Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 30.djvu/109

 

JONES, GEORGE MATTHEW (1785?–1831), captain in the navy and traveller, brother of General Sir John Thomas Jones, bart. [q. v.], was in April 1802 promoted to be a lieutenant in the navy. He was appointed to the Amphion, in which, in the following spring, Lord Nelson went out to the Mediterranean, and which, on 5 Oct. 1804, assisted in the capture of the Spanish treasure-ships off Cape St. Mary [see ]. In September 1805 Captain Hoste was appointed to the Amphion, and Jones, continuing with him, took part in the peculiarly active service in the Adriatic [see ], distinguishing himself in several of the boat engagements, and being severely wounded on 8 Nov. 1808. On 13 Dec. 1810 he was promoted to command the Tuscan brig, in which, during the next year, he assisted in the defence of Cadiz. In 1817 he commanded the Pandora on the coast of Ireland, and was posted on 7 Dec. 1818. The following years he spent in travelling over Europe with the object of examining the maritime resources of the different countries. He was already well acquainted with the coasts of Spain and Italy; he now visited the ports and arsenals of France and Holland, of the Black Sea, and of the Baltic. In 1827 he published his journals, under the title of ‘Travels in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, and Turkey; also on the Coasts of the Sea of Azof and of the Black Sea, &c.,’ 2 vols. 8vo. The work, which he dedicated to Sir William Hoste, by whose advice the travels seem to have been undertaken and the journals kept, is written intelligently, though at excessive length. After its publication Jones's health broke down. He died at Malta in April 1831. 

JONES, GRIFFITH (1683–1761), Welsh clergyman, and founder of the Welsh charity or circulating schools, born of nonconformist parents, in the parish of Cilrhedyn, Carmarthenshire, in 1683, was sent to the Carmarthen grammar school. Having joined the established church, he was ordained deacon by the Bishop of St. Davids (George Bull [q. v.]) on 19 Sept. 1708, and priest on 25 Sept. 1709. He began his ministrations in his native parish, and was afterwards for some time curate of Laugharne (, Hist. Protestant Nonconformity in Wales, p. 314). In 1711 he obtained the living of Llandilo Abercowyn, and while here he married Margaret, daughter of Sir Erasmus Phillips of Picton Castle. In 1716 he became rector of Llanddowror, the patron being his brother-in-law, Sir John Phillips.

From the first Jones set himself to improve the religious and social condition of Wales. He travelled through South Wales, preaching in churches as he passed, and often left the ‘pulpit for the tombstone or the green sward when he found the church too small for his audience’ (, Causes of Dissent in Wales, p. 23). Many of the clergy, however, regarded his efforts unfavourably, and refused him ‘the use of their churches on week days, however desirous their parishioners might be to hear him’ (, Hist. of Nonconf. in Wales, p. 315). One of his sermons is said to have been the means of ‘converting’ Daniel Rowlands of Llangeitho [q. v.], one of the principal founders of Welsh methodism (, Causes of Dissent in Wales, p. 35). Jones's fame soon reached beyond Wales. His contemporary, Williams of Pantycelyn [q. v.], in his elegy, says that he preached before Queen Anne, and also in Scotland (Works, ed. Kilsby Jones, p. 608). Moreover, when Howell Harris [q. v.] met John Wesley in Bristol about 1732, the latter prayed, before retiring to rest, ‘for Griffith Jones, for myself [i.e. Harris], and for Wales’ (Autobiography of Howell Harris, quoted in Causes of Dissent in Wales, p. 35). Jones afterwards accepted an invitation from the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts to become one of their missionaries in India, but did not leave England (, Eminent Welshmen, p. 255; cf. Y Drysorva, 1813, pp. 1 sqq.)

It was Jones's custom to catechise his parishioners before ‘Sacrament Sunday,’ and he felt the difficulty of dealing with people who could not read. To remedy this defect he in 1730 established the first of his charity schools. He had no fund to defray the expenses except ‘what could be spared out of a small offertory by a poor country congregation at the blessed sacrament’ (Welsh Piety, i. 3). The scheme grew rapidly. Jones engaged as his schoolmasters religious men of ability, without regard to denomination, and distributed them gradually over the Principality. Adults as well as children were thus taught in day and night schools to read the Bible in Welsh, the teachers stopping in each town or village for a few months at a time, and ‘thus making a continual circuit of the whole country’ (, Causes of Dissent in Wales, p. 18;, Enwogion Cymru, p. 592). The schools multiplied with great