Author: Jones, Thomas
Biography:
JONES, Thomas (1768-1828: ODNB)
pseudonym Bardd Cloff
Llandysilio, Denbighshire is most often cited as the poet’s place of birth. Probably he is the Thomas Jones who was baptised at Llandysilio on 15 Apr. 1768, a son of Thomas Jones of Cymmo in the parish of Llandysilio, and his wife, Anne. At age 12 he commenced employment in the counting house of Mathew Davies (alt. Matthew), lacemaker, at 90 Long Acre, Westminster, London. By 1813, he was a full partner in the business and by 1822 its treasurer. He spent summers at Dovey Cottage, Machynlleth, Montgomeryshire (now a grade II listed building). Having joined the Society of Gwyneddigion in 1789, he served several times as its secretary and he was its president for three terms. He also was a governor of the Deaf and Dumb Asylum; a member of the Society of Ancient Britons; of the Royal Society of Arts; and of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce; and he was treasurer of the Royal Camrian Institution. A Swedenborgian, he was an aficionado of the Rev. Samuel Noble, and a trustee of Noble’s New Church. On 14 June 1803, his first wife, Jane, gave birth to triplets, Thomas, Mary, and Sarah. She died 19 Nov. 1822. On 1 Jan. 1824 at St George, Hanover Square, he married, secondly, Frances Mary Hughes (possibly Jane’s sister). John Lennard Hughes (an executor of his will) and his wife, Margaret Jane Hughes (his brother and sister-in-law) named one of their sons in his memory Thomas Jones Hughes. He died 19 Feb. 1828 at his house in Long Acre. His will refers to his sister, Jane, and to his partners in trade, Isaac Lloyd Williams and Major General Lewis Davies. (ODNB 20 Dec. 2023; DWB; PROB 11/1738; GM 73:1 [1803], 594; New Jerusalem Magazine [1828], 95; R. Williams, Enwogion Cymru: a Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Welshmen [1852], 264–65) JC