Johann Theodor Jablonski was the oldest child of
Petr Figulus (a scholar and Protestant pastor from the town
Jablonné nad Orlicí in northeastern
Bohemia) and Alžběta (Elizabeth), the daughter of
John Amos Comenius. Comenius' family has been escaping from
Bohemian Crown since 1628, together with hundreds of thousands of other Protestant Czech and German Bohemians, to evade from religious persecution and forced
recatholization imposed by victorious
Habsburgs. Petr Figulus, who served as a secretary for his carer and subsequent father-in-law Comenius, travelled with him throughout whole Europe; finally he found asylum in Danzig. Petr and Alžběta had also four younger children, one of them was
Daniel Ernst Jablonski, later religious reformer and scholar. Unlike other siblings, brothers Johann and Daniel took their surnames Jablonski (Jablonský in
Czech, i.e. "man from Jablonné") from the name of father's birthplace. In his teen years traveled from Memel (
Klaipėda) – his father served there as a teacher and pastor for local
Lutherans and
Calvinists – to
Amsterdam where was educated by his grandfather Comenius; after father's and grandfather's death (both 1670), he went to
Brandenburg-Prussia where he became a student in the
Joachimsthal Gymnasium in
Berlin. From 1672 he studied at the
Albertina in
Königsberg, then in 1674 continued his education at the
university in Frankfurt an der Oder. In 1680, he undertook a trip to the
Netherlands and to
England, together with brother Daniel. In 1687, he became the secretary of Princess
Marie Eleonore of Anhalt-Dessau, the daughter of Prince
John George II, thus moved then to
Poland-Lithuania where the princess married. In 1689 he returned to the
Holy Roman Empire when he obtained a similar post – to become the secretary of
Heinrich of Saxe-Weissenfels, Count of Barby. In 1700 he returned to Berlin as a tutor to Prussian Crown Prince
Frederick William (Friedrich Wilhelm). For the rest of his life Jablonski also held a position of
Hofrat (court councillor). ==Works==