Jones, Greenbury R., a IMethodist Episcopal minister, was born at Brownsville, Pa., April 7, 1784 ; was converted in August, 1803; entered the itinerancy at SteubenvUle, Ohio, in 1818; was ])rcsi(liiig elder on Scioto District in 1821 ; Miami District in 1827 ; Port- land District in 1832 ; but superannuated in that year, and so remained until 1839; and died at Marietta Con- ference Sept. 20, 1844. JMr. Jones was a zealous and capable minister, of fine tact and sound judgment. He was several times secretary of the Ohio Conference, nine years presiding elder, and twice delegate to the (ieneral Conference. He was faithful in all things, and much
beloved. — j]finvtes of Conferences, iii, 651 ; Spragye, Jn- nals A m. Pulpit, vii", 587. (G. L. T.)
Jones, GrifStll, a Welsh divine, generally known as the Welsh Apostle, was born at Kilreddis, Caermar- thenshire, in 1684. His parents, who were eminently pious, took great pains to imbue the mind of their son from his earliest years with impressions of religion. The serious turn which they thus gave to his mind in- clined him towards tlie Christian ministry. At the completion of his tlieological studies he was ordained by bishop Bull, Sept. 10, 1708, and shortly after appoint- ed to the rectory of Llanddowror by Sir John Philips, whose own religious character made him anxious to se- cure the services of a man of piety and learning like Jones. " In this situation," says Middleton (^Evangelical Biography, s. v.), " he soon develojied all the best qual- ities of a man of God, and a most eloquent and evangel- ical preacher. Christ was all to him ; and it was his greatest delight to publish and exalt the unsearchable riches of his Redeemer's righteousness. Nor was he less blessed in his private ])lans of doing good. He founded among his countrymen free schools, and by this means more than a hundred and fifty thousand poor people were taught to read. He also circulated thirty thou- sand copies of the Welsh Bible among them, besides other religious and useful books. His humility gave lustre to all these laljors of love. On his dying bed he said, ' I must bear witness to the goodness of God to me. Blessed be God, his comforts fill my soul.' He died in April, 1761. It may be truly said of GriflSth Jones that few lives were more heavenly and useful, and fe^v deaths more triumphant." Jones also wrote and inililislK'd several religious treatises in Welsh and Eng- lisli, of whii li many thousands were distributed as had been tlie IJilile. See Jamieson, Cyclop. Relig. Biog. p. 289 ; Allibone, Diet. Engl, and A mer. A uthors, vol. ii, s. v.
Jones, Horatio Gates (son of David Jones, 1), also a Baptist minister, was born at Easttown, Ches- ter County, Pa., Feb. 11, 1777. His early education was quite thfirough, and remarkably so for a young man destined for agricultural life. Gifted with great fluen- cy of speech, young Jones became " the politician" of his own immediate vicinity, and before he had reached his majority enjoyed the prospect of preferment in po- litical life. Just about this time he became conscious, however, of his responsibility to his Maker, and, believ- ing himself to have been the subject of spiritual reno- vation, he made public declaration of his belief, June 24, 1798, and determined to devote his life to the Christian ministry. He was licensed Sept. 26, 1801, and called to Salem, New Jersey, Feb. 13, 1802. In 1805 his health became enfeebled, and he was obliged to resign, how- ever reluctantly, the charge. Hereafter he devoted himself to farm life on a place which he bought on the banks of the Schuylkill River, about five miles above Philadelphia. But Jones had engaged too heartily in the cause of his Master not to be tempted to re-en- ter the work of the Christian ministry whenever his health should warrant the task. At first he went to different places from time to time and preached; finally he made "Thomson's Meeting-house" at Lower Merl- on, Montgomery County, belonging to the Presbyteri- ans, his head-quarters, and he succeeded, after several years of ardent labor, in building np there a Baptist Church, which he served until the end of his earthly days, Dec. 12, 18.53. Mr. Jones held a prominent po- sition in the board of trustees of the University of Lew- isburg. Pa., and was at one time its chancellor. This high school conferred on him the degree of D.D. The degree of jM.A. he received from Brown University in 1812. He was also a member of the Baptist Board of Missions, and was at one time (1829) president of the Philadelphia Baptist Association, of which society he published a History in 1823, and held a co-editorship of the Latter-day Luminary, an early Baptist missionary magazine. Indeed, we are told that '• few men of his
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day have written so much and so -well, and published so little.'^ See .Sjtrague, .1 nnals A m. Pulpit, vi, 452 sq.
Jones, Jeremiah, a learned English dissenting minister, was born, as is supposed, of parents in opulent circumstances, in the north of England, in 1693. After finishing his education under the Rev. Samuel Jones, of Tewksbury, wlio was also the tutor of Chandler, But- ler, Seeker, and many other distinguished divines, he became minister of a congregation at Forest Green, in Gloucestershire, where he also kept an academy. He died in 1734. His works are as follows: A Vindica- tion of the former Part of the Gospel by Mattheic from Mr. \Vhiston's Charge of Dislocation, etc. (London, 1719, 8vo; Salop, 1721, 8 vo,' Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1803): —also, .4 new and full Method of settling the Canonical Authority of the New Testament (London, 1726, 2 vols. 8vo; vol. iii, 1727, 8vo; Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1798, 3 vols. 8vo, and since). See Chalmers, Biog. Diet. (Lon- don) ; Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xxiii ; Monthly 3Iaga- zine, April, 1803 ; Allibone, Diet, of English and Ameri- can A utkois, ii, 988.