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Author: Jones, Henry

Biography:

JONES, Henry (1721-70: DIB)

A prior author, he was born at Bewley (Beaulieu), near Drogheda in County Louth; the names of his parents are not known. His age at the time of his death was 50. He worked as a bricklayer but seems to have had access to a good library and was encouraged to develop his literary interests. He began publishing verse in the 1740s; his 1745 poem commemorating the arrival in Ireland of Lord Chesterfield led to an invitation to move to London which Jones did in 1748. He achieved success with a collection of his verse, Poems on Several Occasions (1749), and a play, The Earl of Essex (1753). After this his fortunes and his health started to deteriorate particularly as he began drinking heavily, and he died in penury. On 3 Apr. 1770 Jones was admitted to the workhouse at St. Martin-in-the-Fields, and he died on 8 Apr. (The workhouse record identifies him as "author of the Earls of Warwick [sic].) The manuscript of The Heroine of the Cave was found among his papers and Samuel Reddish asked Paul Hiffernan (q.v.) to revise it for the stage and publication. His poem Vectis. The Isle of Wight was first pubished in 1766 and reissued as The Isle of Wight in 1782. (DIB 25 Apr. 2021; ODNB 25 Apr. 2021; ancestry.co.uk 24 Feb. 2024)

 

Books written (2):