A Matilda Jones Update

Over the past several days, Stephen Rettie (Glasgow, Scotland) and Tanner Ritchie (Ontario, Canada) have been discussing with me the documentation of Matilda Jones.  Stephen Rettie provided access to "Rotuli Hundredorum" [The Hundred Rolls] from work completed by Tanner Ritchie, and I was able to read from the documents [in Latin] the record of Matilda Jones!  It is found in Vol. 2, p. 648, and is dated the 12th of March in the 7th year reign of Edward I.  This would be in the year 1279, and not in 1273 when the rolls were started as I have previously posted.

The Latin was translated by Tanner Ritchie, and it reads that Matilda held 4 acres of land, and a half acre of orchard.  She was required to pay an annual rent of 2 shillings, and provide a number of services to the Abbot of Thorney.  This included help with harvest, milling, and hunting.  I have concluded this was the Abbot of Thorney, which was located in Stibbington  (Stebintone/tune) a parish in the hundred of Norman-Cross. 

It has taken roughly 25 years for me to find this documentation of Matilda Jones!  [for myself]  Thank you beyond words to Stephen Rettie and Tanner Ritchie for providing this update to the first JONES in the English records. 

If anyone has additional information, please post.    I have not been able to find anyone with the JONES surname before this date in any historical document or records.  Anyone that has documentation before this date, please let all the readers know.

Matilda Jones - The First Jones

Matilda was a good Norman name. The wife of William I was Matilda of Flanders (d.1083). Thus, it became a very common name used by the queens during this period. Matilda of Boulongne, wife of king Stephen (d.1152); Matilda of Scotland, wife of Henry I(d.1118); Matilda, a daughter of Henry I was wife of emperor Henry V (d.1167). Matilda , a daughter of Henry II, was the wife of Henry the Lion. There was even a Matilda of Huntingdon, a daughter of the earl Waltheof who became the wife of David I. Matilda of Anjou, Matilda de Braose, Matida de Port, Matilda of Wolseley, and many others took this good Norman name. As to Matilda Jones, I have not been able to independently identify this person. She is recorded to have been present in Huntingdonshire Hundred Roll of 1273, under Edward I. According to "The Hundred And The Hundred Rolls, An Outline of Local Government In Medieval England", by Helen M. Cam; Huntingdon consisted of four hundreds: 1) Hirstingstan, 2)Lectonestan, 3) Normancros, and 4) Touleslond. In 1274, the "lords" of these hundreds were the Abbot of Ramsey, The Abbot of Thorney, and Edward I [the King]. The church owned two, and the King owned two. In which hundred Matilda Jones resided is not clear. With the name Matilda, I would guess it would be "Normancros" since this would seem to take its name from the Norman fortification built to protect the strategic road from London to York [Ermine Street] as it crosses the river Ouse. William I was quick to built a castle defending this spot! My guess [at this point it is only a guess] is that Matilda Jones was a widow who had come into the possession of land through her family or husband's family. Having the surname JONES would suggest that she had married into a Welsh family from the Marches. The wool trade was an important part of this area as well as the border land of the Marches. Huntingdonshire was the first place you could access a waterway to London for transport of wool. With her Welsh husband [ap John], they would have had to come under Norman law and customs which had just started to use the Anglo-Saxon Old English. [William Marshal was Henry III's justiciar and a key player in the Marches.] It was here, Huntingsonshire, that would bridge both cultures, Welsh and Norman. Hopefully, Matilda Jones can be identified more clearly.