Life
1605-1682; son of bishop of Killaloe; ed. TCD; surrendered his castle,
Bellananagh, to the Irish rebels in 1641; presented Humble remonstrance
of the gentry and Commonalty of country Cavan to the lords justices of
Dublin, an office refused by Bedell; appointed to take evidence as to
what murders and outrages had been committed, 1642; solicited money in
London to relieve distressed Protestants; promoted to bishopric of Clogher
on advice of Ormonde, 1645; collated the 1641 "Depositions"
while occupying that see (later donated to TCD by his successor John Stearne
in 1741); vice-chancellor of TCD, 1646, to which he presented the Book
of Durrow, and the oak staircase in the library, 1651; Scoutmaster
General to Cromwell’s Army under Commonwealth,
and granted ancient seat of Lynch’s at Summerhill in Co. Meath, confirmed
to him at Restoration; appointed commissioner to collect fresh evidence
of outrages in Leinster and Munster, 1652; other commission work, viz.,
settlement of Ulster, 1653, and ‘hearing difficulties [...] arisen
between adventurers concerning lands alloted to them in Ireland’,
1645-45; Bishop of Meath, 1661; made over The Book of Kells to
TCD, having jurisdiction over the effects of the diocese; deeply involved
in the No Popery scheme of Earl of Shaftesbury, his intercepted letters,
according to Carte, showing ‘something more zealous than honorable’
in revealing extent of popish plot. ‘He was certainly the means of
bringing one perfectly innocent person, the titular archbishop of Armagh,
Oliver Plunkett, to the scaffold’; engaged in project to print Testament
and Liturgy in Irish. m. niece of Ussher. Two of his children became Catholics.
DNB
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Works
A Remonstrance of the Rebellion in the County of Cavan (1642); St.
Patrick’s Purgatory (1647) [incl. correspondence of Bishop Spottiswoode];
A Consecration Sermon at Christ Church, Dublin (1667); A Sermon
at the Funeral of Archbishop Margetson (1678).
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Notes
A monument in St. Patrick’s Cathedral formerly stood in the Choir,
now in north aisle; surmounted by family motto, Coelitus mihi vires; Archbishop
Jones represented in Chancellor’s robes and attitude of prayer; his
son Viscount Ranelagh appers in a recumbent effigy lower down, surrounded
by kneeling figures; Thomas Jones, Archiepaiscopus Dublin, Huberniaw Canecllarius,
bis e Justiciariis unus. Obiit 10 Apr. a.d. 1619; Margarita Thomase uxor
obiit 15 Dec. 1618 [also Roger Jones, Eques, Visc. Ranelagh ... Vice-Comitis
Moore de Droghedah [et. al.]; the whole restored by Lady Catherine Jones,
at Deans Swift’s request, 1731. (See Alexander Leeper, DD, Historical
Handbook of St Patrick’s Cathedral, 1891.)
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)