Author: Jones, Frederick Edward
Biography:
JONES, Frederick Edward (1759-1834: DIB)
He was the son of Thomas Jones, a Protestant landowner, and was born at Vesington, County Meath. The name of his mother is not known. He is said to have attended Trinity College Dublin; if he did, he did not graduate and no records have been found. From about 1793 he operated a music hall in Fishamble Street, Dublin, but his goal was to become manager of Dublin’s Theatre Royal in Crow Street. He acquired the lease for the theatre in 1797, replacing Richard Daly (q.v.) as manager. He ran the theatre for twenty-one years and initially was successful although there were lean times caused by political unrest in 1798 and again in 1803. John Wilson Croker’s (q.v.) Familiar Epistles to Frederick J---s, a satire criticising Jones’s management, appeared anonymously in 1804 and prompted Jones’s riposte; the anonymous The Thespiad of the same year is another response. At about the same time there was what seemed an orchestrated attack on Jones in various periodicals and in 1807 he accepted Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s (q.v.) offer to move to London and become part-owner and manager of Drury Lane theatre. However, the theatre burned down in 1809 and Jones returned to Dublin. He served as a magistrate and in 1814 he opposed Daniel O’Connell’s Catholic board in support of emancipation; this led to riots in the Crow Street theatre. He lost the patent for the theatre in 1819 and, burdened with debt and disappointment, he lived in obscurity in Dublin until his death from cholera. He was married but no records have been located; he and his wife (Susannah) had at least two and probably three sons who were all involved with the theatre. (ancestry.co.uk 14 Apr. 2021; DIB 14 Apr. 2021; ODNB 14 Apr. 2021; N&Q [1890] 392)
Other Names:
- Frederick E. J---s, i.e. Jones
- Frederick E. Jones