JONES, JEREMIAH: Welsh Biblical critic and Independent minister; b. in Wales 1693; d. there 1724. He was a grandson of Samuel Jones (1628-1697, see JONES, SAMUEL, 1) and was educated by his uncle, Samuel Jones (1680-1719; see JONES, SAMUEL, 2), at Gloucester and Tewkesbury. Among his colleagues in his uncle's academy were Joseph Butler and Thomas Secker, afterward archbishop of Canterbury. After serving Independent congregations at Market Harborough, Leicestershire, and Cold Ashby, Northamptonshire, he became pastor of the Independent church at Nailsworth, in the parish of Avening, Gloucestershire, in 1719, and in the same year took charge of his deceased uncle's pupils. Jones is remembered for his admirable New and Full Method of Settling the Canonical Authority of the New Testament (3 vols., London, 1726-1727; reprinted, 3 vols., Oxford, 1798, again 1827). He also published A Vindication of the Former Part of St. Matthew's Gospel from Mr. Whiston's Charge of Dislocations (London, 1719; reprinted, Salop, 1721, Oxford, 1803).

BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. J[oulmin], in Gentleman's Magazine, June, 1803; DNB, xxx. 121-122.

JONES, RUFUS MATTHEW: Friend; b. at South China, Me., Jan. 25, 1863. He was educated at Haverford College, Haverford, Pa. (A.B., 1885), Heidelberg University (1887), and the University of Pennsylvania (1893-95), and was principal of Oak Grove Seminary, Vassalboro, Me., from 1889-1893. Since the latter year he has been professor of philosophy in Haverford College, and has also been editor of The American Friend since the same year. He has been a trustee of Bryn Mawr College since 1896 and is a member of the American Philosophical Society. In addition to editing George Fox: An Autobiography (Philadelphia, 1903) and Social Law in the Spiritual World (1904), he has written Life of Eli and Sybil Jones (Philadelphia, 1889); Practical Christianity (1899); A Dynamic Faith

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(London, 1900); and A Boy's Religion from Memory (Philadelphia, 1902).

JONES, SAMUEL:

1. One of the founders of Welsh nonconformity; b. near Chirk Castle, Denbighshire, Wales, 1628; d. at Llangynwyd (15 m. w.n.w. of Cardiff), Glamorganshire, Sept. 7, 1697. He studied at Oxford (B.A., 1652; M.A., 1654), first at Merton College, from which he was expelled in 1648 for refusing to submit to the parliamentary board of visitors, and afterward at Jesus College, where he was elected fellow in 1652 and bursar in 1655. In 1657 he was given Presbyterian ordination and inducted to the living of Llangynwyd. On the passing of the Act of Uniformity in 1662 he was ejected from his living and subsequently imprisoned, but in 1672 he was licensed to preach in four private houses besides his own. About this time he established in his farmhouse the first non-conforming theological academy in Wales. In 1689 Jones' school was selected as one of the places for the education of the exhibitioners of the Presbyterian board. To this institution the present Carmarthen Presbyterian College traces its origin. Jones is described by Calamy as "a great philosopher, a considerable master of the Latin and Greek tongues, and a pretty good Orientalist." He was also a poet of some reputation.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Samuel Palmer, Nonconformists' Memorial, ii. 624, London, 1778; T. Rees, Hist. of Protestant Nonconformity in Wales, pp. 163, 177, 230-242, ib., 1883; DNB, xxx. 160-161.

2. Non-conformist tutor in England; b., probably in Pennsylvania, c. 1680; d. in England 1719. He was the son of one Malachi Jones, a Welsh preacher who had emigrated to America. He studied under private tutors in England and in 1706 entered the University of Leyden, where he became the pupil of Herman Witsius and Jacob Perizonius. A few years later he opened an academy at Gloucester, which in 1712 he removed to Tewkesbury. By this time his school had attained considerable repute and numbered among its pupils Joseph Butler, Samuel Chandler, and Thomas Seeker. It was from here that Butler carried on his anonymous correspondence with Samuel Clarke (1675-1729). In 1714 the Presbyterian board began to send pupils to Jones. With the exception of two Latin disputations (Leyden, 1708) Jones published nothing. A manuscript copy of his Latin lectures on Jewish antiquities has been preserved. Samuel Clarke gave various transcripts of Jones' lectures to Philip Doddridge, for use in his academy.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Walter Wilson, in Monthly Repository, 1809, pp. 651-652; DNB, xxx. 161 (where other notices are indicated).