JONES, DAVID (1834 - 1890), Wallington, Surrey, local historian and genealogist

Born 28 May 1834, at Llanblethian, Glamorganshire, the only child of Thomas Jones, maltster, and Hannah, his wife. He was educated at a private school at Cowbridge and after leaving Llanblethian and residing at various places in England he finally settled, in 1875, at Wallington. From that time until 1879 he seems to have held a responsible position as a clerk with Campbell, Shearer and Co., merchants, in the city of London; but by the end of the latter year he was able to retire and thereafter almost all his time was devoted to historical research. He died, unmarried, on 11 July 1890, and was buried in his mother's grave at Beddington, Surrey.

On account of the scope and thoroughness of his researches - and despite the fact that he published nothing beyond a few articles in various periodicals and newspapers - David Jones is regarded as one of our chief authorities on the post-mediaeval history of Glamorgan. During his retirement he worked indefatigably in the London libraries and record repositories; and during periodical visits to Glamorganshire, he made abstracts of hundreds of Llandaff wills, made sketches of all the parish churches and many other historic buildings, copied all the older inscriptions in the churches and churchyards and made extensive extracts from such records as parish registers and the remarkable diary kept by the schoolmaster William Thomas (1727 - 1795). The value of his transcripts and abstracts is greatly enhanced by the detailed indexes which he prepared, and in some respects his collections cover a far wider field than the county of Glamorgan itself. At Somerset House, e.g. he made abstracts of every Welsh will down to 1650 and every South Wales will down to 1700. Under the terms of his own will his Welsh collections passed to Illtyd B. Nicholl, The Ham, Llantwit Major, and half a century later Nicholl presented the greater portion of them to Cardiff City Library, where the numerous letters which David Jones wrote to T. C. Evans (Cadrawd) are also preserved. A much smaller portion is included with the Llanmaes manuscripts at the National Library of Wales.

Author

• Thomas James Hopkins, (1919 - 1987)

Sources

• David Jones's manuscripts in Cardiff City Library
• Western Mail, 15 July 1890
• G. J. Williams, Traddodiad Llenyddol Morgannwg (1948), 317
• Archaeologia Cambrensis, 1892, 81
• information given to the City Librarian of Cardiff by Mr. Illtyd B. Nicholl, the borough librarian of Beddington and Wallington, and the librarian of the Guildhall library, London

Additional Links

• Wikidata: Q20821105

Published date: 1959

Article Copyright: http://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-RUU/1.0/