Gabriel Jones (politician)

Gabriel Jones was born on May 17, 1724, approximately from Williamsburg, in York County, Colony of Virginia. He was a son of John and Elizabeth Jones, who had arrived in Virginia several years earlier from Montgomeryshire in northern Wales, Great Britain, where Jones's family was of noble descent. Jones's father was a weaver. Jones's elder sister Elizabeth was born on August 13, 1721, at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, and his younger brother John was born on June 12, 1725, at the same location as Jones. Jones attended Christ's Hospital for seven years. On April 12, 1739, he was discharged from the institution by his mother and John Houghton, a solicitor in the Court of Chancery and of Lyon's Inn in Middlesex. Despite its noble origins, Jones's family was of limited means, and he served as an indentured apprentice studying jurisprudence under Houghton's charge for a term of six years until 1745. At the age of 21, Jones was admitted to practice law following the completion of his apprenticeship. == Political career ==

Return to Virginia Following his admission to the bar and the death of his mother in 1745, Jones was persuaded by either Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron, the landowner of the Northern Neck Proprietary, or his relative Hugh Mercer to return to Virginia. The county's court recommended Jones to the position, citing him "as a fit person to transact His Majesty's affairs in this county". When the first appointed justices of Augusta County assembled on December 9, 1745, the body qualified Jones to practice as an "attorney-at-law" in the county. He was the first lawyer to reside within the then-boundaries of Augusta County. Jones was again elected to represent Frederick County in the House of Burgesses in 1752, but resigned in 1753 to serve as the county's coroner. From 1754 to 1755, Jones served alongside a Mr. Parker representing Hampshire County in the House of Burgesses. Jones and Parker were Hampshire County's first representatives in the House of Burgesses following the county's creation on May 1, 1754. Jones was on close terms with Lord Fairfax, While Archibald Wager was likely the first appointed Clerk of Court for Hampshire County, Jones was the first operational appointee to serve in the position. According to Maxwell and Swisher, Jones relied upon his deputy clerks, such as Dew, to transcribe and document court proceedings, which Jones traveled among the various counties to sign. and Hampshire County from 1758 until 1761. In 1774, Jones was elected to represent Virginia in the Continental Congress Jones served as Clerk of Court for Hampshire County for a tenure spanning 25 years until his retirement from the position in 1782. In their History of Hampshire County, West Virginia (1897), Maxwell and Swisher theorize that Jones retired from his position due in part to Lord Fairfax's death the previous year and waning British influence in Virginia toward the conclusion of the American Revolutionary War. == Later life and legacy ==

Following his retirement from his position as Clerk of Court for Hampshire County, Jones continued to remain active in Virginia political affairs. On October 1, 1784, George Washington visited and dined with Jones at his home at Bogota. Jones continued to practice law in Rockingham County until his death. The road upon which he regularly traveled between his residence Bogota and Rockingham County's seat of Harrisonburg became known as "The Lawyer's Road", In the spring of 1887, a memorial window to Jones and his wife was installed in a new Episcopal church erected near their former Bogota residence. Jones was further memorialized in historian Joseph Addison Waddell's Annals of Augusta County, Virginia (1886), in which Waddell remarked of Jones: "He was considered a man of great ability and unbending integrity. His only fault, or the only one which tradition tells of, was an extremely irritable temper, which, when aroused, expressed itself in the strongest terms he could command, mingled with no little profanity. Having a scorn of all dishonesty and meanness, he did not spare a miscreant by tongue or pen." In his Historic Families of Kentucky (1889), historian and genealogist Thomas Marshall Green said of Jones: "Gabriel Jones rose rapidly in his profession; in attainments he was second to no man at the colonial bar; in native ability he was conspicuous among those who stood in the first rank." == Personal life ==

. Jones was married on October 16, 1749, to Margaret Strother Morton (1726–1822), the widow of George Morton and the daughter of William Strother and his wife Margaret Watts of King George County. Jones was an Anglican. He further described Jones as sporting "powdered hair", a blue coat, a white vest, a cravat, silk stockings, and silver knee and shoe buckles. Maxwell and Swisher state that Jones's remark "became a proverb in Hampshire County" and was used when someone had been driven to extremes and utilized what little resources were left at their disposal. ==Landholdings==

Jones settled in Frederick County and on March 1, 1747, he acquired a tract of land along Opequon Creek near present-day Kernstown, where he resided for several years. ==References==