Steve & Pauline Jones’ Family History
If you don’t know where you
came from,you won’t know where you
are going.You have to study your history.
Gil Scott-Heron
© S M Jones
Content is free for most uses - see legal stuff. Last update 23 May 2020
The Jones Family of Much Wenlock, Shropshire
Our
starting
point
is
the
family
of
William
and
Ann
Jones
of
Much
Wenlock,
Shropshire.
We
know
little
about
them
and
suspect,
given
the
surname
and
proximity
to
the
border,
that
their
origins
were
in
Wales.
Their
descendants
moved
around
the
country
from
Shropshire
to
Staffordshire
and
into
Leicestershire,
Essex,
the
South
London
area,
Berkshire,
Warwickshire
and
Hertfordshire.
We’ve
also
traced family members in Canada.
The
Oxford
Dictionary
of
Family
Names
describe
it
as
a
variant
of
the
Middle
English
name
Jon(e)
with
a
post
medieval
addition
of
-s.
It
began
to
be
adopted
as
a
non-hereditary
surname
in
parts
of
Wales
from
the
16th
century
onwards,
but
did
not
become
a
widespread
hereditary surname until the 18th and 19th centuries.
If
you
have
a
connection
to
any
individual
or
family
featured
here,
or
if
you
want
to
leave
us
your
feedback,
tap or click the icon to
contact us
.
Much
Wenlock
was
described
in
1868
as
“a
parish,
market
town,
municipal
and
parliamentary
borough,
locally
in
the
franchise
of
Wenlock
Borough,
county
Salop,
12
miles
S.E.
of
Shrewsbury,
and
5
from
Ironbridge.
It
has
a
station
on
the
Severn
Valley
branch
of
the
Great Western railway”.
The
town
grew
around
a
monastery
founded
around
680
by
Merewalh,
a
son
of
King
Penda
of
Mercia.
It
flourished
until
around
874
when
a
Danish
Viking
attack
occurred.
In
the
11th
century
another
religious
house
was
built
on
the
same
site
by
Leofric
and
in
the
12th
century
this
was
replaced
by
a
Cluniac
priory,
the
ruins
of which can still be seen.
The
town
also
played
a
part
in
the
birth
of
the
modern
Olympic
Games.
Much
Wenlock
is
the
birthplace
of
Dr
William
Penny
Brookes, the inspiration for the modern Olympic Movement.