The JONES surname first appears at Oxford 1505 (Richard Joonys) and at Cambridge 1531 (Gawen Jones). The drawing to the right shows the JONES surname attending both during the years 1500-1660. The numbers are shown in roughly 4-5 year periods, with those attending Cambridge giving by the X. [X marks the spot!]
One can see clearly that Oxford was the center of higher education for those with the JONES surname. The Welsh tended to be supports of the Crown from the time of Edward II, when he was first called "Prince of Wales" by his father Edward I. [1301] On the whole, Oxford seemed to support the Crown with it being the first location of Charles I to organize the defense of his monarchy. There appears to be a gradual increase in the numbers of JONES from 1561, peaking at 1631-1635.
For Cambridge, the peak years were 1595-1600. There was certainly a strong showing at the close of Elizabeth I (Tudors) to that of James I (Stuarts) most likely reflecting the conflict between Catholics and Protestants. [ This conflict had much to do with the period leading up to the English Civil War [1638-1660].
This figure also shows that the JONES surname was increasing in numbers, with almost an exponential curve appearing. This of course was stopped by the Civil War. Those attending Cambridge appear to decline starting at the reign of Charles I only to make their come back under the Commonwealth.
For "Alumni Cantabrigienese" see pp. 484-489, a total of 115. For "Alumni Oronienses" see pp. 817-833, a total of 342. About a 3 to 1 ratio is shown.
For the references used see the last two post.
This is research done by The Jones Genealogist, 1985-1991 while researching his own JONES surname. All rights reserved.
No comments:
Post a Comment