Lewis Jones (bishop)

Lewis Jones (born c. 1542, Merionethshire, Wales; died 2 November 1646, Dublin, Ireland) was a Welsh priest and Bishop of Killaloe in the Church of Ireland.

Jones was educated at Brasenose College at Oxford (Fellowship at All Souls, 1569) and married Mabel Ussher, sister of James Ussher (later Primate of All Ireland) in Ireland c. 1602. Irish historian James Ware claimed he was called "the vivacious Bishop of Killaloe" for having married a young wife at the age of threescore (60).^[1] He held several church posts in Ireland, finally becoming Bishop of Killaloe in 1633. His Puritan leanings were deplored by Archbishop Laud, but he remained in office until his death in 1646 at the reputed age of 104. He was buried in St. Werburgh's Church, Dublin.

He was Dean of Ardagh (1606–1625) and Dean of Cashel (1609-1633), when he renovated Cashel Cathedral and instituted a choir there.^[2]

Two of his sons were themselves bishops – Henry Jones (1605–1682) and Ambrose Jones (d. 1678). Three other sons, Michael Jones (d. 1649), Oliver Jones (d. 1664), and Theophilus Jones (d. 1685), were soldiers and politicians.^[3]

Disputes

A good deal of confusion exists about Jones' career and age. Several writers^[4][5] believe Jones graduated from Brasenose College in 1580, which would correspond to a date given for his age in a letter of Archbishop Laud and make him about 86 at his death. On the other hand, the story of Jones as "the vivacious Bishop" given by James Ware and his editor Walter Harris – in a work supposedly printed by Jones' granddaughters – would argue for the earlier date of graduation. Genealogist Robert Leech, in a 19th-century work on the Jones family, posited that there were several Lewis Joneses active at the time, and the Dean of Ardagh was a different Lewis Jones, the son of Thomas Jones, Archbishop of Dublin.^[6]

References

1. James Ware, The Whole Works of James Ware concerning Ireland, Volume 1, Dublin: E. Jones, 1739, p. 596
2. The Ecclesiologist, August 1867, "The Cathedrals of Ireland" (part V), John Jebb, p. 191
3. Welsh Biography Online, "Michael Jones"
4. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, "Lewis Jones"
5. Alumni Oxonienses, Volume II, Joseph Foster, Oxford: Parker & Co., 1891
6. The Jones Family in Ireland, Robert Leech, Yonkers, New York: M. H. Clark, 1886, p. 36

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Jones, Lewis". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.