Author: Jones, Sophia
Biography:
JONES, Sophia Hannah Maria, formerly Howell (1766-1844: ancestry.com)
Better known as a miniaturist than as a poet, she was born in London on 12 Aug 1766, the only child of Thomas Howell (1715-1795) of 23 Clarges Steet, Piccadilly, and his wife, Elizabeth (d bef. 1795). She was baptised 3 Sept. 1766 at St Martin in the Fields. She had a half-sister, Elizabeth Glyn, by her mother’s first marriage. On 15 Nov. 1788 at St George, Hanover Square, Westminster, she married Thomas Jones. One of her five children, Eliza Alicia Hassell (bap 1801), was named for her husband’s business partner, watercolourist John Hassell (ODNB). George III commissioned prints from the firm Hassell-Jones for inclusion in his topographical collection. She was a frequent exhibitioner at the Royal Academy, primarily of miniatures, also of portraits in pen-and-ink (she exhibited 1783 through 1788, 1796, 1797, 1800, and 1807 through 1812). Two of her subjects, her friends Henrietta and Grace Lowndes of Dominica, daughters of John Lowndes, surveyor-general of Dominica and a slave-owner, were relatives of her publisher, Charles Lowndes of Drury Lane. Examples of her work can be found online. Her 1786 stipple-engraved portrait of the Duchess of Grafton is in the British Museum’s print collection; one of her miniatures is in the Rijksmuseum; several are illustrated in auction house catalogues. Sheidlof justifiably describes her work as “of average quality but attractive.” She was buried 14 Oct. 1844 at St James, Clerkenwell, London. (ancestry.com 19 Dec. 2023; PROB 11/1257; British Museum 1867,1214.645; A. Graves, The Royal Academy of Arts [ 1906] 4:22, 174, 279; L. R. Sheidlof, The Miniature in Europe [1964], 378) JC