Jones Genealogy

 

Jones Genealogy

HUGH JONES
(and some of his descendants)
(Tompkins, Snow, Russell, Trefery, Annice, Boys, Keith, Gilson, Bowen, Clark).

THE EARLY JONESES

This family is descended from an ancient Welch line.

The modernizing of the surname John, which anciently was pronounced with the "o" long as in Jone, into Jones, is a transition quite familiar to genealogists. Thus, ap. John, ap. Johns, ap. Jones, Jones.

Welsh John, succeeding Welch John, and being called John's son, until in the course of time the name narrowed down into that of Jones and the first of the family who emigrated to America was Captain Christopher Jones, commander of the "Mayflower" (1620)-a trading man in the colony of the Pilgrim fathers and a "convinced friend" and subsequently, when the Pilgrims and Puritan colonies were in a prosperous condition, families by the name of Jones settled in America.

The surname Jones ranks first in number among the family names of Wales; one Welch man in seven bearing the name. In England it holds second place.

Being of patronymic derivation, it came into use as a family surname during the fifteenth century. Over fifty colonists bearing the name, progenitors of families, settled in New England before 1700; most of whom came from England, of Wales descent, settling in Massachusetts. They were very serious-minded and religious people, with whom life was a strenuous business.

When Hugh Jones settled in Salem, Massachusetts in 1650, that place was on the frontier, exposed to Indian raids and forays, and was not safe for a great many years. Over two hundred years our family was, in a measure, on the frontier, and doing the work of frontiersmen and pioneers.

It is from Abraham Jones that the name Abraham, afterwards so celebrated, first came into the Lincoln family. Sarah, daughter of Abraham and Sarah (Whitman) Jones of Dorchester, Massachusetts. married Mordecai Lincoln of Hull.

Capt. Lewis Jones settled in Watertown, Massachusetts, 1610, of whom Calvin Coolidge is a descendant, probably is of this same Jones family.

 

 

 
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