Roger Jones, 1st Viscount Ranelagh

Roger Jones, 1st Viscount Ranelagh PC (Ire) (before 1589 – 1643) was Lord President of Connaught. He was Chief Leader of the Army and Forces of Connaught during the early years of the Irish Confederate Wars. In addition to Viscount Ranelagh, he held the title Baron Jones of Navan.

Roger Jones
Viscount Ranelagh
Reign	1628–1643
Successor	Arthur, 2nd Viscount Ranelagh
Born	before 1589
Died	1643
Spouse(s)	Frances Moore
Detail Issue Arthur, & others
Father	Thomas Jones
Mother	Margaret Purdon

Birth and origin

Roger was born before 1589, the only son of Thomas Jones and his wife Margaret Purdon. His father was Archbishop of Dublin and Lord Chancellor of Ireland. His mother was a daughter of Adam Purdon of Lurgan Race, County Louth.[1]

Family tree

RogerJones with his two wives, his parents, and selected relatives. Thomas Jones c. 1550 – 1619 Archbishop Margaret Purdon Frances Moore Roger 1st Viscount d. 1643 Catherine Longueville Arthur 2nd Viscount d. 1669 Katherine Boyle 1615–1691; Thomas Jones Elizabeth Jones Richard 1st Earl 1641–1712 Legend XXX Roger Jones XXX Viscounts & Earls of Ranelagh Roger's two wives: 1st left, 2nd right. Also see the lists of siblings and children in the text.

Roger listed among his siblings
The birth order is unknown. Roger (died June 1643); Margaret, married Gilbert Domvile, Clerk of the Crown and Hanaper,[2] and was the mother of William Domville, Attorney General for Ireland; Jane, married Henry Piers.[3]

Early life

He was knighted at Drogheda on 26 March 1607[4] and thus became Sir Roger Jones.

In 1608 his father became involved in a bitter feud with Christopher St Lawrence, 10th Baron Howth, in which Sir Roger also became embroiled. His reference to Howth as a brave man among cowards was enough to provoke his opponent, a notoriously quarrelsome man, to violence. In the spring of 1609, Jones, Howth and their followers engaged in a violent fracas at a tennis court in Thomas Street, Dublin, and a Mr. Barnewall was killed. The Lord Deputy of Ireland, Sir Arthur Chichester, an enemy of Howth, had him arrested immediately, though he was never brought to trial.

First marriage and children

Sir Roger married Frances Moore, the daughter of Sir Garret Moore, 1st Viscount Moore of Drogheda[5] and Mary Colley, daughter of Sir Henry Colley.

Roger and Frances had four children, two boys and two girls:

1. Arthur, married Lady Catherine Boyle, who was the daughter of Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork, and also the older sister of pioneering chemist Robert Boyle, and the writer Mary Rich, Countess of Warwick;
2. Margaret, married John Clotworthy, 1st Viscount Massereene;
3. Mary, married firstly Lieutenant Colonel John Chichester, son of Edward Chichester, 1st Viscount Chichester. Their son Arthur Chichester, 2nd Earl of Donegall inherited the earldom from his uncle. After his death she remarried Colonel Christopher Copley of Wadworth, and had further issue; and
4. Thomas, whose descendants reclaimed the Ranelagh viscountcy in 1759 after it had been dormant after the death of Richard Jones, 1st Earl of Ranelagh in 1711.

Midlife

Sir Roger was a member of the Parliament of Ireland for the borough of Trim in County Meath from 1613 to 1615.[6]

In 1620, he was named to the privy council of Ireland. He was the Chief Leader of the Army and Forces of Connaught and was Vice President of Connaught from 1626.

On 23 November 1620 his first wife died.[7]

On 25 August 1628, Sir Roger was created Baron Jones of Navan and 1st Viscount Ranelagh by King Charles I.[8]

Second Marriage and daughter

Lord Ranelagh, as he was now, married secondly Catherine Longueville (daughter of Sir Henry Longueville, of Wolverton, co. Buckingham and his wife Katherine Cary, sister of Henry Cary, 1st Viscount of Falkland),[9] by whom he had one daughter:

• Elizabeth, married Colonel Robert Sandys, son of Sir Edwin Sandys.[10]

Late life, death, and timeline

On 11 September 1630 he was made joint President of Connaught alongside Charles Wilmot, 1st Viscount Wilmot[11] who had occupied this post alone since 3 June 1616.[12]

According to (Cokayne 1895) Lord Ranelagh died in 1643 in Oxford while attending the King Charles I.[13] However, according to (Burke 1869) he died in 1628.[14]

