Impact, The Act of Union 1536

The following figure represents a summary of information abstracted from a series of publications which indexed the Public Records Office of Great Britain. The reference is titled: "An Index of Ancient Petitions, Great Britain Public Records Office, List and Indexes." I used this index to abstract the legal records of England for the surname JONES. In 1994, I published these results in my newsletter entitled: "The Jones Genealogist". It is copied here to provide the results of this research for the appearance of the JONES surname in England and Wales before and after the Act of Union 1536. It shows that the surname JONES did not appear in the legal records in Wales before 1538. The surname JONES begins to appear in England starting around 1500, but it was not until 1558 that a large number of cases using the surname JONES appears. Those first appearing in England represent the Welsh who had already followed the Tudors. As English law became that of Wales, the JONES surname begins to appear in the legal records. [Please note that this newsletter is copyrighted, Library of Congress No. 6192-01064476.] Future post will go into more detail from this research, but since my JONES surname begins during this time period, I thought it would be a good place to show how the Act of Union impacted the derivation of the JONES surname and all other Welsh surnames!

At this time in Welsh history, the English had a very biased view of the Welsh naming system. Jokes, poems, and plays were written by the English about the ancient Welsh system of genealogical naming. Cheese, for example, was described as:

"Adam's own cousin-german by its birth ap curds ap milk ap cow ap grass ap earth."

An English judge in 1540 is credited with the following verse"

"Take ten," he said, "and call them Rice;

Take other ten, and call them Price;

Take fifty others, call them Pughes;

A hundred more, I'll dub them Hughes;

Now Roberts name some hundred score;

And Williams name a legion more;

And call, "he moaned in languid tones,

"Call all the other thousands--Jones."

References:

The Jones Genealogist, Vol.1, No.1, May/June, 1989, p. 3-4.

The Jones Genealogist, Vol.VI, No.4, Nov/Dec, 1994, p. 1

List of Early Chancery Proceedings, Preserved In The Public Record Office, Kraus Reprint Corp., NY, 1963.

Sons of Cynrig

The sons of Cynrig(JF-1) continues my JONES family line. David(JG-13) and Ednyfed(JG-15) branch into other family surnames. It is Ninnian(JG-1) that become the direct lineage for my family. His third son Jeuaf(JH-1) marries into the line of Elystan Gloddydd(JF-6) and continues the connection to the eldest son of Tudor Trevor(JC-1) named Gronwy(JD-1). Iorwerth fychan(JI-1) becomes known as the first of "Llwyn-onn", which in the Welsh means "Ash Grove". The family continues to be connected to this name for many more generations to come. It would appear that a winter home was located just east of what is know as Wrexham. A summer home was located eastward into the hills around Llanfair Dyffryn Clwyd, just south of Ruthin. [Much more will be said about Llwyn-onn.]

The figure to the right shows the lineage from Iorweth fychan(JI-1) to Edward(JN-1). The boys in blue take center stage, and the boys in orange are cut short. [I have other graphs showing these lines.] My direct JONES lineage continues as:

Iorweth fychan(JI-1)
Gruffydd(JJ-1)
Iorwerth(JK-1)
Llewelyn(JL-1)
Howel(JM-1)
Edward(JN-1) marries Margaret Wylde(JN-2).

This makes fifteen generations from Gadforch(JA-1). Much more to come.

"Walas"

As the Roman Empire gradually conquered the known world, they produced a new Celtic culture that spoke both a Celtic language and a Latin language. The Germanic tribes that resisted the Roman advance remained mostly north of the Danube. [They were ultimately able to get their revenge sacking the city of Rome some 500 years later.] Those tribes remaining true to their German roots had a word for those Celtic folks to the south. These folks had betrayed their German roots and had become "Romanized". These Celts had taken on Latin, and of course, this was not acceptable to the true Germanic tribes. The Germans used the term "walas" to denote those "foreigners" who spoke Celtic languages but were also Latin-speaking. It was this term that was later applied to Celts in general. Little did these Germans know that years later, Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, would apply this term to describe the Britons who occupied the island yet to come, and the country yet to be, Wales. It is Wales that is home to our surname JONES.

The Beginnings

The JONES surname had its beginning with struggle...struggle between two races, struggle between two languages, and struggle between two cultures. Ironically, these two races had their own beginnings within the same central European geography. One was south of the Danube, and the other north. The one south was centered around salt mines, which gave it the name Hallstatt Culture, from the very word for salt. The one north ultimately migrated to the coastal areas facing the North Sea to become Jutes, Angles, and Saxons. It was the clash of these two cultures lasting more than a thousand years that led to the surname JONES. Each culture shared a common belief (paradigm) that "might makes right". To both cultures the sword certainly spoke louder than words, and it was by the sword that both survived and expanded to end up fighting each other in a land called Albion.

The Hallstatt Culture which, at first, shared a common European language root with the northern tribes, branched westward to a developing period call "La Tene". Here a warrior-aristocracy evolved where a warrior took his two-wheeled chariot and sword to his grave! The earliest roots of languages, by this time, had split with the Celtic branch dividing from the Germanic branch. They both shared the culture of family, which was the center of society and social rank. It is unclear at what point the southern group became known at "Celts", but they had an advantage over most other tribes due to iron. Their iron weapons had a distinct advantage when their might was to make right. As their culture moved southward, eastward, and westward, they shared a common language called "Continental Celtic" which was to branch into Brythonic, Gaulish, and Manx. The Germanic branch divided into the Northern Germanic languages and the Western Germanic languages. By the time the Anglo-Saxon language and the Welsh language collided on an island centuries yet to come, their tongues had become so distinct and different sounding, that they could not understand or pronounce the other's speech.

It is the conflict between these two languages that leads to the surname JONES.

The JONES Surname

I wanted to start a blog that deals the history, origin, and genealogy of the JONES surname. Those who have an interest, question, or comment regarding the JONES surname and how one might go about doing the genealogy of such a difficult surname come join the fun. I have already started a blog that relates my own JONES family and how I got started doing genealogy more than 50 years ago. The blog is http://thejonesgenealogist.blogspot.com. I thought I would get more questions, but so far most folks just seem to like reading the family stories. So let's have at it. JONES is my name, and JONES tree climbing is my game. Questions anyone?