# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jones, Philip

​JONES, PHILIP (1618?–1674), parliamentarian colonel, born at ‘The Great House,’ High Street, Swansea, about 1618, was the eldest son of David Johnes, who owned the freehold of Penywaun in the parish of Llangyfelach, Glamorganshire. His grandfather was Philip Johnes, a cadet of the house of Blethyn ap Maenarch, lord of Brecon. In 1642 Philip appears to have joined the parliamentary forces, and is said to have ‘suffered much for his constancy to parliament,’ while his ‘care and zeal’ contributed largely to reduce Glamorganshire (Cal. State Papers, Interregnum, Advance of Money, ii. 799). In recognition of his services, after the surrender of Swansea, he was appointed by parliament, on 17 Nov. 1645, governor of the garrison there, and in the following year was created colonel. In 1648, when a fresh revolt of royalists broke out in South Wales, headed by Colonel Poyer and Rowland Laugharne, committees were appointed (21 April 1648) for managing the militia and suppressing the insurrection; Jones was selected a member of the committee for Glamorganshire, and hurried thither with a company of men from Swansea to reinforce the parliamentary troops under Colonel Horton. He took part ​with Horton in all the subsequent marches until Horton came up with the royalist forces at St. Fagans, near Cardiff, and defeated them after a well-fought battle on 8 May 1648. It was probably soon after this that Jones was made governor of Cardiff Castle. The levying of the fine of 20,000l. on the counties of South Wales, according to an act passed 23 Feb. 1648–9, appears to have been entrusted to Jones and Colonel Horton (ib. Dom. 1649, p. 81). When Cromwell passed through Swansea, on his way to Ireland in 1649, he was Jones's guest there.
It was ordered by the House of Commons, 6 Feb. 1649–50, that Jones should be admitted to sit as a member for the county of Brecknock (Commons' Journals, vi. 358). On 20 June 1651 he was specially consulted by the council as to the best way to deal with the most notorious rebels in Wales; on 7 Aug. he was ordered to send three companies of men from his regiment to march against the Scots, and in December he sent three hundred recruits from his regiment to Ireland. In 1653, and in September 1654 (when he was also returned for Glamorganshire), he represented Monmouthshire in Cromwell's parliaments. In September 1656 he was returned for both the counties of Brecknock and Glamorgan, but elected to sit for the latter (ib. vii. 432). He spoke frequently in the House of Commons, and often did duty on committees, and as a teller on divisions. In the Protector's upper house, which met at Westminster in 1657, he ranked as Philip, lord Jones. Jones was probably the means of inducing Cromwell to grant two charters to Swansea: under the first (26 Feb. 1655) he became high steward of the town, and the second (3 May 1658) constituted Swansea a parliamentary borough.
Jones seems to have joined the council of state for the first time on 16 May 1653, and from that date till Cromwell's death he was a constant attendant. He was one of the most trusted councillors both of Oliver and Richard Cromwell, and belonged to the section in the council which wished to establish the protectorate on a legal basis, and opposed the arbitrary measures advocated by the military party. During 1653 he was appointed member of committees for Scotch and Irish affairs (3 May), of inspection (18 May), of the excise (21 May), the mint (24 May), and the ordnance (29 June). On 11 March 1654–1655 he was instructed to repair to Shrewsbury with the view of checking an anticipated insurrection (Thurloe State Papers, iii. 220). He was also a member of the committee appointed in April 1657 to offer Cromwell the kingship, and was present at Westminster, 26 June 1657, at the installation of Cromwell as lord protector. He was a member of the committee of nine appointed by Cromwell in the spring of 1658 to consider the preparations for calling a new parliament (ib. vii. 192). In 1655 he was selected sole umpire between England and Portugal with reference to the interpretation of certain clauses in a treaty between the two countries, and in 1658 he was elected governor of the Charterhouse in succession to Richard Cromwell. He had been controller of Oliver's household and superintended his funeral. Richard Cromwell continued him in the office, and Ludlow describes Richard Cromwell's cabinet council as consisting of the Lord Broghil, Dr. Wilkins, and Colonel Philip Jones (Memoirs, ii. 632, 1st edit.) In October 1658 Thurloe wrote that the leaders of the army complained that Richard Cromwell ‘was led only by the advice of’ Jones and himself (Thurloe State Papers, vii. 490; cf. p. 56).
