JONES, BASSETT (fl. 1634-1659), scholar and physician;
son of Richard Jones, of Michaelston-super-Ely, and Jane, his wife, daughter of Thomas Bassett, esquire and high sheriff, of Miskin, Glam. Bassett entered Jesus College, Oxford, in 1634, and afterwards the Dutch university of Franeker, and other seats of learning on the Continent, where he studied physics and chemistry. He returned home, and in 1648 (the year of the battle of S. Fagans) was published in Oxford his Lapis chymicus philosophorum examini subjectus. He was involved in his family's dispute with Philip Jones (q.v.) over the manor of Wrinston, Glam.; the documents of this affair were published in 1654 including Bassett Jones’ petition to Cromwell and his comments on Philip Jones's reply. In 1659 appeared his Hermaelogium, or, an Essay at the Rationality of the Art of Speaking. As a Supplement to Lillie's Grammar (sic), philosophically, mythologically and emblematically offered by B.J. (London).
Bassett Jones's wife was Catherine, daughter of William Lloyd; if she came from Brecknock this might help to explain the reference by G.T. Clark to the possession of lands in Pencelly, near Brecon, by Bassett Jones, although there is no reference to it in Theophilus Jones's History of Brecknockshire. According to Richard Jones's will (d. 1659), Bassett had a son, Thomas Jones, by a Marie Hughes, and a daughter Marie Jones, by a Katherine Miles. According to the pedigrees in the ‘Golden Grove Book’ he had no children from Catherine Lloyd, his wife.
Bibliography:
- Arch. Camb., 1889, 198-213;
- D.N.B.;
- G. T. Clark, Limbus Patrum;
- B.M. Cat. P.B.;
- Wood, Athen. Oxon.;
- B.M. Harley MS. 6108 (51).
Author:
David Myrddin Lloyd, M.A., (1909-81), Aberystwyth / Scotland
