The Family › Temple–Catchings › Jones
John T Jones
1760–1842
✦ direct ancestor — Owen's 5×-great-grandfather · Temple line
✎ This person appears in a case file: № 5 — The father who would have been three years old — The tree gave Thomas Jones of Essex County a birth year that made him three when his first daughter was born, and a wife who never existed. Two courthouse books put both right.
Life
- Born
- 1760 · Essex County, Virginia, United States of America
- Died
- 18 May 1842 · Essex County, Virginia, United States of America
- Buried
- Millers Tavern, Essex County, Virginia, United States of America
Parents
Marriage & children
Judge John Thompson Jones (1813–1907)
Virginia Franklyn Jones (c. 1814–)
Orlando Scott Jones (c. 1806–1865)
Timeline
- 6 May 1816Military
Records behind this page
Ancestry.com, U.S., Army, Register of Enlistments, 1798-1914 (Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007)
Ancestry.com, U.S., Find a Grave Index, 1600s-Current (Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012)
Ancestry.com, Virginia, U.S., Select Marriages, 1785-1940 (Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc, 2014)
FamilySearch ↗free account
read the transcript
READ ON THE INDEX PAGE 9 Sep 2026 (Ancestry coll. 60214 rec. 2781426 -> 2781424; register K555). This is NOT John Jones's own marriage: it is his DAUGHTER's. "Virginia F. Jones, Female, Single, m. 20 Dec 1828, Essex County, Virginia, to Jefferson Minor; Father: John Jones." FHL film 31275, ref P245 en 1. NO mother field. Grade: index abstract of the county register (original unread); ties [2123] to [2121] as daughter; says nothing about John Jones's wife.
Essex County, Virginia, Chancery Cause 057-1837-013 — Dorothe Jones &c. v. Susan Jones &c., bill filed 18 September 1837 (estate of Thomas M. Jones)
Cause 057-1837-013, bill filed 18 Sep 1837
read the transcript
"...the said THOMAS JONES and KETURAH HIS WIFE, that the said Hoskins & Carlton should deliver up the said property and the increase thereof to the children of the said THOMAS M. JONES & KETURAH HIS WIFE, both those now in being and those hereafter to be born..." "...are the ONLY CHILDREN of the said Thomas M. Jones and <struck: Susan> KETURAH HIS WIFE..." [the clerk eye-skipped "Susan" from two lines above, STRUCK IT, and wrote Keturah] "...that the said KETURAH the wife of the said Thomas M. Jones SURVIVED HIM AND DIED DURING THE PRESENT YEAR - and they now sue for a division..." "...and that their GRANDFATHER THE SAID JOHN JONES, who has been duly appointed their GUARDIAN, has all the property..." "...the following property to wit SEVEN NEGRO SLAVES NAMED CARTER, SUKEY AND THEIR CHILDREN ANDREW, PATRICK, TURNER, BAYLOR AND VIOLET and the future increase of the females..." ⛔ THIS REFUTES THE NAME 'SELENA', which stood uncited in this tree for years. The wife of Thomas M. Jones was KETURAH. The letter is a capital K with its two diagonal arms; the same pages show what this scribe's S looks like. She SURVIVED Thomas and died in 1837. ◎ AND IT SOURCES [866] THOMAS M. JONES TO [2121] JOHN JONES DIRECTLY: the orphans' guardian, 'John Jones (B)' of the 1834 bond, is stated here to be their GRANDFATHER. ⚠ The four children are all INFANTS (under 21) in 1837, so all were born after 1816. ⚠ Keturah's maiden name is NOT in this cause, and that is a settled negative rather than an unread page: the 1827 deed has NO 'Whereas' recitals at all and is signed by John Jones and Thomas M. Jones ONLY. It is a father-and-son settlement, not a marriage settlement, so there is no recital block where a bride's family could sit.
Essex County, Virginia, Deed Book 46 — John Jones to Jefferson Minor and Virginia his wife, 'Midway' formerly 'Jones Ordinary', 15 October 1838
Deed Book 46 (1838-1840), images 94-95
read the transcript
"This Indenture made this 15th day of October 1838 between JOHN JONES of the County of Essex and State of Virginia of the one part and JEFFERSON MINOR and VIRGINIA his wife of same County and State of the other part Witnesseth that the said John Jones in Consideration of the INTERMARRIAGE of the said Jefferson Minor with his said Wife VIRGINIA THE DAUGHTER OF THE SAID JOHN JONES and in the further consideration of the natural love and affection which the said Jones ha[s] for HIS SAID DAUGHTER, and the further sum of five Dollars ... [conveys] a certain tracts or parcels of Land situate lying and being in the Counties of King & Queen & Essex containing by recent Survey three hundred fifty five acres more or less and adjoining the lands of THOMAS WRIGHT SENR ... and is the same tract or parcels of land upon which the said Minor and Wife AT PRESENT RESIDE, called and known by the name of MIDWAY and formerly called JONES [ORDINARY] ... In Witness whereof the said John Jones has hereunto set his hand and affixed his seal ... JOHN JONES ... At a Court begun and held for Essex County ... the 31st Day of January 1839. This Deed was this day acknowledged in Court by John Jones to be his act and deed and Ordered to be Recorded." ◎ THIS IS THE DOCUMENT THAT SOURCES [2123] VIRGINIA FRANKLYN JONES TO [2121] JOHN JONES. Her father says so himself, twice in one sentence, in an instrument he signed and acknowledged in open court. Before this was read, ALL FOUR of F604's children carried ProofFather = 0 with no citation of any kind on their child links.
