Master Christopher Jones Jr. ( – about 5 March 1622) was the sea captain of the 1620 voyage of the Pilgrim ship Mayflower.
Early life Christopher Jones is believed to have been born in Harwich, Essex, around 1570, although baptismal records are blank for his parish church for the period of time between April 1565 and June 1571.
He was the son of Christopher Jones Sr., of Welsh descent, and his wife Sybil, of English descent. The senior Jones was also a mariner and ship owner who died in 1578, leaving to his young son, bearing his name, his interest in the ship Marie Fortune when he should attain the age of eighteen years. Jones' mother Sybil married Robert Russell after his father's death and continued to reside at the Jones family home on Kings Head Street in Harwich, which is presently a visitor attraction. The family home of Christopher Jones' first wife Sara Twitt is across from the Jones home on Kings Head Street and is now a hostelry, the Alma.
Family Christopher Jones married twice:
1. Jones married Sara Twitt at St. Nicholas Church, Harwich on 27 December 1593. She was aged 17 and had been born about 1576. She was Jones' neighbour, living opposite each other on Kings Head Street, Harwich; both residences still exist as visitor attractions. Sara had a wealthy father, Thomas Twitt, who had strong shipping interests. At his death, her father provided considerable funds for her and a 1/12 share in his ship Apollo. The two families combined their shipping interests to mutual advantage.
Within a year of his marriage to Sara, they had a boy named Thomas, after Sara's father. But the church burial register records the infant's death on 17 April 1596. Sara had no more children and died at age 27. She was buried in Harwich on 18 May 1603.
2. Jones married his second wife, Josian Gray (née Thompson), widow of Richard Gray, age 19, at St. Nicholas Church in Harwich a few months after his first wife's Sara's death in 1603. Josian had seafaring relatives and her late husband was a noted mariner with friends among the captains of the 1588 Armada Fleet and which included 'treasure hunting' in the Indies; this have may included attacks on Spanish treasure ships. Josian probably brought a substantial marriage portion and had inherited her late husband's house in Church Street, Harwich together with other land and property. One of his ships was named Josian, in honour of his wife.
It is believed Josian may have remarried in 1626 as in that year a 'Joan Jones', widow, married one Thomas Bartelmore at Stepney, London, directly across the Thames from Rotherhithe.
Their marriage produced eight children, of whom the following four children were known to have been born in Harwich: Christopher Jones b. 1604 Thomas Jones, b. 1607 Josian Jones, b. 1609 John Jones, b. 1621. He was baptised 4 March 1621 in Harwich, Essex, where Jones' wife had gone to reside while he was on his voyage to the New World and was anchored in Plymouth Harbour over the winter of 1620-21.
And the following children were born in Rotherhithe, London, to which the family moved in 1611. Roger Jones, b. 1611 Christopher Jones, b. 1614 Joane Jones, b. 1615 Grace Jones, b. 1619
Harwich, Essex Queen Elizabeth I called Harwich "a pretty town", and it was extremely loyal to her in sending three ships to join the attack against the Spanish Armada in 1588. As with Plymouth, Harwich became wealthy by the pillaging of Spanish ships of the Armada though its primary business then was the export of English woollen cloth to Holland for finishing. Its explorers also could relate some stories of far places travelled to, with tales when Jones was a youth of their men voyaging as far as Baffin Island in the far Arctic.
The entrance to Harwich port was covered with dangerous sandbars, and sailors had to stay alert at all times. A prime example of this was on a night in 1627 when a strong North Sea storm wrecked more than thirty ships. These were the waters in when Jones served his apprenticeship at the side of his father and grandfather, who were both Harwich skippers. At age eighteen, Jones inherited his first part-share of a ship.
Harwich was a town managed by a company of mariners and shipwrights who enforced harsh discipline. In 1605 some women were hanged as witches and harlots and were dragged through the streets by a cart and with such as dice games also being banned. As with other seaports around the country, Harwich was a place where sea captains and merchants ran the local government and levied their own taxes on the citizens to take care of town business.
In his mid-thirties Jones was somewhat of a prominent Harwich citizen and was named as a burgess of Harwich in a new town charter granted by King James. Jones was coming into his own about this time, and with an assist from a bounty, he built a 240-ton, larger than average ship of his own which he named after his second wife – Josian. Jones used the ship for trading voyages as far south as to Bordeaux in France.
In 1601, he was one of 77 men who took the oath as freeman of the Borough of Harwich.
In 1604, his name is listed as one of the 24 capital burgesses on the Great Charter granted by King James I.
Civil accounts record Jones acting as an assessor for tax on land and property and also as a jury member when his father-in-law was reprimanded for failing to repair steps to the quay adjacent to his house.
In 1605, Jones was accused, with George Colman, for keeping hunting dogs, a pursuit that was only open to those classed as 'gentlemen' whose land was valued at a certain per annum value. Apparently Jones had prospered but had not reached the class of 'gentleman'.
