Jones Surname Occurrence by English Monarchs

The chronological appearance of the JONES surname 1485-1714 is shown in the figure below.  The table is organized by 1) the reigning Monarch, 2) the total years of their reign, 3) the number of those with the surname JONES appearing in the legal records of England [Public Records Office] during each reign, and 4) a ratio calculated for each Monarch =  # Jones/yrs. of reign.  An interesting table it is.

Starting with Henry VII [1st Welsh Y-chromosome to English Throne] produced a ration < 1 per year for his 24 years of reign.  Henry VIII brought the Act of Union 1536-1542 which almost tripled those involved in the legal records of his day.  From Edward VI to the end of the Tudor reign under Elizabeth I showed a fairly constant increase reaching its apex at roughly 9 cases per year during the long reign of Elizabeth.  Under the Stuarts [starting James I] the ratio continues from 4 cases to a high of almost 9 cases per year under William III.  It would seem that those with the JONES surname could not stay out of trouble.

Other Surnames

As one seeks to climb out their JONES surname family tree, it quickly becomes evident that this is not going to be a easy task.  Nowadays, many folks have turned to that DNA stuff that is supposed to clarify all that JONES surname confusion.  In some cases it certainly helps, but in many others it adds another layer of brick walls.  Very often, one finds that those with other surnames are a closer Y-DNA match than all those other JONES.  Say what!

The following table gives a list of surnames that have matched to those seeking their Y-DNA.  This is for the R1b1a2  haplogroup which is my personal Y-chromosome marker. [male descent]  Roughly 75 % of us with JONES surname carry the R1b haplogroup marker, and one would expect that your Y-DNA would match other JONES.   For my personal Y-chromosome these other surname folks share this same match.

"Phonetic not genetic" I have come to recognize.  A product of languages through the pages of history.  Scroll back to the beginning of this blog to read the story.  For those who might like more on the JONES surname DNA, go to https://thejonessurnamedna.blogspot.com .  Say hello to these folks with other surnames that may actually be closer to your JONES family Y-DNA then those other JONES.

The posts discussing this can be found "Phonetic not Genetic"; Monday, June 6, 2011 and "Genetic Bowel of Spaghtti"; Friday, June 20, 2011.

The Anglo-Saxon Word

The following is a passage taken from the "Hand-Book of Anglo-Saxon and Early English" by Hiram Corson, published 1873.  [page 3 of JOHN I ]  It shows the word for JOHN as used in the Anglo-Saxon.

In the middle of the figure is the word "Iohanne".   It is similar to the Greek spelling, and becomes the word JOHN in the English.

The front page of the Anglo-Saxon reference is shown:

What a deal!

The Greek Word

JOHN

Generally regarded as one of the first to conceive the ideal of  a "One World",   Alexander the
Great brought the Greek language to the existing world. [reigned from 336 to 323 B.C.]  "Hellenistic Culture" became the term to describe much of the activity of the day.  In Egypt, a city name, of course, Alexandria became a focal point of this new world.  Here, scholars of the day tried to tie the Greek and Near Eastern thought together.  Jewish scholars [285 - 247 B.C.] translated the Hebrew canon into a Greek translation called "The Septuagint".  The Hebrew word for "John" [shown last post] became translated into the Greek shown above.

The actual text where this translation occurs is shown below.  The Greek word is underlined.

The Hebrew to Greek before the Roman world came into existence.  What a deal it is.


My copy is from: The Septuagint with Apocrypha, by Charles Lee Brenton.  It was first published in London in 1851.  My edition is by Hendrickson Publishers, Eighth Printing December 1999, p. 563.

The Hebrew Word

After all this chronology surrounding the surname JONES [see last post], I thought there might be those who would like to see the words [for John] as they appear in the original languages.  The earliest, is the Hebrew word.  The English translation is given underneath.  Let it speak for itself:

This is taken from: The Interlinear Bible, Hebrew English, Vol II, I Sam - Ps 55, by Baker, p.1123.  Jay P. Green, Sr. was the general editor and translator.  Published by Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1976.

JOHN...TO...JONES : Big Picture 4

Perhaps, this will be the biggest picture yet.  It shows a corridor in time through the languages that became involved in our surname JONES.  First, take a deep breath...then take a look at the figure below.

Wow you might say...but let's begin in the upper left corner.

The Hebrew language was the first to introduce the writing of the name we translate JOHN.  It was around 1000 BC.  The documentation can be found in "The Interlinear Bible -  Hebrew / English" Vol. II, p. 1123.  "Jehohanan" is the English translation, and the story is found in the book  I Chronicles 26:3.

The name carried through the Hebrew, and it was not until the Jewish scholars at Alexandria, Egypt (285-247 BC) translated their books into Greek, that the name appears in a more widely used language.  "Ionathan" [translated Jonathan] is the word. The documentation can be found in "The Septuagint with Apocrypha" by Brenton, p.561.

Now is was the Roman Empire that brought its language [Latin] to the world, and it became the dominate phonetic expression.   It was under this "world administration" that Christianity had its beginnings, and the name JOHN appears frequently in the early Christian writings.   Around 250 AD, the Christians were being driven out of the Empire, and the faith moved to the Islands.  Here it met the Celtic folks who formed the "Celtic Church". [P-Celtic/Brythonic]

Around 400 AD the Roman world was about to collapse and the P-Celtic folks began their own development as linguistic groups.  It was also around this time that the Saxons began their appearance, and the Anglo-Saxon language joined in the fray.  So, by 600 AD the Saxons had accepted Christianity, the Celtic Church had survived, and the Roman center of Church administration all used the surname JOHN. [Only in their own language...Latin being that of the Church.]

