Author: Jones, John
Biography:
JONES, John (b 1774: ODNB)
The poet was born in Jan. 1774 in the village of Clearwell, Gloucestershire, in the Forest of Dean. His father was a gardener on the estate of Charles Wyndham; his mother was a shopkeeper in the village. He was taught to read and write by two locals, an old woman and a stone-cutter. Otherwise, his education was confined to “a short time at school.” In youth, he mainly read religious books, the Psalter and the Bible, supplemented by sentimental stories “hawked about in a pedlar’s [sic] basket.” From age ten to fourteen, he was employed as a ploughman, then, for three years, he was a servant at a small inn at Chepstow, on the Welsh border. At age seventeen, he gained employment as a footboy in Bristol. Service in a succession of households followed. In Jan. 1804, he found permanent employment as a servant to William Sadleir Bruere (d 1852) of Kirby Hall, near Catterick, Yorkshire. He is known to have married a woman named Jane, with whom he had fourteen children. His poem published by subscription, Attempts in Verse (John Murray, 1831), is unusual in two respects. Despite being Lord Byron’s (q.v.) publisher, Murray hesitated to publish poetry. As a business investment, it was too high risk. He also seldom elected to publish a book by subscription, preferring instead to rely upon the market. The book appeared under Murray’s imprint at the specific request of Robert Southey (q.v.). In 1827, Jones sent his manuscript to Southey unsolicited. The book appeared primarily because the poems pleased Southey’s wife and daughters. Southey also wished to advertise them as examples of a dying category, the poetry of the lower classes, and to draw a moral lesson about the humanising effects of literature. Southey knew Murray would not risk his capital on such a publication, so, before submitting the book, he obtained a list of subscribers. Southey discussed Jones in a letter to Mary Hughes, dated Keswick, 19 Oct. 1827. The book was reviewed in ER and QR. (ODNB 10 Dec. 2023; R. Southey, Selections from the Letters, ed. J. W. Warter [1856], 4:66) JC