Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jones, John (1645-1709)
JONES, JOHN (1645–1709), chancellor of Llandaff, born in 1645, was the son (or perhaps grandson) of Matthew Jones of Pentyrch in Glamorganshire. In 1662 he entered Jesus College, Oxford, of which he was afterwards scholar and fellow; he graduated B.A. 5 April 1666, and proceeded M.A. 11 May 1670, B.C.L. 9 July 1673, and D.C.L. 21 July 1677. He was licensed by the university to practise physic, 13 June 1678, and followed his profession at Windsor. He became a licentiate of the College of Physicians, 22 Dec. 1687. On the death of Sir Richard Lloyd he was made chancellor of the diocese of Llandaff, but was not settled in that office till May 1691, owing to a dispute between him and the bishop, who had bestowed the post on his son, William Beaw. The relations between Jones and the bishop continued strained, and several articles against Jones for misdemeanors were exhibited by the bishop in the court of arches (see letter dated 21 Jan. 1693 in Athenæ Oxon. i. p. cxiv). Jones died 22 Aug. 1709, and was buried near the west door of the cathedral at Llandaff.
He was the author of a Latin treatise on intermittent fevers, 'De febribus intermittentibus,' &c., London, 1683, 8vo; 2nd ed. the Hague, 1684, 8vo. A work on the same subject by Francis Pieus (Geneva, 1689, 4to) was largely based upon Jones's essay. Another work of his, described by Munk as an extraordinary and perfectly unintelligible book, containing 371 octavo pages of small print, is entitled ‘The Mysteries of Opium Reveal'd’ (London, 1700, 8vo), of which there was a reissue dated 1701. A religious work in Welsh, called ‘Holl dd'ledswydd Cristion … a gyfieithiwyd gan Rees Lewys’ (Shrewsbury, 1714, 8vo), is said to be a translation by Rees Lewis, a schoolmaster at Llanwonno, Glamorganshire, of a work by Jones probably unpublished. Previous to 1676 Jones had invented an ingenious clock, which is described in detail by Robert Plot in ‘Natural History of Oxfordshire’ (p. 230). It ‘moved by the air equally expressed out of bellows of a cylindrical form falling into folds in its descent, much after the manner of paper lanterns.’
[Bliss's Athenæ Oxon. iv. 722; Clark's Genealogies of Glamorgan, p. 535; Willis's Survey of Llandaff, pp. 4, 100; Rowlands's Welsh Bibliography, s.a. 1714; Munk's Coll. of Phys. i. 438–439.]