Jones of Llanishen, Monmouthshire

[paterfamilias]

Dear List,

 I am working on the Jones family of Llanishen. There seem to be Jones in Llanishen as far back as the early 17th century, at least. Has anyone unraveled this complicated lot?

 In particular, I descend from John Jones, Tiler, who died in 1848, and lived in Tregirog house associated with a 300 acre farm, then owned by James Jones, in 1841. James and his family also lived at Tregirog. John's Will is at NLW, and he leaves a harpsichord and silver to his daughter and he had leasehold land in Trellech and Llanishen. It certainly seems likely that John was related to James Jones and his father William Jones (who lived in Tregirog in 1851 with James after the passing of John). Further, John Jones owned a property next to where Lewis Jones and his family resided, and some of his leasehold land was adjacent to Lewis. William, Lewis and John were all born ca. 1760-1770. William was born in Llanelly, Brecs from the census data. A few other things about John: he married Ann Wasley (who I cannot trace at all) at Usk in 1803, and John had a sister Elizabeth who married John Heydon, Gent (who was executor of John's Will). From the 1841 census one infers that John was born about 1771 in Mons.

There is an ancient link of Jones to Tregirog house through the High Sheriff, William Jones (of Llanishen), whose Will was proved in the PCC in 1664. Link here: https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/5111/40611_310535-00509. Bradney discusses this family briefly in the volume "the Hundred of Trellech" but the connection if any to the 19th century Jones is unclear. There also appear to be links to Breconshire Jones as well (for example, the grandfather of Lewis Jones mentions in his Will that he bought land from Roger Jones, MP of Brecs.

Before spending another 100 hours on this, I thought I would look for experts first!

Cheers, Dave

[hanes teulu]

Have you checked "Welsh Journals"?

https://journals.library.wales/search/advanced   

Tregirog returns 1 hit - "Daniel Tregoze, Tregirog" (page 287).  William Jones is mentioned on page 283 as Sheriff 1662 and states "Arms. As Herbert". This would appear to be Charles Herbert, Sheriff in 1541 and 1549 (page 279).

I also checked for alternative spellings - Tregeiriog (636 hits) and Tregeirog (2 hits). Note - I haven't checked which hits apply to Tregeiriog/Tregeirog in the Llanishen area (if any) and which apply to Tregeiriog/Tregeirog in the Llangollen, North Wales area. 

[paterfamilias]

Good morning!

These are good ideas. I have seen these but did not report them. I am extremely impressed by the National Library of Wales, it has to be one of the best such resources in the world. The existence of the land ownership maps ca 1840 is stunning. Kudos to all involved with NLW. Your comment about Herbert and the link to the 16th century Sheriff is interesting. I poked around a little on this. Does the fact that this William bore Herbert arms imply that they were transmitted in the male line? I guess not, since William the Sheriff’s father John was not a Herbert. There is a sad lack of information about mothers and wives, just characteristic of the era, I guess. So I guess a Herbert daughter is an ancestor of the Sheriff and arms were granted based on such a link?

Where Tregiriog is concerned, Bradney describes it as a Jones possession up until Tregose. This Tregose can be found a few places in google books, but his origins are not clear, Bradney basically says he has no idea who he was. Then the house is owned by Jones again in the middle-late 19th century. There are records which I will assemble later that show that Parliament had to take some action (I think) with respect to William the sheriff’s Perpetual bequest to the poor of Llanishen. There was a petition by Henry Warrilow (the vicar), John Jones (Churchwardens, I *guess* my John) and others in the 1820 about this. Let me send details later. This raises a question, I have been surprised that most of these people, including John Jones (ca 1771-1848) made their mark. Would it be possible in the early 1800s that a Churchwarden might be illiterate?

There are some possible links to Breconshire too, but quite unclear at the moment.

Alas I have to do my real job, will add some more later. Thank you!  Dave