Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/507

Rh licitor-general of Georgia in 1823, and was after- ward elected to congress as a Democrat, serving from 1833 till 1835, and again from 1845 till 1847. Among his treasures was a cane made from the timber of the frigate " Constitution," presented to him by his friend Com. Isaac Hull.

JONES, Thomas, soldier, b. in Strabane, Ulster co., Ireland, about 1665 : d. in Fort Neck, Queens co., L. I., 13 Dec, 1713. His family were origi- nally from North Wales. Taking part in the civil war on the side of James II., he participated in the battles of the Boyne in 1690, of Aghrim in 1691, and in the siege and capitulation of Limerick in 1691. Escaping to France, he embarked early in 1692 under one of the numerous letters of marque to participate in the Revolution, and was present at the great earthquake of Jamaica, 7 July, 1692, and in that year came to Long Island. He mar- ried Freelove, daughter of Thomas Townsend, who presented him with a tract of land at the confluence of the Massapequa river with the Great South bay. By subsequent purchases from the Indians and neighboring owners, he acquired an estate of 6,000 acres, and in 1696 built, near the river, the first brick house in that part of the island. On 2 March, 1699, he was admitted by deed an associate freeholder under the Oyster Bav patent of 1677. On 20 Oct., 1702, he was commis- sioned captain of militia in Queens county by Gov. Cornbury. On 14 Oct., 1704, he was appointed high sheriff of Queens county, and on 3 April, 1706, he was made major of the Queens county regiment. He received the commission of "ran- ger-general of the island of Nassau " (then the legal name of Long Island) from Gov. Hunter on 4 Sept., 1710, which office gave him the mo- nopoly of the whale and other fisheries from the shores of the island, his jurisdiction ranging around the coast from Little Neck bay to Jamaica bay, and over all ungranted lands within its limits. He held this office until his death. — His son, David, jurist, b. in Fort Neck, L. I., 16 Sept., 1699; d. there. 11 Oct., 1775, received an excellent private education and studied law. and practised in New York city. He was appointed judge of Queens county in 1734, and in 1737 was elected to the colonial assembly, where he remained till 1758, serving as speaker for thirteen years. From 1758 till 1773 he was a judge of the supreme court. — His son. Thomas, jurist, b. in Fort Neck. L. I., 30 April, 1731; d. in Hoddesdon, England, 25 July, 1792, was graduated at Vale in 1750, studied law, was licensed in 1755, and began his practice in New York. In 1757 he was appointed clerk of Queens county courts, and for many years he was the attorney for the governors of King's college, of which body he was a member, and also attorney for the corporation of New York city. In 1769 he became recorder of the city, which office he held till 1773, when he was appointed judge of the su- preme court in place of his father, serving until the close of the Revolutionary war. and held the last court under the crown at White Plains in April, 1776. On 27 June, 1776, he was arrested at his house by an armed party by order of a commit- tee of the New York Provincial congress on a charge of refusing to obey the summons of the committee to show why he "should be considered a friend of the American cause." He was brought to New York and discharged on giving his parole to ap- pear when congress should direct. On 11 Aug. he was seized by a body of riflemen, taken to New York and again arraigned before a board of offi- cers, who told him the parole was void. He was then sent to Connecticut as a prisoner, remaining there under the charge of disaffection until De- cember, when he signed a second parole and re- turned to his home in Fort Neck. On 6 Nov., 1779, his house was suddenly entered and robbed by a party of Whigs under the command of Capt. Daniel Hawley, of Connecticut, who seized Jones, though under parole, and carried him to Connec- ticut, in order to effect an exchange for Gen. Gold Selleck Silliman, who had been captured six months before in his house in Fairfield. Neither had any personal con- nection with the seiz- ure, nor did it alter their friendship which had been formed in Yale. In April, 1780, they were exchanged. While in Connecticut Judge Jones's health failed owing to inju- ries received on being thrown from a sleigh. In 1781 Judge Jones sold his stock at auc- tion, and went to Eng- land with his family. After living in Bath for his health for three years, he retired to Hoddesdon in Hertfordshire. The negotiation of peace in 1782 prevented his return, as he was included in the New York act of attainder, by which his life was ipso facto forfeited and his estate confiscated. He married Anne de Lancev, daugh- ter of James de Lancev, chief justice and lieuten- ant-governor of New York. She received about two acres of land from her brother James, between the Bowery and the East river, upon which site Jones erected a large house, surrounded with gar- dens. He named it " Mount Pitt." and it remained standing till the close of the last century. When Gen. Charles Lee built fortifications around New York in 1776, he made this point the site of a large redoubt, which was called Jones's Hill Fort. The accompanying illustration of Fort Neck house represents his spacious residence, which is still (1887) in possession of the family. It was originally Tryon hall, and was erected for Judge

Thomas Jones by his father in 1770. It faces the Great South bay and has a frontage of ninety feet. His father entailed this estate upon him and his heirs and in default of the latter upon his daughters and their heirs, on condition that they should add to their name that of Jones. Hence David Flovd. son of Arabella Jones and Richard Floyd, of Suffolk county. N. Y.. received the Fort Neck estate under the entail and became the first of the name of Floyd-Jones. Judge Jones was the author of "History of New York during the Revolutionary War." which was edited by Edward Floyd de Lancey and printed for the New York histori-