Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 30.djvu/144

 and 1849 as a merchant's clerk in Liverpool, and subsequently filled a similar post in London. On deciding to enter the ministry, he spent from 1852 to 1856 at the Calvinistic methodist college at Bala, matriculated at the London University in 1856, and graduating B.A. in 1858, was ordained at Bangor in 1859. He had ministerial charges at Birkenhead and Liverpool from June 1857 to 1867, at Oswestry (Zion Chapel) from 1867 to the autumn of 1876, and at the Clwyd Street church at Rhyl from 1876 until his death, 22 Sept. 1884. He married, on 28 Dec. 1858, Margaret, daughter of Jacob Jones of Bala, who survives him.

Jones devoted himself to the improvement of the Sunday-school system, and to the establishment of similar weekday classes. He was practically the founder of the county examinations of Sunday-schools in North Wales; he prepared several small handbooks for the use of Sunday scholars, while his larger works were intended to render biblical studies more thorough; he started and successfully conducted classes in botany and chemistry both at Oswestry and Rhyl in connection with the South Kensington science and art department; and was largely instrumental in obtaining adequate provision for elementary education at Rhyl.

In September 1864, while at Liverpool, he edited and wrote much in a monthly magazine, ‘Y Symbylydd,’ which was discontinued after the first volume. In 1873, at the request of the methodist association of North Wales, he delivered a series of lectures at Bala College on ‘Science and Biblical History,’ in which he showed acquaintance not only with geology and biology, but also with oriental archæology. These lectures were published in a volume entitled ‘Hanes iaeth a Gwyddoniaeth y Beibl yn wir a chywir,’ Denbigh, 1875, 8vo. Jones was also the author of the following: 1. ‘Gems of Thought for every Day of the Year, from an eminent Divine [Gurnal] of the Seventeenth Century,’ Liverpool, 1865, 8vo. 2. Commentaries on St. Luke, St. John, and the Epistles to the Ephesians and the Hebrews, in a Sunday-school series known as ‘Testament yr Ysgol Sabbothol,’ Denbigh, 1866–71, 8vo. 3. ‘Hanes Bywyd cyhoeddus Iesu Grist o'r Temtiad hyd y Pasg diweddaf,’ Oswestry, 1870, 8vo. 4. A commentary on Genesis in ‘Beibl y Teulu’ Series, Denbigh, 1873, 4to. 5. Four small handbooks of Bible history in ‘Cyfres yr Ysgol Sabbothol,’ Denbigh, 1874–8. 6. A translation into Welsh of the alterations contained in the English Revised Version (1881) of the New Testament, Denbigh, 1882, 8vo. 7. ‘Testament y Miloedd,’ Denbigh, 1883, 8vo; a concise commentary on the New Testament, probably the best work of the kind in Welsh. 8. Besides several articles on theological and scientific subjects contributed to ‘Y Gwyddoniadur Cymreig’ (‘Encyclopædia Cambrensis’), Jones edited ‘The Supplement’ in vol. x. 

JONES, JOHN PAUL (1747–1792), naval adventurer, youngest son of John Paul, a gardener, was born in Kirkbean, Kirkcudbrightshire, on 6 July 1747. At the age of twelve he was bound apprentice to a Whitehaven shipowner engaged in the American trade, and on the failure of his employer, some three or four years later, became third mate on board a Whitehaven slaver. He continued engaged in the slave-trade for about five years, gradually rising to be first mate. He then quitted that employment, and took a passage home in the John of Kirkcudbright. It so happened that the master and the mate both died, and young Paul, as the only competent man on board, took command. This introduced him to the owners, in whose service he made two voyages to the West Indies. He was then engaged for a year or two in smuggling between the Isle of Man and the Solway Firth; afterwards he commanded the Betsy of London in the West India trade, and later on was trading at Tobago on his own account. In 1773 an elder brother who had settled in Virginia died, leaving, it was said, a considerable property. Paul took charge of this, and seems to have spent the next two years in America. In December 1775, under the assumed name of Jones, he offered himself for a commission in the American continental navy, and was appointed first lieutenant of the Alfred, a 30-gun frigate, the flagship of Commodore Ezekiel Hopkins. He afterwards commanded the Providence sloop, cruised with some success against the English trade, and in September 1776 escaped, by a bit of splendid seamanship, from the Solebay, an English frigate, which chased him for some time. In June 1777 he was appointed to command the Ranger, a new frigate-built ship of 26 guns, ordered to cross over to France. It was found, however, that she could not carry her full armament, and she finally sailed on 1 Nov. with only 18 guns. After refitting at Brest, she sailed on 10 April 1778 for a cruise in the Irish Sea; and on the 21st, when off the entrance of Belfast