St Paul's Episcopal Church, Millers Tavern, Essex County, Virginia — gravestone of John Jones (1760-1842)
read the transcript
"SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF JOHN JONES ... in Essex Co. Va. ... A.D. 1760" -- gravestone, St Paul's Episcopal Church, Millers Tavern, Essex Co., Va., moved there from Midway in the 1950s. Gives the BIRTH YEAR 1760. With the death date 18 May 1842 already recorded for this person, the stone fixes both ends of his life. ⚠ The 'abt 1790' it replaces was not an observation: it sits 23 years before his eldest recorded child's 1813 birth, the signature of a BACK-DERIVED estimate -- as does [2125] Nancy Scott's 'abt 1792' (21 years). ⚠ 1760 also makes sense of the 1783 Essex enumeration, in which the Jones householders are William, Benjamin and Richard and there is NO John: at 23 he would still be under his father Benjamin.
Research notes
Working notes from the research, kept verbatim — what was read, what it proved, what stays open. Many open with a line grading the parentage; what the grades mean.
Research note · 1 Aug 2026
AUDITED 1 Aug 2026 — BIRTH CORRECTED 'ABT 1790' -> 1760, ON THE GRAVESTONE, NOT ON THE PENSION. ⭐ The old value was never an observation: it sits exactly 23 years before his eldest recorded child [2126]'s 1813 birth, and his wife [2125]'s 'abt 1792' sits 21 years before it -- the signature of BACK-DERIVED estimates. The correction is anchored on the St Paul's / Millers Tavern stone (b. 1760), tied to this person by the exact death date 18 May 1842 and by the 1838 deed of Midway to his daughter Virginia, wife of Dr. Jefferson Minor ([2123]). ⛔ DELIBERATELY NOT DONE — THE PENSION IS NOT CITED AND NO SERVICE IS ASSERTED. An adversarial check on 1 Aug established that Essex County held SEVERAL men named John Jones. Virginia's own commissioner wrote: 'There are several soldiers named John Jones whose names appear on the Army Register.' File VAS1295 is a DIFFERENT Essex John Jones -- substituted for Lewis Haile in 1776, then 'went to the North, where he remained until the close, when he returned, and married and settled in the said County of Essex' -- which conflicts with VAS1297's man having been wounded at Charlestown. VAS1297 carries no age, no birth year, no family and no unit, and stops in 1816; its petitioner is 'very much disabled' and assigns the whole $40 annuity to George Saunders in 1816, while this family had just been deeded 410 acres and held 931 acres by 1820. ⚠⚠ CONSEQUENCE FOR AN EXISTING FACT: this person ALREADY carries a Military event, E5822 dated 6 May 1816, which is almost certainly that same unproven pension. IT IS FLAGGED HERE AND HAS NOT BEEN TOUCHED -- removing or re-pointing a fact is Owen's decision. ➡ WHAT WOULD SETTLE IT: the Virginia Auditor's pension roll 1812-1842 -- if John Jones of Essex drops off the roll in 1842 the pensioner IS this man; if in 1820, he is not. Also Essex personal property tax lists 1782-1815 year by year, where two men appear as two tithable lines. ⭐ RULED OUT, so nobody repeats it: the printed 'Descendants of Gabriel Jones of Essex and Culpeper Counties' is a DIFFERENT family (Gabriel left Essex for Culpeper in 1744; eight absence controls all returned zero). Memo: jones-susan-parentage-junction.md
=== APPENDED 1 Aug 2026, later the same day — TWO OF HIS CHILDREN ARE NOW SOURCED, AND THE 'JOHN JONES (B)' QUESTION IS ANSWERED. (1) Essex Co. chancery 057-1837-013 (1837) calls the orphaned children of Thomas M. Jones's guardian 'their GRANDFATHER THE SAID JOHN JONES, who has been duly appointed their Guardian'. So 'JOHN JONES (B)', the principal on the 1834 guardian's bond, IS THIS MAN — the children's paternal grandfather — and [866] Thomas M. Jones is therefore HIS SON BY DIRECT RECORD, not by inference. The open question flagged in the note above ('whether JOHN JONES (B) is the grandfather or an uncle') is CLOSED: grandfather. (2) Essex Co. Deed Book 46, 15 Oct 1838: he conveyed 'Midway' to Jefferson Minor and 'VIRGINIA THE DAUGHTER OF THE SAID JOHN JONES'. So [2123] Virginia is sourced to him too. ☞ HYPOTHESIS, NOT A FINDING, RECORDED SO IT CAN BE TESTED: Essex clerks distinguished same-named men by the FATHER'S INITIAL. This man's father is [2137] BENJAMIN Jones. '(B)' may therefore read 'John Jones, son of B[enjamin]' — which would be independent support for the [2137]->[2121] link, still the weakest joint in this line. DO NOT CITE THIS; test it. It does at least mean '(B)' is NOT Benjamin F. Jones, the separate guardian who appears by 1839 and whose relationship to the wards is stated NOWHERE in either chancery cause. ⚠ In the 1837 suit this man is simultaneously GUARDIAN, GUARDIAN AD LITEM, DEFENDANT and the COMMISSIONER who sells the estate and reports on it — a conflict plain on the record, and the likeliest reason a separate guardian appears by 1839. ⭐ HIS GRAVESTONE STOOD AT MIDWAY: Essex County Historical Society Bulletin vol. 28 (May 1986) p.2 records 'a full sized bricked up grave, covered by a white marble slab with John Jones inscription ... in a field to the north of the residence until about 1950 when it was moved to St. Paul's Church graveyard'. Find a Grave memorial 98552010 shows that slab at St Paul's, Millers Tavern: 'SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF JOHN JONES ... in Essex Co. Va. ... A.D. 1760 ... A.D. 1842'. The stone his 1760 birth rests on stood on the farm he deeded away in 1838. Its lower epitaph is fraternal, probably Masonic, and is not legible in that photograph.
Elsewhere
This person on Ancestry (sign-in required)