Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jones, Thomas (1756-1820)
JONES, THOMAS (Denbigh) (1756–1820), Calvinistic methodist, was born in February 1756 near Caerwys, Flintshire, where his parents lived on their own farm. He attended a school at Holywell till he was fifteen (1771), and afterwards helped his father on the farm. His parents had intended him to be a clergyman of the established church, but he early joined the Calvinistic methodists. In 1783 he began to preach, and soon acquired much influence in the denomination. In 1795 he removed to Wyddgrug, and in 1804 to Ruthin, where he set up a printing establishment, and began to translate William Gurnall's ‘Christian in full Armour,’ which he completed in four volumes. When the controversy with the Arminians began in 1808, he published a defence of Calvinism, entitled ‘Y Drych Athrawiaethol’ (‘The Theological Mirror’), to which the Rev. Owen Davies replied (1808). In 1808 he published at his own press the ‘Larger Catechism’ (Church of England), translated from Latin into Welsh. In 1809 he removed to Denbigh, where he wrote his ‘History of Martyrs’ (‘Diwygwyr, Merthyron, a Chyffeswyr Eglwys Loegr’), which he completed in August 1813. In 1811, when his denomination finally broke with the church of England, Jones was one of the first eight elected to the full work of the ministry among the Calvinistic methodists in North Wales. In 1814 he published a small volume of hymns. In 1817 he preached before the missionary society in London. His elegy on the death of George III won the prize at the Wrexham eisteddfod, 1820. He died 16 June 1820, and was buried at White Church, near Denbigh. Recent editions have been published in Denbigh of his translation of Gurnall and his ‘Book of Martyrs.’ Jones married thrice.
[Foulkes's Geirlyfr Bywgraffiadol; Williams's Eminent Welshmen; Jones's Geiriadur Bywgraffyddol, ii. 138; Hanes Bywyd Thomas Jones o Dref Ddinbych, 12mo, 1820; Rowlands's Cambrian Bibliography; Cardiff Eisteddfod Transactions, 1883, p. 217; Gee's Cat. of New Books.]