[19][20] "As it included provision for a priest in the parish church of Llansadwrn to pray for him for three years after his death he presumably did not share the religious sympathies of his son Richard." His heir was his son Henry.^[4]

Research Notes

An unsourced profile had his birth place as Bredwardine, Herefordshire, England. The Vaughan family is of Bredwardine, but this Thomas was born in Wales.

from Jones-551 (merged into Johnes-10 on 12 June 2020):

Category: Bredwardine, Herefordshire

Born 1492, Bredwardine, Herefordshire, England

Died 1559-06-26

No sources for Jones-551; prior to the merge, profiles that were not supported of an unknown mistress and her daughter Sybil were detached.

The profle that was detached as this Thomas's illegitimate daughter, Sybil, is attached as mother of several illegitimate children by John Perrot, who is Thomas Johnes' stepson. The source that names her Jones has her as "Sybil Jones (ferch Rhys)" - daughter of Rhys.^[21]

Sources

1. ↑ from Parliament Online: "Date of birth estimated from first reference. Dwnn, Vis. Wales, i. 189, 222."
2. ↑ Elinor, according to the Visitations of Wales (page 189); Eleanor, according to Thomas Jones' History of Parliament Online biography; Elizabeth, according to Annals and Antiquities of...Wales, published in1872.
3. ↑ Annals and Antiquities of...Wales has that she died childless; Visitations of Wales (p 199) shows Sir Edward Dwnn's daughter Elsbeth m Sir Tomas Johns and they had two daughters.
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8} History of Parliament Online (HOP): Sir Thomas Jones
5. ↑ Visitations of Wales, p 199
6. ↑ Thomas Nicholas, Annals and Antiquities of the Counties and County Families of Wales (1872), Volume 1, p 268, "Jones of Abermarlais" (Google e-book accessed April 11, 2015)
7. ↑ from Janet Ariciu's website.
8. ↑ ^{8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4} Visitations of Wales, p 89
9. ↑ pretty sure this is the profile for her husband, based on information on p 211, Visitations of Wales
10. ↑ Heir of Walter Vaughan, Thomas Vaughan was sheriff of Carmarthenshire, 1566 and 1570 & married Catherine, daughter of Sir Thomas Johnes of Abermarlais.
    • Jones, E. D., (1959). VAUGHAN family of Bredwardine, Herefordshire... Dictionary of Welsh Biography. Retrieved 12 Jun 2020, from https://biography.wales/article/s-VAUG-BRO-1350
11. ↑ Visitations of Wales, p 89
12. ↑ National Library of Wales journal - Cyf. 30, rh. 4 Gaeaf 1998 NLW roll 135 : a seventeenth-century pedigree roll from Herefordshire, page 398 - see that page for citations as to the source of the statements
13. ↑ back to Urien Rheged - see page 131, and also 210 in Visitations of Wales (and Wikipedia for more information about Urien)
14. ↑ from Visitations of Wales chart; Janet Ariciu's website shows both Elinor and Elizabeth/Elsbeth as the mother's name, and includes more children than listed here (which are only the six listed in the Visitations of Wales chart)
15. ↑ wife of Tomas Lloyd, older brother of David Lloyd, son of Robert
16. ↑ "sans isyw" = "without issue"
17. ↑ "In 1544 Jones went with the King on the French campaign. Two years later he obtained a lease of the capital messuage of Abermarlais, where he had been steward since 1532, and also the lordship of Llansadwrn, Carmarthenshire; until this time he had been described as of Haroldston or Llanegwad, but thereafter he was to be always of Abermarlais. In 1543 he had also acquired the site of Talley abbey, together with several rectories in Carmarthenshire." (from Parliament Online)
18. ↑ probably knighted January 1542: "He was probably one of those summoned to the Parliament Chamber and there knighted on the opening of Parliament..." (from History of Parliament Online #HOP)
19. ↑ date of probate, 26 June 1559, from Parliament Online
20. ↑ #Bartrum shows "d. 1577/9"
21. ↑ http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~parrott/genealogy/pembrokeshire.shtml (accessed 12 June 2020)

• Lewys Dwnn, Heraldic visitations of Wales and part of the marches between the years 1586 and 1613 Vol. 1
• John Rowland's Pedigree of the Ancient Family of Dolau Cothi (online courtesy of archive.org; accessed May 17, 2015)
• Fred Prices' History of Caio, Carmarthenshire (online courtesy of the Hathi Trust, accessed May 17, 2015), pp 60-61
• Thomas Johnes, Rootsweb entry (no longer accessible, "503 Service Temporarily Unavailable" as of 20 September 2023) from the database for Celtic Royal Genealogy, the Turner-Thomas site "which is a definitive, well researched site" (from Prof. Evans' book (see next entry) ... Ancestry cleansed this entry: "Person Not Viewable" as of 28 April 2020.
• O Hudd Ei Ddoe by Myron Wyn Evans (2012)
• The Bartrum Project, digitization of "Welsh Genealogies AD 300- 1500" by Peter C. Bartrum (mirrored from the defunct Cadair site by Geni: Bartrum Genealogical Project - free login required to access the charts). See additional information about Cadair in G2G.
  • Einion ap Llywarch 7(A5), John ap Thomas

Acknowledgements

• Janet Ariciu
• Liz Shifflett
• Travis Wagner