Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jones, Theophilus (d.1685)
JONES, Sir THEOPHILUS (d. 1685), scoutmaster-general of the forces in Ireland, was the second son of Lewis Jones (1550?–1646) [q. v.], bishop of Killaloe. During the earlier part of the Irish rebellion he served with the army of the north under the command of Lord Conway, and it was chiefly owing to his presence of mind that Lisburn was saved from falling into the hands of the Scots under General Robert Monro [q. v.] in 1644. He was shortly afterwards raised to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and appointed commander of the forces at Lisburn. He adhered to the party of the Earl of Ormonde, and declined to take the covenant at the hands of the parliamentary commissioners in 1645. He was taken prisoner by Henry O'Neill at Kells in December 1646, and notwithstanding Ormonde's efforts to procure his release he remained a prisoner with the Irish till the cessation of hostilities between Owen Roe O'Neill and Colonel Michael Jones [q. v.] in 1648 set him at liberty. In 1649 Cromwell sent him to Ireland with supplies in anticipation of his own arrival, and appointed him governor of Dublin. He accepted the command of a troop of horse in the service of the parliament, and for the next three years he was actively engaged against the Irish rebels. He obtained a grant of the ancient estate of the Sarsfields at Lucan, which, however, he was obliged to surrender at the Restoration, obtaining other lands in county Sligo by way of reprisal. In June 1653 he was appointed one of a committee for preventing the spread of the plague in Dublin, for erecting pest-houses, and for raising contributions for the relief of sufferers. In 1656 he was elected with Henry Owens to represent Westmeath, Longford, and King's County in the united parliament. In 1659 he incurred the suspicion of the council of state, and being dismissed from his command he declared for a free parliament, and joined with Sir Charles Coote and Lord Broghill in wresting the government out of the hands of the Commonwealth commissioners. On 28 Feb. 1661 he was appointed scoutmaster-general for life, in succession to his brother, Henry Jones [q. v.], bishop of Meath, and was at the same time created a privy councillor. He represented Meath in the Restoration parliament, and moved the grant of 30,000l. to the Duke of Ormonde on his appointment as lord-lieutenant in 1662. In 1663 an attempt was made to involve him in a plot for upsetting the government in behalf of the English interest, but he revealed the conspiracy to Ormonde. He died 2 Jan. 1684–5, and was buried on the 8th at Naas. He married Alicia, daughter of Arthur Ussher, esq. (son of Sir William Ussher), by his wife Judith, daughter of Sir Robert Newcomen, and had issue, Sir Arthur, who succeeded him, Theophilus, who died 7 Aug. 1661, Judith, who married Francis Butler of Belturbet, and Mabella, who married, first, Charles Rochfort of Streamstown, co. Westmeath, and, secondly, William Saunderson, esq.
[Lodge's Peerage, ed. Archdall, vol. ii.; Carte's Life of the Duke of Ormonde, i. 493, 538, ii. 36, 202, 246, 267, 495; Liber Hiberniæ, vol. ii.; Whitelocke's Memorials; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 5 Nov. 1653, 2 Jan. 1666; Gilbert's Contemporary Hist. of Affairs, i. 138, 727, ii. 412, iii. 247, 374; Borlace's Hist. of the Rebellion; Wood-Martin's Hist. of Sligo, vol. ii.; Ludlow's Memoirs; Somers Tracts, vi. 345; Prendergast's Ireland from the Restoration to the Revolution; Commonwealth Papers (Public Record Office, Dublin), A/89, 66, 85, 111, 147, 187, A/90, 1, 520, 750, A/30, 7, 181; Trinity College MSS. Dublin, F. 3, 18; Petty's Down Survey (ed. Larcom); Thirty-second Report of the Deputy-Keeper of the Public Records (Carte MSS. Oxford), App. i.; Journals of the House of Commons (Ireland), vol. ii. A number of letters and documents relating to him are preserved in Kilkenny Castle (see Mr. J. T. Gilbert's Reports in Hist. MSS. Comm. Reports).]