Male

February 11, 1759

February 1, 1824

Mallwayd, Wales

London, England
Philadelphia, PA
Louisville, KY
Vincennes, Northwest Territory
Kaskaskia, Illinois Territory
St. Genevieve, Louisiana Territory
St. Louis, Louisiana Territory
Mine a Breton, Louisisana Territory

Eliza Powell Jones (January 8, 1781)
Mary Barger Jones (February 11, 1791)

John Rice Jones, son of John Jones, Esq., was born in Mallwayd, Wales on February 11, 1759. He received a collegiate education at the University of Oxford in Oxford, England and afterward took a regular course in both medicine and law. It was during these courses that Jones determined to pursue a career in law and after completely his courses he established himself in the practice of law in London. On January 8, 1781 in Brecon, Wales Jones was wed to Eliza Powell, a native of London. During their six year marriage the couple had four children.

In February of 1784 Jones and his family left England and set sail for the United States, locating in Philadelphia where he promptly began his legal career on American soil. After two years of living in Philadelphia Jones decided to head west ...and relocated in Louisville, then in the colony of Virginia (in the present day state of Kentucky). In September of 1786, while residing in Louisville, John Rice Jones joined the militia under the command of General George Rogers Clark, and fought with the unit to suppress the Wabash tribes of Native Americans. It was during this time of service that he was appointed Commissary General of the Vincennes Garrison. On March 11, 1787 Eliza passed away in Vincennes, leaving the couple's four children under the care of their father.

In 1791, after completing his military service Jones received from the U.S. government a grant of one hundred acres of land for his services in the militia. Also in 1791 Jones remarried. On February 11 he wed Mary Barger, with whom he would spend the remainder of his life and have eight children with. In the years following the acquisition of his land grant Jones continued to acquire real estate and he became an extensive land owner in the Northwest Territory (particularly the areas that would become the Illinois and Indiana Territories). While building his share of land Jones continued on with his legal profession in Vincennes and his abilities began to gain him recognition among politicians in the area.

In 1801 John Rice Jones was commissioned by Governor William Henry Harrison to serve as Attorney General of the recently established Indiana Territory. He continued on in that role until the date of his appointment as a member of the Territorial Legislative Council in 1805. Also in 1805 Jones was elected from Knox County to serve in the House of Representatives for the Indiana Territory, which he did until the Governor permanently dissolved the General Assembly in 1808. After this action Jones and his family relocated to Kaskaskia, the seat of government of the newly formed Illinois Territory. Jones himself had briefly found himself in Kaskaskia several years earlier, and his son, Rice Jones, had located in Kaskaskia in the practice of law in 1806, and had become active in politics of the Territory with his 1808 election to the lower house of the General Assembly of the Territory.

In Kaskaskia John Rice Jones continued his legal profession. Soon after arriving in the Territory however, his son, Rices Jones, was murdered, and only after two years of residing in Kaskaskia John Rice Jones, who had taken the loss of his son very heavily, decided to move his family west again. In 1810 the family moved to St. Genevieve in the Louisiana Territory (later the Missouri Territory), then onto St. Louis, and finally settled in Mine a Breton (later incorporated as the town of Potosi in the Missouri Territory). It was in Mine a Breton that Jones and his wife would remain for the rest of their lives. He also became engaged in the mining and smelting of lead ore in their new home. In 1820 Jones was appointed as a member of the convention that framed the first state constitution of Missouri. Following the convention Jones was appointed as one of the three Supreme Court Justices of the new state. On February 1, 1824 John Rice Jones died in St. Louis while still holding his office of Supreme Court Justice. His wife Mary passed away nine years later on January 6, 1839 in Potosi, Missouri.
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Attended the University of Oxford in Oxford, England and afterward took a regular course in both medicine and law.

Lawyer; Political Office; Military

Attorney General (Indiana Territory) 1801-1805
State Representative 1805-1808 (Indiana Territory)
Justice of the Supreme Court (Missouri) 1820-1824

Indiana Territorial Legislative Council in 1805; Missouri State Constitutional Convention in 1820

Mason, Edward G., Ed. Early Chicago and Illinois. Chicago: Fergus Printing Company, 1890.