Henry Jones 1670/1-1707/8

Henry JONES 1670/1-1707 or 1708

Biographical Note

Born in Sunningwell, Berkshire, son of Walter Jones, rector there. BA Christ Church, Oxford 1672, MA 1675, rector of Sunningwell 1673, where he remained for the rest of his life; he may have been a nonjuror and sources vary on the dates of his incumbency.

Books

Jones’s library was augmented by the bequest, in 1686, of the books and papers of his uncle John Fell, Bishop of Oxford, who left him all his books and papers apart from a number of specific exceptions. This included a number of manuscripts. In his own will, Jones directed that his manuscripts should be given to the Bodleian Library, where they were received in 1708; there are ca. 60 volumes, 13th-16th centuries. He also left his cousin, Benjamin Marshall, 12 books from his study, at his choice; all the rest of his property, including his books, was left to his brother Richard Jones of Oxford.

Jones’s library (except the mss) was then sold by auction in Oxford, 7 July 1710, as part of a joint sale with the books of Daniel Osborne. The sale catalogue contains 2963 lots, divided between Latin theology and miscellaneous subjects (1366), Latin and English medicine (287), French and Italian books (18), and English theology and miscellaneous (1292). The catalogue does not distinguish which books came from which source.

Characteristic markings

Beyond the manuscripts in the Bodleian, none of Jones’s books have been identified.

Sources

• Will of Henry Jones, The National Archives PROB 11/501/123.
• Bibliotheca Jonesiana & Osborneana, 1710, ESTC t186846.
• Foster, J., Alumni Oxonienses, Oxford, 1891.
• Macray, W., Annals of the Bodleian Library, 2nd edn, Oxford, 1890, p.177-8.