Admiral Theobald Jones (15 April 1790 – 7 February 1868), also known as Toby Jones, was an Irish officer in the British Royal Navy, a Tory politician, a noted lichenologist, and a fossil-collector. The County Londonderry-born son of a Church of Ireland clergyman, Jones was descended from a 17th-century Welsh settler in Ireland. Several generations of his family had held public office in the Kingdom of Ireland, including membership of the pre-union Parliament of Ireland. Entering the navy aged 13 during the Napoleonic Wars, the teenage Jones survived several naval engagements and the burning of his ship at night when he was 16. After ten years serving under the captaincy of his step-mother's brother, Henry Blackwood, Jones reached the rank of commander by age 25, and captain at 38, but never actually sailed as a captain. Aged 40, Jones entered Parliament for County Londonderry, in the interest of the Marquess of Waterford. An Orangeman and Ultra Tory of "plain unassuming manners", he sat in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom at Westminster from 1830 until he stood down from Parliament in 1857. A member of several learned societies, he occupied his retirement from politics by making the first comprehensive catalogue of Irish lichens, laying the foundation of Irish lichenology.
Early life and family Jones was the second son of the Reverend James Jones (died 1825), a Church of Ireland clergyman. His mother Lydia was the daughter of Theobald Wolfe of Blackhall, County Kildare. Rev Jones's first appointment was in 1783 as the prebendary in Killamery. In 1786 he became rector of Kilcronaghan in County Londonderry, where Theobald was born in 1790. He then moved to Tamlaght O'Crilly later that year, and then to Urney in County Tyrone. After Lydia's death in 1793, Rev Jones remarried in 1796 to Anne Ryder, the widow of John Ryder (Dean of Lismore) and daughter of Sir John Blackwood, 2nd Bt from County Down. Sir John sat in the House of Commons of Ireland from 1761 to 1799 for Killyleagh and Bangor. Between1814 and 1819 Rev Jones became the County Grand Master of the Orange Order in County Londonderry. The family were involved in the defeat of the 1798 Rebellion.
Ancestry Rev Jones was the younger brother of Theophilus Jones (1760–1835), an admiral in the Royal Navy. Their first-born brother Walter (1754–1839) was governor of County Leitrim, and an MP for Coleraine in the latter years of the Irish Parliament, and then sat for Coleraine at Westminster until 1809. Their father Theophilus Jones (1729–1811) was an MP for Coleraine and Leitrim. The family traced their ancestry to Bryan Jones (died 1681), a Welshman who had been granted lands in Ireland by James I in 1622. Bryan's grandson Theophilus Jones (1666–1742) was a member of the Irish House of Commons from 1692 to 1742, for Sligo and then County Leitrim.
Naval career
Jones joined the navy in 1803 as a volunteer midshipman aboard HMS Melpomene, taking part in the bombardment of French ports. He transferred in 1805 to the 36-gun frigate HMS Euryalus, under Captain Henry Blackwood, the brother of his father's second wife Anne. He transferred in 1807 to Blackwood's new command, the 74-gun third rate HMS Ajax. During the Dardanelles Operation, Jones was one of the survivors when Ajax caught fire at anchor off the Turkish island of Tenedos. The fire started at about 9pm on the evening of 14 February 1807, caused by the carelessness of a drunken crewman, and spread rapidly. Within ten minutes heavy smoke prevented the launching of boats, and soon afterwards flames reached the main deck, forcing abandonment of the ship. The ship's company jumped into the water, and about 250 died. For the remainder of the Dardanelles Operation, Jones served on the 40-gun fifth-rate frigate HMS Emdymion under Captain Thomas Bladen Capel. When he returned to England, he joined fellow Ulsterman Blackwood on his latest command, the newly built 74-gun HMS Warspite. (Blackwood's disciplinarian command of Warspite was described in the letters of the midshipman James Cheape, who wrote of lashings being ordered almost daily). Promoted to Lieutenant in July 1809, Jones saw further action on Warspite in July 1810, when they engaged the French fleet off Toulon. In 1814 he transferred to HMS Desiree under Captain William Woolridge, which sailed to the Cape of Good Hope. On his return to England in February 1815, he found that he been promoted in July 1814 to the rank of commander. In 1819 Jones took command of the 10-gun HMS Cherokee, stationed at Leith. After 3 years on Cherokee, his next appointment was in 1827, when he became second captain of the 120-gun first-rate HMS Prince Regent under captains Constantine Richard Moorsom and George Poulett. For a time, Prince Regent was the flagship of Jones's former captain Henry Blackwood, now Commander-in-Chief, The Nore. On 25 August 1828, the 38-year-old Jones was promoted to the rank of captain. He never put to sea again, but was still paid, at a rate reported in 1833 as 10s/6d per day. He retired from the navy in 1848, but was promoted to rear admiral in 1855, vice admiral in 1862, and full admiral in 1865.
Politics
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