Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 06.djvu/174

 JONES

JONES

letter of marque he landed and settled on Great South bay on the island of Nassau, afterward Long Island, where he was married to Freelove, daughter of Thomas Townsend, and received as a marriage dowry from his wife's father a large tract of land on the bay known as Fort Neck, and by subsequent purchases from the Indians he be- came owner of 6000 acres extending across the island. In 169G he built near the mouth of the Massapequa river the first brick house in that neighborhood, which stood 140 years and was known to travellers as the " old brick house." He was admitted an assistant freeholder in 1699 un- der the Oyster Bay patent of 1677 and in 1702 be- came captain in the militia of Queens county, by appointment of Governor Cornbury. He was high sheriff of the county, 1704-13 ; was promoted to the rank of major in the militia in 1706, and was commissioned " ranger-general of the island of Nassau " in 1710, which gave him the monopoly of the fisheries of the entire shores east of Jamaica and Little Neck bays and of all lands within the same limits not then granted to set- tlers. He died at Fort Neck, L.T., Dec. 13, 1713. JONES, Thomas, jurist, was born in Fort Neck, L.I., N.Y., April 30, 1731; son of Judge David and Anne (Willett) Jones ; grandson of Gen. Thomas and Freelove (Townsend) Jones, and great-grandson of Thomas Townsend. He was graduated at Yale in 1750 ; was licensed as an attorney in 1755, and practised in New York city, 1755-69. He was clerk of Queens county, 1757-69 ; recorder of the city of New York, 1769- 73 ; corporation attorney ; judge of the supreme court under the crown, as successor to his father, 1773-76, and was arrested on June 27 of the latter year, by order of the provincial congress, for re- fusing to appear before that body to acknowledge his fealty to the American cause. He was paroled on promising to appear before congress when di- rected. He was arrested by an armed force on August 11, taken to New York, arraigned, and his parole declared forfeited. He was sent as a prisoner of war to Connecticut, and was released December, 1776, upon signing a second parole. He remained quietly at his home at Fort Neck until Nov. 6. 1779, when a party of Wliigs, under Capt. Daniel Hawley, of Connecticut, forcibly seized and carried him to Connecticut in order to furnish an acceptable exchange for Gen. Gold Selleck Silliman, a college mate of Jones of the class of 1752, held for six months by the British forces a prisoner of war. They were exchanged in April, 1780, and in 1781 Judge Jones removed with his family to England. He planned to re- turn in 1782, but the act of attainder passed by the New York legislature prevented. He was a governor of King's college, 1764-80, and attorney for the board of governors. He was married to

Anne, daughter of Judge James de Lancey, of New York city, and had no children. They liad a city home known as "Mount Pitt," and a spacious residence at Fort Neck, on the Great South bay. Long Island, named " Tryon Hail," erected in 1770. Judge Jones is the author of : History of New York During the Revolutionary^ War, edited by Edmund Floyd de Lancey ( 1879). He died in Hoddesdon, England, July 25, 1792.

JONES, Thomas ap Catesby, naval officer, was. born in Virginia, in 1789 ; son of Maj. Catesby and Lettice Corbin (Turberville) Jones, and brother of Gen. Roger Jones. He was warranted a mid- shipman in the U.S. navy, Nov. 22, 1805, and was promoted lieutenant. May 24, 1812, com- mander, March 25, 1820, and cai^tain, Mar(h 11, 1829. He was on duty with the Gulf squadron, 1808-12, in the suppression of the slave trade, and in preventing piracy and smuggling. He was in command of a flotilla of five light-draft gun- boats, intended for the protection of tlie harbors of the Gulf states against the incvirsion of British vessels during the war of 1812. When the British fleet of forty ships, intended to operate in connec- tion with the army under Pakenliam in the at- tack on New Orleans, entered Lake Borgne in 1814, he resisted their advance with his small fleet, and he did not surrender to the superior force until he was desperately wounded and had no hope of escape. He was on the Pacific coast in command of the station off California in 1840, and upon learning, from what he considered reliable author- ity, that the United States was at war with Mexico, he took possession of Monterey, and was temporarily suspended from the service. He died in Georgetown, D.C.. May 30, 1858.

JONES, Thomas Goode, governor of Alabama, was born at Macon, Ga., Nov. 26, 1844 ; son of Samuel G. and Martha Ward (Goode) Jones ; grandson of Dr. Thomas W. Jones, of Brunswick county, Va., and of Dr. Thomas Goode of Hot Springs, Va., and a descendant of John Jones, " gentleman," and of John Goode. of Whitby, both of whom came to America from England, and settled near Richmond, Va., between 1650 and 1665. He removed to Montgomery, Ala., with his parents in 1850 ; was graduated from the Vir- ginia Militaiy institute in 1862 ; served in the Army of Northern Virginia as a private and staff officer, attaining the rank of major. He was on the staff of Gen. John B. Gordon, and carried one of the flags of truce sent out by Gordon to Sheri- dan's lines at Appomattox Court House, April 9, 1865. At the close of the war he engaged in planting and the study of law, was admitted to the bar in 1866 and established himself in the practice of law at Montgomery, Ala. He was a member of the city council, 1875-84 ; a represent- ative in the Alabama legislature, 1884-88, being