Timeline
Age	Date	Event
0	1589, before	Born.
22	26 Mar 1607	Knighted at Drogheda.[4]
24	1609	Married his 1st wife, Frances Moore.
34	1619	His father died.
35	1620, 23 Nov	His 1st wife died.[7]
40	1625, 27 Mar	Accession of King Charles I, replacing King James I.[15]
40	1625, about	Married his 2nd wife, Catherine Longueville.[9]
42	1627	His second wife died abroad.
43	1628, 25 Aug	Ennobled by creating him Baron Navan and Viscount Ranelagh.[8]
45	1630, 11 Sep	Appointed joint President of Connaught.[11]
56	1641, 12 May	Strafford beheaded.[16]
58	1643, June	Died and was succeeded by his son Arthur.[13]

See also

• Sir James Dillon, who fought Ranelagh at Athlone.

Notes and references

1. Burke 1869, p. 931, left column, line 50: "His grace [the archbishop] m. Margaret, dau. of Adam Purdon, Esq. of Lurgan Race, co. Louth, and relict of John Douglas, Esq. ..."
2. Burke 1869, p. 931, left column, line 54: "Margaret, m. to Gilbert Domvile, Esq., clerk of the Hanaper."
3. Burke 1869, p. 931, left column, line 55: "Jane, m. to Henry Piers, Esq. of Tristernagh, co. Westmeath."
4. Cokayne 1895, p. 324, line 10: "... was knighted at Drogheda 26 March 1607;"
5. Ball 1926, p. 317: "Sir Garret Moore, afterwards first Viscount Drogheda, whose daughter his son had married 1609;"
6. House of Commons 1878, p. 628: "1613 29 April Sir Roger Jones, knt. Durhamston Trim Borough"
7. Cokayne 1895, p. 324, line 14: "She [Frances Moore] d. 23 Nov. 1620 and was bur. at St. Patricks, Dublin."
8. Cokayne 1895, p. 324, line 12: "... he was cr. 25 Aug. 1628 BARON JONES OF NAVAN, co. Meath and VISCOUNT RANELAGH, co. Dublin [I.]"
9. Cokayne 1895, p. 324, line 15: "He m. secondly Katherine da. of Sir Henry LONGUEVILLE of Wolverton, Bucks., by Katherine da. of Sir Eward CARYE of Aldenham, Herts."
10. "Ranelagh, Viscount (I, 1628 - 1885)". www.cracroftspeerage.co.uk. Retrieved 24 May 2016.
11. Pollard 1900, p. 60, right column, line 17: "On 11 Sept. 1630 Sir Roger Jones, 1st Viscount Ranelagh, was associated with him in the presidency of Connaught ..."
12. Pollard 1900, p. 60, left column, line 47: "On 3 June 1616 he [Charles Wilmot] was appointed President of Connaught, his seat being Athlone ..."
13. Cokayne 1895, p. 324, line 18: "He [Roger Jones] d. while attending the king at Oxford, his burial being recorded 1 July 1643 ..."
14. Burke 1869, p. 931, left column, line 75: "His lordship [Roger Jones] d. in 1628, and was s. by his eldest son."
15. Smyth 1839, p. xiii, line 18: "Charles I. . [Accession] 27 March, 1625"
16. Burke 1866, p. 577, left column, line 3: "He [Strafford] suffered death with characteristic firmness on Tower Hill, 12 May 1641."

• Ball, Francis Elrington (1926), The Judges in Ireland 1221–1921, 1 (1st ed.), London: John Murray
• Burke, Bernard (1866), A Genealogical History of the Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited and Extinct Peerages of the British Empire (New ed.), London: Harrison (for Strafford)
• Burke, Bernard (1869), A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire (31st ed.), London: Harrison
• Cokayne, George Edward (1895), The complete peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct, or dormant, 6 (1st ed.), London: George Bell and Sons – N to R (for Ranelagh)
• House of Commons (1878), "Members of Parliament", Parliamentary Papers, London: H. M. Stationery Office, 62
• Pollard, Albert Frederick (1900), "Wilmot, Sir Charles, first Viscount of Athlone (d. 1633)", in Lee, Sidney (ed.), Dictionary of National Biography, 62 Williamson–Worden, New York: The Macmillan Company, pp. 59–61
• Smyth, Constantine (1839), Chronicle of the Law Officers of Ireland, London: Henry Butterworth (for Table of reigns)

External links

• Genealogy of Roger Jones, 1st Viscount Ranelagh on the Peerage website

Peerage of Ireland
New creation	Viscount Ranelagh 1628–1643	Succeeded by Arthur Jones