JONES, Theophilus (?1729-1811), of Headfort, co. Leitrim.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1790-1820, ed. R. Thorne, 1986
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

1801 - 1802

Family and Education

b. ?1729, 1st s. of Walter Jones of Headfort by Olivia, da. and coh. of Hon. Chidley Coote of Coote Hall, co. Roscommon. m. (1) 29 Mar. 1754, Hon. Catherine Beresford (d. 28 Mar. 1763), da. of Marcus, 1st Earl of Tyrone [I], wid. of Thomas Christmas, MP [I], of Whitefield, co. Waterford, 3s.; (2) 1 Feb. 1768, Anne, da. of Col. John Murray, MP [I] (d.1743), of Monaghan, 1s. 2da. suc. fa. 1756.

Offices Held

MP [I] 1761-1800.

PC [I] 31 July 1767; collector of excise, port of Dublin 1767-99.

Biography

Jones was chief secretary to Lord Bristol while the latter was chief secretary for Ireland 1766-7, and thereby acquired a place worth £1,200 per annum, which he held until 1799, when he was pensioned. He subsequently received £3,750 compensation for the loss of his quarter share in the parliamentary patronage of the disfranchised borough of Monaghan.1 In the Irish parliament he represented county Leitrim 1761-8, 1776-83, 1790-1800, and the boroughs of Coleraine 1768-76 and Monaghan 1783-90; as the brother-in-law of John Beresford* he was considered ‘a person highly respectable’. In 1801 he was the Irish lord chancellor’s first choice as a commissioner to act for him in case of absence.2

Jones voted in favour of the Union and continued to represent county Leitrim at Westminster. He attended as a supporter of government, but made no mark there. He was a member of the select committee on Irish disaffection appointed on 2 Apr. 1801. He may have occasionally intervened in Irish debates as ‘Mr Jones’, unless this was Thomas Tyrwhitt Jones. In 1802, despite assistance from the Castle, he was defeated by Peter Latouche in the county election and was never again in Parliament. He still had a London house in 1804 and his dinner guests included Pitt, Lord Spencer and Lord Camden. He died 8 Dec. 1811, ‘aged 82 years’.3

Ref Volumes: 1790-1820

Author: Arthur Aspinall

Notes

  • 1. Procs. R. Irish Acad. lvi, sec. C, no. 3 (1954), 254; Cornwallis Corresp. iii. 108, 323; PRO 30/9/13, pt. 2.
  • 2. PRO 30/9/1, pt. 3/4, Mitford to Abbot, 9 July 1801.
  • 3. Corresp. Rt. Hon. J. Beresford, ii. 283; Jnl. of Assoc. for the preservation of the memorials of the dead in Ireland, ix. 472.