Gabriel Jones (May 17, 1724 – October 1806) was an 18th-century Welsh American lawyer, legislator, court clerk and civil servant in the colony (and later U.S. state) of Virginia.
Jones attended Christ's Hospital (one of England's "Bluecoat Schools"), after which he served as an indentured apprentice studying jurisprudence under a solicitor in the Court of Chancery and of Lyon's Inn in Middlesex. At the age of 21, Jones was admitted to practice law following the completion of his apprenticeship. He was persuaded by either Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron, the landowner of the Northern Neck Proprietary, or his relative Hugh Mercer to return to Virginia, where he engaged in the practice of law.
Jones served as Clerk of Court for Hampshire County, Virginia (now West Virginia) for a tenure lasting 25 years (1757–1782) and represented Frederick, Hampshire, and Augusta counties as a member of the House of Burgesses of Virginia. In addition, Jones also served as the King's Attorney for Augusta County and as the coroner for Frederick County. He was elected to represent Virginia at the Continental Congress but did not attend, and was elected to represent Rockingham County in the Virginia Ratifying Convention. Jones was an uncle of American pioneer John Gabriel Jones (1752–1776), and he was a friend of both George Washington and Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron.
Early life and education
Gabriel Jones was born on May 17, 1724, approximately from Williamsburg, in York County, Colony of Virginia. He was a son of John and Elizabeth Jones, who had arrived in Virginia several years earlier from Montgomeryshire in northern Wales, Great Britain, where Jones's family was of noble descent. Jones's father was a weaver. Jones's elder sister Elizabeth was born on August 13, 1721, at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, and his younger brother John was born on June 12, 1725, at the same location as Jones.
According to Jones family tradition, Jones's father lost a significant amount of his wealth while in Virginia, which brought about his family's return to England in 1727. Jones's father's death prior to 1727 also precipitated the family's move, and following their relocation to England, Elizabeth raised Jones and his siblings in London where she had Jones's sister baptized at St Giles in the Fields on February 20, 1727.
In April 1732, Jones was granted admission to Christ's Hospital (one of England's "Bluecoat Schools") in London following his presentation by Thomas Sandford. Jones attended Christ's Hospital for seven years. On April 12, 1739, he was discharged from the institution by his mother and John Houghton, a solicitor in the Court of Chancery and of Lyon's Inn in Middlesex. Despite its noble origins, Jones's family was of limited means, and he served as an indentured apprentice studying jurisprudence under Houghton's charge for a term of six years until 1745. At the age of 21, Jones was admitted to practice law following the completion of his apprenticeship.
Political career
Return to Virginia Following his admission to the bar and the death of his mother in 1745, Jones was persuaded by either Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron, the landowner of the Northern Neck Proprietary, or his relative Hugh Mercer to return to Virginia. Once he was "free of his indentures" and had "attained his majority", Jones secured his return to Virginia. He settled first in Fredericksburg and later relocated to Frederick County, after which on March 1, 1747, he acquired a tract of land along Opequon Creek near present-day Kernstown, where he resided for several years. Upon settling in Frederick County, Jones became the private secretary to Lord Fairfax.
House of Burgesses tenures Jones was appointed to serve as the first King's Attorney for Augusta County around April 1746, at the age of 22. The county's court recommended Jones to the position, citing him "as a fit person to transact His Majesty's affairs in this county". Jones continued to reside in Frederick County while performing the duties of King's Attorney in Augusta County. When the first appointed justices of Augusta County assembled on December 9, 1745, the body qualified Jones to practice as an "attorney-at-law" in the county. He was the first lawyer to reside within the then-boundaries of Augusta County. Jones served in that position for two years until his election to represent Frederick County as a member of the House of Burgesses of Virginia in 1748, and he was subsequently re-elected to his seat for the 1749 legislative session. From 1748 to 1750, Jones represented Frederick County alongside George Fairfax.
Jones was again elected to represent Frederick County in the House of Burgesses in 1752, but resigned in 1753 to serve as the county's coroner. From 1752 until 1754, Jones represented Frederick County alongside George William Fairfax. In 1753, Jones relocated from Kernstown in Frederick County to his estate "Bogota" in Augusta County (present-day Rockingham County near the modern unincorporated community of Port Republic). From 1754 to 1755, Jones served alongside a Mr. Parker representing Hampshire County in the House of Burgesses. Jones and Parker were Hampshire County's first representatives in the House of Burgesses following the county's creation on May 1, 1754. Jones, along with Lord Fairfax, was appointed as a trustee for the towns of Winchester and Stephensburg (present-day Stephens City) charged with laying out the towns and establishing regulations for the construction of residences in each town.
