JONES, DAVID ('Welsh Freeholder '; 1765 - 1816), barrister and author

Born near Llandovery, son of a freeholder. He was educated at Pencader, Abergavenny, and Homerton Academy (1783). Adopting Unitarian views, he removed to Hackney College, where he later became lecturer in Experimental Philosophy. In October 1792 he succeeded Priestley as pastor of the New Meeting House, Birmingham. In May 1795 he was admitted a student of Lincoln's Inn; he was called to the Bar, and practised in London and on the Oxford and South Wales circuits. In 1800 he graduated from Caius College, Cambridge (M.A. in 1803). Under the pseudonym of ' Welsh Freeholder ' he championed the cause of freedom against the attacks of Samuel Horsley, bishop of S. Davids, in a series of pamphlets: (1) A Letter to the Right Rev. Samuel, Lord Bishop of St. David's, 1791, (2) Thoughts on the Riots at Birmingham, 1791, (3) The Welsh Freeholder's Vindication, 1791, (4) Reasons for Unitarianism, 1792, (5) The Welsh Freeholder's Farewell Epistles, 1794. He died in 1816. A Whig in principle, he believed ' in obeying government in civil matters, and asserting the supremacy and independence of the mind.'

Author

• John James Evans, (1894 - 1965)

Sources

• Rutt, The Theological and Miscellaneous Works, of Joseph Priestley. Vol 13. Containing Notes on the New Testament (1831), ii, 176, 177
• T. R. Roberts, Eminent Welshmen: a short biographical dictionary of Welshmen... from the earliest times to the present (1908)
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

Further Reading

• Wikipedia Article: David Jones

Additional Links

• VIAF: 17095508
• Wikidata: Q5235729

Published date: 1959

Article Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/