Jones's position exposed him to frequent attack. About 1650 he was charged with treachery and corruption, but according to the evidence of Major-general Rowland Dawkin the accusation was groundless (extracts from the Fonmon MSS. printed in Charters of Swansea, pp. 173–7). In 1653–4 Dr. Basset Jones [q. v.] petitioned the Protector for the recovery of the manor of Wrinston in Glamorganshire. Jones had purchased Wrinston with three adjoining manors from Colonel Horton's brigade, to whom they had been given as a reward after the battle of St. Fagans, out of the forfeited estates of the Marquis of Worcester. The House of Lords, by an order dated 17 Feb. 1661, decided in Jones's favour. After Cromwell's death one Bledry Morgan, supposed to be the tool of the military party and of some of the more violent republicans, brought charges of oppression and of breaches of trust against Jones, in articles read before the House of Commons 18 May 1659 (and subsequently published in pamphlet form, London, 26 May 1659). At Jones's request the matter was referred by the house to a committee appointed on 23 May, but enlarged by additional nominations on 26 May, 14 and 22 June, but how it reported seems unknown (Commons' Journals, sub ann.) Jones undoubtedly amassed a considerable fortune under the Commonwealth. His original income is stated to have been only about 17l. or 20l. a year—probably the value of his patrimony of Penywaun. Cromwell was liberal in his gifts of lands and fees (see Francis and Baker, Survey of Gower, pt. i. passim). In a pamphlet called ‘A Second Narrative of the late Parliament (so called)’ (London, ​1658, and reprinted in ‘Harleian Miscellany,’ iii. 479), it is said that ‘he made hay while the sun shined, and improved his interest and revenue in land, well gotten (no question), to 3,000l. per annum’ (Harleian Miscellany, iii. 479).
After the Restoration the attorney-general challenged his receipts and disbursement of public money in an unsuccessful action at law (Charters of Swansea, p. 201). But he soon made his peace with Charles II's government, and strengthened his title to his estates by purchasing the reversion from the original owners. He also bought, in 1664, Penmark Manor, including Fonmon Castle, whither he retired to live. He was sheriff of Glamorganshire in 1671. He died 5 Sept. 1674, and was buried in the church at Penmark, where a tablet to his memory still remains.
Jones married Jane, daughter of William Price of Gellyhir and Cwrtycarnau, by whom he had four sons and five daughters. His wife died 23 Oct. 1678. His three eldest sons, Samuel, Philip, and John, were admitted students of Gray's Inn on the same day, 29 Oct. 1657, but were never called to the bar; the two former died during their father's lifetime, and the last named died without male issue, being succeeded by his only surviving brother, Oliver, for whom it is said Cromwell stood sponsor, and from whom the present Jones family of Fonmon Castle is directly descended. An oil painting of Jones, supposed to be by Cornelius Janssen, is preserved at Fonmon, and a photograph of it is given in the ‘Charters of Swansea’ (vide infra). An emblazoned pedigree of Jones, prepared by George Owen, York herald, the deed appointing him governor of the Charterhouse, and several other documents illustrative of Jones's history are also at the same place (Arch. Cambr. 5th ser. v. 383–5). Several letters from Jones to Henry Cromwell, as lord deputy of Ireland, are preserved in the British Museum in the Lansdowne MSS. (823).
[Most of the facts of Jones's life were collected for the first time in a Memoir of Colonel Philip Jones, included in the Charters of Swansea by Colonel Grant-Francis, pp. 167–207; Pedigrees of the Fonmon family are to be seen in Arch. Cambr. 2nd ser. vii. 1–22, and in G. T. Clark's Glamorganshire Pedigrees, pp. 215, 216; see also Lewis W. Dillwyn's Contributions towards a History of Swansea, p. 28; J. Roland Phillips's Civil War in Wales, i. 244 n., 401, 418, ii. 361; Foster's Register of Admissions at Gray's Inn, p. 284.]
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