JONES, JOHN (1766? - 1827), classical scholar and Unitarian divine

Born at Wernfelen near Llandovery, Carmarthenshire, the son of a farmer. When about 14 years of age, he entered Christ College School, Brecon, then under David Griffith (1726 - 1816), and remained there until 1783. He later became a divinity student at Hackney College, London. In 1792 he became assistant tutor at the Presbyterian Academy at Swansea, but left in 1795, when he became minister of the Unitarian congregation at Plymouth. In 1798 he moved to Halifax, Yorkshire, establishing a school there, and being also minister of Northgate End Chapel in that town, 1802-4. He moved to London in 1804, settling there as a tutor in classics. His first wife, the daughter of Abraham Rees, the encyclopaedist, died without issue in 1815; in 1817 he married, as his second wife, Anna, daughter of George Dyer, Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire. He was a member of the Philological Society of Manchester, and (in 1818?) was awarded the LL.D. degree of Aberdeen University. He was also a trustee of the Dr. Daniel Williams foundations, and a few years before his death became a member of the Royal Society of Literature. He died at Great Coram Street, London, 10 January 1827. His publications are indicative of his twofold interests - the classics and divinity.

He published A Development of … Events calculated to restore the Christian Religion to its … Purity, 1800; The Epistle … to the Romans analysed, 1801; Illustrations of the Four Gospels, 1808; A Grammar of the Greek Tongue, 1808; A Grammar of the Latin Tongue, 1810; Ecclesiastical Researches, or Philo and Josephus proved to be … Apologists of Christ, 1812; A new version of the first three Chapters of Genesis, 1819; A series of … Facts, demonstrating the Truth of the Christian Religion, 1820; A Greek and English Lexicon, 1823; A Reply to … 'a New Trial of the Witnesses', 1824; The principles of Lexicography, 1824; Three Letters in which is demonstrated the Genuineness of 1 … John v. 7, 1825; The Tyro's Greek and English Lexicon, 2nd ed., 1825; An Exposure of the Hamiltonian System of Teaching, 1826; An Explanation of the Greek Article, 1827; The Book of the Prophet Isaiah translated, 1830, posthumously - the last work. He edited an edition of Entick's Latin Dictionary, 1824, and contributed largely to periodicals, especially the Monthly Repository.

Author

• Griffith Milwyn Griffiths

Sources

• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
• The Gentleman's Magazine, April 1827
• H. Blackwell, NLW MSS 9262A: A Dictionary of Welsh Biography
• Geirlyfr Bywgraffiadol o Enwogion Cymru (1870)
• Robert Williams, Enwogion Cymru. A Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Welshmen (1852)
• Cymru yn hanesyddol, parthedegol, a bywgraphyddol (1875)

Further Reading

• Wikipedia Article: John Jones

Additional Links

• VIAF: 51561683
• Wikidata: Q6242023

Published date: 1959

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