Trinity College; he was elected fellow 1 Oct. 1781, proceeded M.A. 1782, and in October 1787 was appointed tutor, an office which he held till his death in London 18 July 1807. He was buried in the burial-ground of Dulwich College, and a bust and tablet to his memory were placed in the ante-chapel of Trinity College.
Jones's reputation as a mathematical tutor was very high, and his lectures were notable for their clearness and methodical arrangement, but the number of his pupils overtaxed his strength. He only published a ‘Sermon on Duelling’ (on Exodus xx. 13), Cambridge, 1792, 4to, preached 11 Dec. 1791, as a warning to the younger members of the university soon after a fatal duel had taken place in the neighbourhood, and a very spirited and widely circulated ‘Address to the Volunteers of Montgomeryshire,’ Shrewsbury, which is reprinted in the Powysland Club Collections, xi. 261–4. His friend Marsh published a ‘Memoir of the late Thomas Jones,’ Cambridge, 19 Feb. 1808, which was reissued in Aikin's ‘Athenæum’ (1808); in the ‘Encyclopædia Londinensis,’ xi. 256–8; and separately as a broadsheet at Welshpool.
[Memoir, ut supra; Baker's History of St. John's College, Cambridge, ed. Mayor, ii. 757, 778, 779, 802; Collections of Powysland Club, xi. 254–64; Romilly's Cantabr. Graduati; Evans's Cat. of Engraved Portraits.]
JONES, THOMAS (Denbigh) (1756–1820), Calvinistic methodist, was born in February 1756 near Caerwys, Flintshire, where his parents lived on their own farm. He attended a school at Holywell till he was fifteen (1771), and afterwards helped his father on the farm. His parents had intended him to be a clergyman of the established church, but he early joined the Calvinistic methodists. In 1783 he began to preach, and soon acquired much influence in the denomination. In 1795 he removed to Wyddgrug, and in 1804 to Ruthin, where he set up a printing establishment, and began to translate William Gurnall's ‘Christian in full Armour,’ which he completed in four volumes. When the controversy with the Arminians began in 1808, he published a defence of Calvinism, entitled ‘Y Drych Athrawiaethol’ (‘The Theological Mirror’), to which the Rev. Owen Davies replied (1808). In 1808 he published at his own press the ‘Larger Catechism’ (Church of England), translated from Latin into Welsh. In 1809 he removed to Denbigh, where he wrote his ‘History of Martyrs’ (‘Diwygwyr, Merthyron, a Chyffeswyr Eglwys Loegr’), which he completed in August 1813. In 1811, when his denomination finally broke with the church of England, Jones was one of the first eight elected to the full work of the ministry among the Calvinistic methodists in North Wales. In 1814 he published a small volume of hymns. In 1817 he preached before the missionary society in London. His elegy on the death of George III won the prize at the Wrexham eisteddfod, 1820. He died 16 June 1820, and was buried at White Church, near Denbigh. Recent editions have been published in Denbigh of his translation of Gurnall and his ‘Book of Martyrs.’ Jones married thrice.
[Foulkes's Geirlyfr Bywgraffiadol; Williams's Eminent Welshmen; Jones's Geiriadur Bywgraffyddol, ii. 138; Hanes Bywyd Thomas Jones o Dref Ddinbych, 12mo, 1820; Rowlands's Cambrian Bibliography; Cardiff Eisteddfod Transactions, 1883, p. 217; Gee's Cat. of New Books.]
JONES, THOMAS (1768–1828), Welsh poet, known as Y Bardd Cloff, or the lame bard, from an accident which he met with in his infancy, was born at Llangollen in Denbighshire in 1768. At the age of fifteen he left home and entered the counting-house of a coach-builder's establishment at 90 Long Acre, London, and from that time till his death on 18 Feb. 1828 he resided on the premises, becoming a partner in the business in 1813.
For a long period Jones was closely connected with the Gwyneddigion Society of London; he was elected member in 1789, acted as secretary for 1790 and 1791, in which capacity he was ‘most zealous and businesslike,’ and was thrice president, on the last occasion in 1821. Several of his poetical compositions were dedicated to the society, such as his ode on the celebration of its anniversary, 15 July 1799, published in Welsh and English (London, 1799, 8vo), and his ode for St. David's day (London, 1802, 8vo) (Leathart, Gwyneddigion, pp. 23, 59–61). Jones also gained several prizes at eisteddfodau. His elegy was written for the Cymmrodorion Society by Robert Davies, ‘Bardd Nantglyn.’
[Leathart's Gwyneddigion Society, pp. 23, 30–33, 49, 59, 73–4; Williams's Eminent Welshmen, pp. 264–5.]
JONES, THOMAS (1752–1845), evangelical divine, was born on 2 April 1752 at Cefn yr Esgair, near Havod, Cardiganshire, where his father farmed his small freehold. In 1765 Jones entered Ystradmeirig grammar school. On leaving school he was curate successively of Eglwys Fach and Llangynvelyn, near Aberystwith (September 1774 to August 1779); of Leintwardine in Herefordshire (August 1779 to December 1780); of Longnor,
