JONES, Lewis (by 1519-67/69), of Bishop's Castle, Salop.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558, ed. S.T. Bindoff, 1982
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Apr. 1554

Family and Education

b. by 1519, prob. s. of Jenkin ap Llewelyn. m. (2) Jane, da. of Humphrey Plowden of Plowden, wid. of Richard Blunden of Bishop’s Castle; 2s. d.v.p. 8da.1

Offices Held

Sheriff, Mont. 1542-3, 1557-8; j.p. Salop 1547, 1564; constable, Bishop’s Castle by Dec. 1547-d.; escheator, Brec. 1548-9, Salop in 1557; commr. relief, Brec., Mont., Salop 1550.2

Biography

Despite his prominence in three of the counties in which he held lands, the only account to have been found of Lewis Jones’s ancestry appears in the pedigree of his son-in-law David Lloyd Blayney of Gregynog, Montgomeryshire, where, to add a touch of confusion, he is called Lewis Gwyn. By 1536 he may have been in the service of Bishop Rowland Lee, president of the council in the marches. An active administrator in Montgomeryshire from 1540, he was described in 1546 as of Bishop’s Castle, not far from his Montgomeryshire estate of Church Stoke.3

At Bishop’s Castle Jones was a neighbour of the Plowdens, and Edmund Plowden, perhaps already his brother-in-law, may have helped to secure his return for Leominster to Mary’s second Parliament; the steward of Leominster, Humphrey Coningsby, was a brother-in-law of Plowden’s patron Sir Francis Englefield, and the sheriff of Herefordshire, Sir John Price, was Plowden’s colleague on the council in the marches. Jones had another influential neighbour and friend in Edward Herbert, himself knight for Montgomeryshire in this Parliament. Nothing is known of Jones’s part in the proceedings of the House, but although he was not to sit again he continued to serve the Marian regime and its successor. His conformity under Elizabeth was attested by two bishops in 1564 but his will, undated but apparently made before 1565, is Catholic in tone.4

Jones’s sons Lewis (perhaps the Lewis Gwyn who was Jones’s under sheriff in 1557-8) and Philip seem to have died before the making of the will, leaving no legitimate issue, and Jones accordingly divided his estate between his wife, his seven surviving daughters and his grandchildren. He also made bequests to six of his own illegitimate children and five of his sons’. The supervisors included Edward Herbert and Edmund Plowden. The date of Jones’s death is unknown but he was still alive in July 1567 and his will was proved on 17 Oct. 1569.5

Ref Volumes: 1509-1558

Author: Muriel Booth

Notes

  • 1. Date of birth estimated from first certain reference. Dwnn, Vis. Wales, i. 298, 299n; Trans. Salop Arch. Soc. (ser. 2), ix. 119; Vis. Salop (Harl. Soc. xxviii), 49; PCC 22 Sheffelde ptd. Mont. Colls. xxvi. 190-201.
  • 2. CPR, 1547-8, p. 88; 1553, pp. 358, 363-4; 1563-6, p. 26; NRA 16218 (Salop RO, Ludford Park coll. no. 316).
  • 3. Mont. Colls. ii. 187, 369, 375-6; iii. 368-9; xxii. 105-10; CP, ii. 186; LP Hen. VIII, x, xvii.
  • 4. Cam. Misc. ix(3), 16, 44-45 where he is incorrectly noted as having signed the Act of Uniformity in 1569.
  • 5. PCC 22 Sheffelde; Mont. Colls. iii. 369; xxix. 320-2.