Hampshire County Clerk of Court tenure
In 1757, Jones was appointed by Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron, to serve as Clerk of Court for Hampshire County. Jones was on close terms with Lord Fairfax, and George Rockingham Gilmer described Jones as a "kinsman, friend and executor of Lord Fairfax". Despite the county's establishment in 1754, it was not until 1757 that formal record-keeping was actualized in Hampshire County, due in part to the French and Indian War. While Archibald Wager was likely the first appointed Clerk of Court for Hampshire County, Jones was the first operational appointee to serve in the position. According to historian Wilmer L. Kerns in Hampshire County, West Virginia, 1754–2004 (2004), Jones was "well-organized" and had the "best penmanship of any clerk in the history of the county, in spite of being totally blind in his right eye". Historians Hu Maxwell and Howard Llewellyn Swisher described Jones's handwriting as "unmistakable" in their History of Hampshire County, West Virginia (1897).
Around 1760, Jones hired Samuel Dew of Richmond County to serve as his deputy clerk. Dew apprenticed under Jones for 21 years, occasionally performing duties as acting clerk. Due to his close relationship with Lord Fairfax, it is likely that Jones was Clerk of Court of neighboring counties also under the ownership of Lord Fairfax's Northern Neck Proprietary. According to Maxwell and Swisher, Jones relied upon his deputy clerks, such as Dew, to transcribe and document court proceedings, which Jones traveled among the various counties to sign.
While serving as Clerk of Court, Jones was again elected to serve as a member of the House of Burgesses representing Augusta County from 1757 until 1758 and Hampshire County from 1758 until 1761. It was during this period that Jones formed a close relationship with George Washington, and the two regularly corresponded. Jones was elected to serve a final term in the House of Burgesses representing Augusta County in 1771. In 1774, Jones was elected to represent Virginia in the Continental Congress but did not attend. When Jones's Bogota estate became part of the newly minted Rockingham County following its creation from Augusta County in 1778, Jones thus became a citizen of Rockingham and was summarily appointed as its Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney. Jones was also commissioned to ascertain the "pay and subsistence" of the Virginia militia and damages caused by Cherokee and Catawba Native American tribes throughout the Virginia frontier. In addition, Jones was appointed, along with Samuel Washington and George Read, by the Continental Congress and Virginia to travel to Fort Pitt, Pennsylvania, to inquire about "the condition of affairs there" in 1777. Following the death of Lord Fairfax in 1781, Jones was one of the executors of Lord Fairfax's will.
Jones served as Clerk of Court for Hampshire County for a tenure spanning 25 years until his retirement from the position in 1782. In their History of Hampshire County, West Virginia (1897), Maxwell and Swisher theorize that Jones retired from his position due in part to Lord Fairfax's death the previous year and waning British influence in Virginia toward the conclusion of the American Revolutionary War.
Later life and legacy Following his retirement from his position as Clerk of Court for Hampshire County, Jones continued to remain active in Virginia political affairs. On October 1, 1784, George Washington visited and dined with Jones at his home at Bogota."October 1784," Founders Online, National Archives, The Diaries of George Washington, vol. 4, 1 September 1784 – 30 June 1786, ed. Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1978, pp. 54–71. In 1788, Jones and his brother-in-law Thomas Lewis were elected to represent Rockingham County at the Virginia Ratifying Convention, where both were fervent proponents for the adoption of the United States Constitution. Archibald Stuart of neighboring Augusta County traveled to Rockingham to canvass for Jones prior to the election, and in return, Jones gifted Stuart a chaise to enable Stuart and his wife to return home to Augusta County. Jones was among the first trustees of the Staunton Academy, following its incorporation by an act of the Virginia General Assembly on December 4, 1792.
Jones continued to practice law in Rockingham County until his death. The road upon which he regularly traveled between his residence Bogota and Rockingham County's seat of Harrisonburg became known as "The Lawyer's Road", which evolved to its present name of "Lawyer Road". Because of his prominence throughout the Valley of Virginia region, and possibly also due to the fact he may have been the first lawyer in Augusta County, Jones was nicknamed "The Valley Lawyer". Jones died at his estate Bogota in October 1806.
In the spring of 1887, a memorial window to Jones and his wife was installed in a new Episcopal church erected near their former Bogota residence. Jones was further memorialized in historian Joseph Addison Waddell's Annals of Augusta County, Virginia (1886), in which Waddell remarked of Jones: "He was considered a man of great ability and unbending integrity. His only fault, or the only one which tradition tells of, was an extremely irritable temper, which, when aroused, expressed itself in the strongest terms he could command, mingled with no little profanity. Having a scorn of all dishonesty and meanness, he did not spare a miscreant by tongue or pen." In his Historic Families of Kentucky (1889), historian and genealogist Thomas Marshall Green said of Jones: "Gabriel Jones rose rapidly in his profession; in attainments he was second to no man at the colonial bar; in native ability he was conspicuous among those who stood in the first rank."
Personal life