Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jones, John (d.1796)

1400433Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 30 — Jones, John (d.1796)1892Louisa M. Middleton

JONES, JOHN (d. 1796), organist and composer, was organist to the Middle Temple from 24 Nov. 1749, to the Charterhouse from 2 July 1753, and to St. Paul's Cathedral from 25 Dec. 1755 until his death on 17 Feb. 1796 (Grove). One of his chants, as performed by the charity children at their annual meeting in St. Paul's in 1791 was heard by Haydn, who noted it down in his diary, with the comment, ‘No music has ever affected me so much as this innocent and devotional strain.’

Jones published ‘Lessons for the Harpsichord,’ 2 vols., 1761, and ‘Sixty Chants, Single and Double,’ 1785.

Another John Jones (fl. 1797), sub-director of the Handel Commemoration in 1784, was probably the composer of ‘Six Pianoforte Trios,’ and the glee, ‘Ah! pleasing scenes,’ both published about 1797.

[Grove's Dict. of Music, ii. 39, iv. 686; Pohl's Haydn in London, pp. 147, 213; Mendel's Lexikon, v. 475.]

L. M. M.