So again, before the French [Normans] ever showed up; 1) Latin, 2) Anglo-Saxon , and 3) Welsh were recording the name JOHN in their own languages, transmitted from the Hebrew to Greek.  Now, how "big" a picture can you get?

A summary is shown:

A Big...Big...Big...Picture 3

Language is spoken before it is written.  The folks who were the first to speak the Welsh language is presented by Bede in his book "The Ecclesiastical History of The English Nation"written between 680 - 703 AD.  In chapter I, he writes "This island at present....contains five nations, the English [Anglo-Saxon], Britons [Brythonic], Scots [Gaelic], Picts [Pictish], and Latins [Latin], each in its own peculiar dialect..."  He continues to write "The Latin tongue is, by the study of the Scriptures, become common to all the rest."  So by 700 AD Latin was the chief language of the clerks, and writers of the time, but had also become a language between the nations. [Please note that the brackets are mine and not Bede's.]

Now for the Celts, the spoken language had become the only means to transmit their legends and stories.  To accomplish this generation after generation, a special position was established to manage this endeavor.  The Bard he was called.

Significant was his role in maintaining Celtic, to become Welsh culture, that the above drawing gives an impression of this activity by Edward Jones in 1784.  Oral tradition was the norm.  Words and their vocal expression, often to music [the harp shown above] , became the foundation to the written words that became Welsh.  Now, look back to the previous post that give words in the languages noted by Bede.

Bede's text is taken from:  Everyman's Library 479, History, J.M. Dent & Sons LTD, 1954, London, p. 5.

The drawing is taken from : Wales Her Origins Struggles And Later History Institutions and Manners, by Gilbert Stone, Frederick A. Stokes Co., NY, 1915. [Please note that the drawing is by Edward Jones, 1784...those Jones are everywhere.]

A Big...Big...Big Picture 2

Writing or speaking words become the threads that bind a cultural group together in this world of experiences.  Events of life like birth, death, and all the places in between, are packaged in words that get past down from one generation to the next.  The following table shows some of these words used among the language groups that played a role in the derivation of the surname JONES.  The words of life they are called.

The first column list these words in English, which is the language of my own tongue.  Next is Welsh which seems to be the cultural foundation for our surname JONES.  Latin [the language of the early Christian Church that wrote things down]...French [the language of those folks taking over the Island after 1066]...Greek [the language which clustered in the educated of the day such as priest, clerks, and the record keepers]...and finally Anglo-Saxon [the vernacular] which survived to bring us to the English.

Now what has this got to do with the surname JONES you may be asking.  Well, if you will, take each word in the first column and move its spelling across the other columns, you will see variations among the language groups.  Some spellings are close, but for the Welsh there are dramatic differences.  For example, the word for "Man" is "dyn" in the Welsh, but "homo" in Latin, "homme" in French, an "anthropose" in the Greek.  In the Anglo-Saxon it is "man".  Take some time and look through the words of life.

All this analysis shows how different the Welsh tongue is to our English tongue.  This difference is one main factor in the "phonetic" changes that took place during the course of the chronology of our surname JONES.  The language groups listed above all played a role in the formation and changes to our surname.  Welsh to English passing thorough a group of languages to become JONES.  What a "BIG" picture indeed it is.

Note: This table was put together after many years of trying to piece together why the various spellings of "John" appeared in the documents of the day.  Who would have known?

A Big...Big...Big Picture 1

Having completed a long series of post on the first JONES to appear in the legal records of England and Wales, I thought it would be helpful to try and put together a "big picture" of this surname.  The next group of posts will present a summary chronology intended to piece together the many years of JONES surname tree climbing that brought me to believe its origin is more "phonetic" than "genetic".  Say what!?...you might be thinking.  Only time will tell [actually the next posts] if the trail to be presented is an accurate description of our surname.  Come follow along and make your own opinion.  Please feel free to correct or make any comments that will help complete our JONES surname story.  So here we go.

Let's begin with our Celtic roots and the languages that formed their distinctive cultural groups.  Language can be defined as the words, their pronunciation, and the methods of combining them used and understood by a considerable community.  What is generally accepted as the "language" roots of the various groups of folks that came to settle the geographic areas where the JONES surname has its highest frequencies is show as follows:

Six distinct cultural groups formed their unique way of communicating.  The Irish, Scottish, and Manx making one branch [Q-Celtic], and the Welsh, Cornish, and Breton forming a second.  It is in Wales that the JONES surname has its highest frequency than anywhere in the world.  What has this to do with the JONES surname I asked at one point in the distant past.  It took some years to sort through this question, but understanding the shared language roots for what has become the present cultures of Ireland, Scotland, the Isle of Manx, and Wales [Cornwall and Brittany not excluded] helped me form a linguistic origin in a bridge to the JONES surname.  A place to begin the first "big picture" it is.

The best reference for this research can be found in "The Celtic World", edited by Miranda J. Green, and published 1995 by Routledge, London.  [Language and society among the Insular Celts 400 - 1000 can be found in Part XI: Celtic Britain Post AD 400, beginning page 703.]