John Jones of N (b. circa 1785 - d. 1866)
MSA SC 5496-036295
Slaveholder in the Rockville District, Montgomery County, Maryland

Biography:

John Jones was born around 1785 in Montgomery County, Maryland, to Nathan and Nancy Jones. His siblings were Brook, Evan, Eleanor, and Nancy.¹ When Nathan Jones died around 1812, he left a third of his land to his widow.² Nancy passed away only five years later, leaving her sons Evan and John with land including a tract called "Jones' Inheritance."³ John Jones and his wife, Catherine C. Jones, had at least eight children: Zephaniah N. in 1815, Nathan in 1819, Samuel in 1820, Margaret B. in 1825, Ann E. in 1827, Catherine C. in 1830, Susan E. in 1832, and Sylvester C. in 1832.⁴ Jones served as a justice for the Orphans Court in Montgomery County from 1839 to 1845 and again from 1848 to 1851.¹⁴

In 1820, Jones had twelve slaves working on his farm near Rockville,⁵ including one man, one woman, and nine children.⁶ A fifteen-year-old slave, Nelson, fled from Jones' farm in 1830.⁷ Around the first week of May 1839, three of Jones' slaves—two women and a child—were killed by lightening during a thunderstorm. The newspaper seemed to feel it necessary to emphasize that the slaves' deaths occurred "while comfortably seated by the fire in their quarters."⁸ The census for the following year recorded Jones as owning no slaves,⁹ although the 1850 census listed fourteen.¹⁰ That year, one of Jones' slaves, Alfred Dorsey, ran away.¹¹ Dorsey's slaves numbered twenty-one in 1853 and 1860.¹²

Jones' wife Catherine passed away between 1840 and 1850. When John Jones wrote his will in 1855, he ordered that the slave Basil Smackum be freed upon Jones' death. One of twenty-two slaves, Basil had already received his freedom through Maryland emancipation by the time Jones died in 1866.¹³
 

1.     Mary Gordon Malloy. Abstract of Wills, Montgomery County, Maryland (Westminster, MD: Heritage Books, Inc. 2007) 76-77.

2.     MONTGOMERY COUNTY COURT (Land Records), Liber Y, Folio 448-449, 1825-1827, [MSA CE 148-26]. Burgess Willett to John Jones of N, March 27, 1826.

3.     Ibid.
        MONTGOMERY COUNTY COURT (Land Records), Liber T, Folio 312, 1816-1817, [MSA CE 148-21]. John Jones of N to Evan Jones of N, February 11, 1817.

4.     U.S. Census Record (Census Record, MD) for John Jones of N, 1850, Montgomery County, District 4, Page 50, Line 17 [MSA SM61-142, M 1499-1].
        U.S. Census Record (Census Record, MD) for Margaret Lyddane, 1870, Montgomery County, District 4, Page 25, Line 37 [MSA SM61-275, M 7256].
        U.S. Census Record (Census Record, MD) for Zephaniah N. Jones, 1870, Montgomery County, District 4, Page 16 [MSA SM61-275,  M 7256]
        MONTGOMERY COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT (Land Records), Liber EBP 7, Folio 181, 1869-1870, [MSA CE 63-17]. John Jones of N, estate, to Susan E. Magruder, March 14, 1870.
        MONTGOMERY COUNTY, REGISTER OF WILLS, (Wills), 1858-1872, Liber JWS 1, Film Reel: CR 43-3, [MSA CM756-2]. John Jones of N, April 17, 1866.
        "Death of Samuel Jones." Baltimore Sun 15 September 1891: 2. Baltimore Sun Historical Archive. Enoch Pratt Free Library.
        BOARD OF HEALTH, (Death Record, Counties), 01/1907, [MSA S1178-2391]. Sylvester Jones, January 23, 1907.

5.     J. James Scharf. History of Western Maryland. Vol. 1 (Philadelphia, PA: Louis H. Everts, 1882) 665.

6.     Montgomery County District 4, Simon J. Martenet, Martenet and Bond's Map of Montgomery County, 1865, Library of Congress, [MSA SC 1213-1-464].

7.     U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for John Jones of Nathan, 1820, Montgomery County, District 3, Page 9, Line 35 [MSA SM61-73, M 2066-3].

8.     "50 Dollars Reward." Daily National Intelligencer 18 January 1830: 3. Maryland State Archives.

9.     "Death by Lightening." Baltimore Sun 7 May 1839: 4. Baltimore Sun Historical Archive. Enoch Pratt Free Library.

10.   U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for John Jones of N, 1840, Montgomery County, Rockville District, Page 3, 11th line from bottom [MSA SM61-113, M 4722]. Slave holdings listed on Page 4, 11th line from bottom.

11.   U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for John Jones of N, Slaves, 1850, Montgomery County, Rockville District, Page 12, Line 18 [MSA SM61-168, M 1505-5].

12.   "One Hundred Dollars Reward." Baltimore Sun 4 June 1850: 2. Baltimore Sun Historical Archive. Enoch Pratt Free Library.

13.   MONTGOMERY COUNTY, BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS, (Assessment Record, Slaves), 1853-1864, [MSA C1112-1]. John Jones, 1853, Page 55.
        U.S. Census Bureau (Census Record, MD) for John Jones, 1860, Montgomery County, District 4, Page 8, Line 19 [MSA SM61-213, M 7223-1].

14.   MONTGOMERY COUNTY, REGISTER OF WILLS, (Wills), Date: 1858-1872, Book Name: JWS 1, Film Reels: CR 43-3, MSA Citation: MSA CM756-2. John Jones of N, April 17, 1866.
         MONTGOMERY COUNTY, COMMISSIONER OF SLAVE STATISTICS, (Slave Statistics), 1867-1868, [MSA C1140-1]. John Jones of N, per heir Z. N. Jones, August 3, 1867.

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