In August 1609, records first note Christopher Jones as master and part owner of the Mayflower when his ship was chartered for a voyage from London to Trondheim in Norway, and back to London. Due to bad weather, on her return the ship lost an anchor and made short delivery of her cargo of herrings. Litigation was involved and was proceeding in 1612.
In a document of January 1611, Christopher Jones is described as being 'of Harwich', and his ship is called the Mayflower of Harwich (in Essex co.).
Then, in about 1611, Jones decided to leave Harwich and moved south to London, where he made his home in Rotherhithe parish, a mile downstream on the Thames from the Tower of London. By that time, Jones had likely traded the ship Josian for a quarter share ownership in the smaller Mayflower.
Rotherhithe, London In 1611 Christopher Jones is recorded as removing to Rotherhithe parish, then in Surrey, now in London. This was his home until his death in 1622.
Records of Jones' ship Mayflower have the ship in the Thames in London in 1613 – once in July and again in October and November.
Records of 1616 again state Jones' ship was in the Thames and the noting of wine on board suggests the ship had recently been on a voyage to France, Spain, Portugal, the Canaries, or some other wine country.
By about 1600, Rotherhithe and Ratcliff parishes were country retreats of wealthy Londoners, but gradually, as London grew, they filled with buildings and population. By the late 1620s, those parishes accounted for 120 mariners. Wine was the primary trade product of commercial London and made the fortune of Rotherhithe's mariners. Jones' wealthiest associate was also a ship's master, Anthony Wood of the Rainbow, who ranked at the top of parish taxpayers, owning shares of three ships and numerous houses on both sides of the Thames. He owed his wealth to the fine vintages of the Spanish port of Alicante, which was the favorite drink of James I and was a quite lucrative trade. Jones' wealthiest client was William Speight, one of the mercantile elite, who resided in Vinery Ward, the wine merchant's district, opposite Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. As warden of the Company of Merchant Taylors, Speight owned property that ranged from country estates in Suffolk to lower-level dwellings and warehouses in London. In May 1620, on his last trip before carrying the Pilgrims, Jones carried fifty tons of wine for Speight which was extremely profitable for the merchant.
Men like Wood, Speight and Jones prospered due to the popularity of alcohol as the wealth of the landowning classes increased. At the peak of the wine trade in 1615, London imported three times the wine that had been imported typically twenty years previously. In 1615, a typical voyage by Jones in the Mayflower would see him bring back from France as much as eighty tons of wine and on the trip to New England, the Mayflower carried at least one keg each of French or Dutch wine. When Jones left London aboard the Mayflower on a voyage to France, he would normally carry as trade goods to exchange for quality French wine a hold filled with English woollens, the country's strongest export. As a family man, Jones had to keep his ship operating, and as trade was waning due to the European economic situation, the offer of Thomas Weston of the Merchant Adventurers to charter his ship for an Atlantic voyage seemed to come at a most opportune time.
In addition to wine and wool, with Jones as captain the Mayflower had transported hats, hemp, Spanish salt, hops and vinegar to Norway. Jones had travelled to Mediterranean Sea ports, being then part owner with Nichols, Robert Child, Thomas Short. In 1620 Capt. Jones and Robert Child still owned their quarter shares in the ship, and it was from them that Thomas Weston chartered her in the summer of 1620 to undertake the Pilgrim voyage.
Officers and crew of the Mayflower Most scholars agree with author Charles Banks' estimation that the Mayflower had a crew of about 50: 36 men 'before the mast' (crew) and 14 officers on the master's staff. This included the following officers: four master's mates, four quartermasters, surgeon, carpenter, cooper, cook, boatswain and gunner. The entire crew stayed with the Mayflower when it wintered over in Plymouth in 1620-1621, with about half of them dying during that time, including the gunner, boatswain, 3 of 4 quartermasters and cook. The survivors returned to London on the Mayflower, sailing from Plymouth on 5 April 1621.
The identity of several key officers under the master has been well established. Two master's mates (pilot) with previous New World sailing experience were John Clarke, age 45, and Robert Coppin. They were assisted by Master's Mate Andrew Williamson. John Alden, a born-and-raised Harwich man and possibly a distant relative of Christopher Jones, was the ship's cooper. It was he who was sent early to Southampton, to buy provisions for the journey and "cooper" them in casks. John Alden remained in Plymouth and later married Priscilla Mullins. An important person on the master's staff that Bradford oddly neglected to mention was the ship's surgeon, a young man just out of apprenticeship as a London barber-surgeon by the name of Giles Heale. His name appears as a witness to the death-bed will of William Mullins in February 1621. Another person that Bradford also did not mention who is recorded as possibly being a principal officer of the Mayflower due to his title, is a man identified only as "Master" Leaver. He is recorded in Mourt's Relation (1622) as rescuing Pilgrims lost in a forest in January 1621.
Voyage of the Pilgrim Ship Mayflower