John Jones b. 1594

/ Kirstin Miller

John Jones 10th great grandma on RootsMagic tree

John Jones was born in 1594, in England. A minster, on December 19, 1613 he was ordained as Deacon of Peterboro and by 1619 he was the minster at Abbot’s Ripton in Cambridgeshire, England. In 1630 the courts removed John for not following rites and rituals of the Church of England. In 1635 John and family left England for America. They sailed with another minister Peter Bulkeley- also a Miller ancestor, John and Peter’s children married in Connecticut in 1640.Jones, John suspended

Jones and BulkeleyOn 6 April 1637 the church of Concord ‘kept a day of humiliation, chose Mr Bulkeley teacher and Mr. Jones pastor’. In August 1637 John and other minsters held an Ecclesiastical Council- they worked on their new religion: beliefs, requirements, practices in the new world. In 1644 another council was held and this time Peter Bulkeley and John Jones split- they couldn’t agree so John Jones and family left Concord and went to Fairfield Connecticut where John was the 1st pastor of the Congregational Church of Fairfield. John and Peter’s kids were married by this time, Peter’s son Thomas, married to Sarah Jones, Thomas and Sarah Jones Bulkeley went with John, to Fairfield.

John Jones as minister in Fairfield is shown in a book, Prime Ancient Society of Fairfield, Connecticut, summarized: ‘It is Lord’s Day. Sabbath hush pervades the air. At nine o’clock the drum summons the people, the meeting-house is a plain low structure, as people enter the men go to one side women go to the other. The children are put under the care of the tithing-man. Mr. Jones begins the service with a long prayer, then a longer sermon, a short prayer and the benediction. A brief intermission at noon then the afternoon service. At close of service people walked home and devoted their hours to the reading of the Bible and religious conversation in the family. The minister was expected to be vigilant, observant, energetic in respect to the innumerable details of town affairs. He had a sort of censorship in respect to matters of public import. His influences were far reaching’.

John Jones died and was buried in 1664. His burial place is in Old Burying Ground Cemetery in Fairfield, CT, about 10 miles north of the Long Island sound. His original headstone is long gone, there’s a monument added in recent times.

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