JONES, Henry (d.1592), of London and Llansannan, Denb.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603, ed. P.W. Hasler, 1981
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

1558
1559

Family and Education

educ. All Souls, Oxf. fellow 1546, supp. BCL 1549, DCL and adv. 1552. unm.

Offices Held

Lay rector, Llanrwst from c.1552, Llansannan from 1561; cursal canon, St. Asaph 1560.

Biography

Jones was returned to Mary’s last Parliament by John White, bishop of Winchester. By the time of the 1559 election White was under house arrest, but had not yet been deprived, and it was probably he who was behind Jones’s return to that Parliament also. His fellow-Member was his kinsman William Aubrey. A civil lawyer, Jones resided in ‘part of the great messuage called Chartesey House’, and had also lodgings at Doctors’ Commons. Specialising in matrimonial causes, he took part in the inquiry into the Earl of Hertford’s marriage to Lady Catherine Grey: in 1561 he was appointed an attorney for Hertford. Four years later he was one of the commissioners for appeals in the Earl of Ormond’s divorce proceedings, and about the same time gave his opinion on a dispute concerning the bishop suffragan of Thetford. The Crown consulted him in the case of Mary Stuart’s agent, the bishop of Ross. The last reference found to his legal career is in December 1578, when he acted as a judge delegate over a divorce settlement between George Puttenham and Lady Windsor.

He died in February 1592 and, probably, was buried in London at St. Benet’s, Paul’s Wharf, his will being proved on 26 Feb. He made charitable bequests to the poor of Llansannan, Llanrwst and other parishes in the diocese of St. Asaph, with 20s. towards the upkeep of the cathedral. He left £10 to Doctors’ Commons and his law books to All Souls.

DWB; G. D. Squibb, Doctors’ Commons, 34, 66, 85, 151; Lansd. 22, f. 52; 120, f. 22; C1/1325/16-19; D. R. Thomas, Diocese St. Asaph, 260; CPR, 1549-51, p. 173; 1550-3, p. 36; 1563-6, p. 258; APC, x. 430; Read, Cecil, i. 277; HMC Hatfield, i. 538; PCC 9 Harrington.

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Authors: N. M. Fuidge / Alan Davidson

Notes