JONES, JOHN (1835–1877), geologist and engineer, was born in the neighbourhood of Wolverhampton in 1835. While young he began to study the rocks of his native district, and published a useful and trustworthy little treatise on the ‘Geology of South Staffordshire.’ Jones was secretary of the South Staffordshire Ironmasters' Association from an early age until 1866, when he was appointed secretary to the Cleveland Ironmasters' Association, and removed to Middlesbrough. In his new position Jones took an active part in the formation of the board of arbitration and conciliation for the iron trade of the north of England. He acted on this board, as the representative of the employers, until his death. He was also secretary of the Middlesbrough chamber of commerce and of the British Iron Trade Association; while shortly before his death he was appointed secretary to the Association of Agricultural Engineers. He will probably be best remembered as the founder of the Iron and Steel Institute in 1868, for which he continued to act as secretary and editor of its journal until his death. Among other useful work, Jones established a weekly iron exchange at Middlesbrough. He founded and edited two or three newspapers connected with the iron trade, of which the ‘Iron and Coal Trades Review’ was perhaps the best known. He was elected an associate of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers in 1869, and became a full member of the same body in 1873.
Jones died at Saltburn-by-Sea on 6 June 1877, at the age of forty-two, after a long illness. His savings had all been embarked in the iron industries of the north of England, and the companies in which he had speculated having failed, he died penniless. A fund, however, was raised by the members of the Iron and Steel Institute for the benefit of his wife and children.
Jones wrote about twenty papers on scientific (mainly geological) subjects, the first of which, ‘On Rhynchonella acuta and its Varieties,’ appeared in the ‘Geologist’ for 1858. At the Middlesbrough meeting of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers in 1871 Jones read an able paper on the ‘Geology of the Cleveland Iron District’ (Proceedings of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers for 1871, p. 184). His other papers are principally contained in the ‘Proceedings of the Cotteswold Club’ and in the ‘Intellectual Observer.’
[Athenæum, 23 June 1877; Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute, 1877, p. 414, and App. C, p. viii.]
JONES, Sir JOHN (1811–1878), lieutenant-general, born in 1811, was in June 1828 appointed ensign in the 5th foot, in which he became lieutenant in December 1831. Two years later he exchanged to the 60th rifles, in which he became captain in July 1841, and major in July 1849. His service was passed in the 2nd battalion of the four-company depôt, of which he was left in command when the battalion went out to the Cape in 1851. In June 1854 Jones became lieutenant-colonel in the 1st battalion, and was with the battalion at Meerut, at the outbreak of the Sepoy mutiny in May 1857. He commanded the battalion in the fighting at the Hindun, 30–1 May, at the battle of Budlee-ke-Serai, and at the siege of Delhi; led the column of attack on the Sabzimandi on 18 July; covered the assaulting columns at the storming of the city on 14 Sept.; was in command of the left attacking column from 15 to 20 Sept., which blew open the gates, and took possession of the palace on 20 Sept. 1857. He was brigadier in command of the Roorkhee field-force, one of the columns of the army under Sir Colin Campbell during the hot-weather campaign in Rohilcund and the assault and capture of Bareilly. The successes of the Roorkhee column, which captured every gun turned against it, and the heavy punishment inflicted on the mutineers in these operations, acquired for Jones in India the sobriquet of ‘the Avenger.’ He was afterwards employed as brigadier in Oude, at the relief of Sháhjahánpur, the capture of Bunnai, pursuit of the enemy across the Goomtee, and destruction of Mohomdee. He commanded the battalion in the action at Pusgaon. For his services he received the thanks of General Wilson, Lord Clyde, and the governor-general in council, was made K.C.B., and received the brevet of colonel (medal and clasp). Jones was inspecting field-officer at Liverpool from March 1864 until his promotion to major-general in March 1868. He became lieutenant-general in 1877, and received a pension for distinguished service. He died at Torquay on 21 Feb. 1878.
[Army Lists and London Gazettes under dates; Kaye's Hist. of the Sepoy Mutiny, continued by Malleson.]
JONES, JOHN (1821?–1878), Welsh baptist and biblical scholar, commonly known as Mathetes, the eldest son of Roger and Mary Jones, was born about 1821 at the village of Tanyrhelig, near Newcastle Emlyn, Carmarthenshire, where his father was a small tenant-farmer. His early education was meagre, and in 1838–9 he worked as a miner at Dowlais in Glamorganshire. In the summer of 1839 he returned home, joined the baptist denomination, and in 1841 commenced to preach. He spent a short time at the Cardigan grammar school, and from 1843 to 1846
