 |
| Vincent and I at Washington Place, Honolulu, Hawaii the home built by my 4th great aunt Mary Lambert (Jones) Dominis, born in Boston, 1803. This was Queen Lili'uokalani's last residence, and the current governor's residence. |
My 6th great grandfather, Owen Jones, born about
1735, was a Royal Customs agent at Aberystwyth, Wales and also a customs agent at
Boston, Massachusetts (probably before the Revolutionary War). His son, Owen
Jones, my 5th great grandfather, was born about 1768 in Wales and he
married Elizabeth Lambert in Boston. Apparently the rest of the family returned to Wales, and Owen, Jr. stayed in Boston. Owen’s sister, Ann, is buried at Aberystwyth with the following epitaph:
“Here lies the body of
Ann, the daughter of Owen Jones, Collector of the Customs at Aberystwyth, by
Ann, his wife, who was born at Boston, New England on the 17th of February
1769, and departed this life the 18th of February 1791, aged 22 years. Also to
the above named Owen Jones, who departed this life the 28th of February 1798,
aged 62”
Owen Jones, Jr. was a mariner, and he lived at Ship Street
in Boston’s North End in the 1810, 1820 and 1820 censuses and city
directories. In the 1842 Boston
directory he was living at 199 Hanover Street, also in the North End. His death notice in the New England Historic Genealogical Society Register, Vol. 4, page
293 (July 1850) reads: “Jones, Mr. Owen, Dorchester, 22 April, ae 82, formerly
of Boston”. His obituary in the Boston Evening Transcript, 22 April
1850, page 2 reads “At Dorchester, this
morning, at the residence of Wm. Hart, Mr. Owen Jones, 82, formerly of this city. Funeral services at the house of Enoch H.
Snelling, No. 108 Salem Street, on Tuesday, at 3 ½ o’clock PM. Relatives and
friends are invited to attend.” William Hart was his son-in-law (married to
his daughter Agnes Jones), and Enoch Snelling was another son-in-law (married
to his eldest daughter Sarah Dargue Jones).
Owen Jones married Elizabeth Lambert and had eight
children. Six daughters, and two sons
(one died young, the other died at sea unmarried). One of these daughters was my 4th
great grandmother, Catherine Plummer Jones (about 1799 – 1828). Another daughter was Mary Lambert Jones (1803
– 1889), who married Capt. John Dominis and removed to the Kingdom of Hawaii
where she became the mother-in-law to Queen Liliuokalani. Two other daughters are named above, and the
other two were Laura Williams Jones, who married John Lee, and Anne Marie
Stanwood Jones, who was the first wife of Robert William Holt who also removed
to the Kingdom of Hawaii.
Catherine Plummer (Jones) Younger died at age 29 and left
her husband a widower with young children.
Their daughter, my 3rd great grandmother Mary Esther Younger,
was adopted by her aunt Mary (Younger) Harris and raised in Boston. It was a letter written by her nephew,
William Lee, to his aunt Mary Dominis in Hawaii that told me the connection to
Queen Liliuokalani. This letter in the
Hawaii State Archives, dated May 9, 1887, was written when Princess
Liliuokalani, her husband Governor John Owen Dominis, and Queen Kapiolani were
visiting relatives in Boston enroute to Queen Victoria’s Jubilee celebration in
London. “…I tell you Aunt Dominis, the
Jones & Lambert race will never die out!... [mentions Esther Emerson]… you
can easily see the coming of the Queen and her party has been a marked event
with our people.” [M-93 Lili’uokalani
Collection, Box 9, Folder 94 (years 1185 – 1888, #1164, s.n. 1305, Hawai’i State
Archives].
Another letter dated May 11, 1887 from Governor John Owen
Dominis to his mother says “Yesterday forenoon we had a reception for all my
Cousins and aunts and nearly all were here…. The Queen and Lydia [Liliuokalani’s
Christian name] had quite a jolly time with our cousins – Lydia has the names
of all who were here.” [ibid]
Esther Emerson, who met the Royal party in Boston, lived at
#57 Nixon Street in Boston. Her 1913 death
record in the Massachusetts vital records gives her maiden name as Younger and
her adopted name of Harris, as well as her parents and husband’s names. She is buried at Mt. Hope Cemetery in Boston.
My great grandmother, Carrie Maude
(Batchelder) Allen, died during my lifetime, and she was alive during the Queen’s
visits to Boston both in 1887 and later after the overthrow of the
monarchy. She remembers visiting with “Auntie
Lydia” and was one of the cousins mentioned in the letters above. It was Great Grandmother Carrie’s insistence
that we had a princess in our family tree that led me to start tracing this
line back in the 1970s – my first foray into genealogy!
My JONES genealogy:
Generation 1: Owen
Jones, born about 1735, died 28 February 1798 in Aberystwth, Wales; married to
Anne Unknown. Two known children
(probably more)
Generation 2: Owen
Jones, born about 1768 in Wales, died 22 April 1850 in Dorchester,
Massachusetts; married on 11 May 1793 at the 2nd Baptist Church,
Boston, Massachusetts to Elizabeth Lambert.
She was born about 1775 and died 6 February 1834 in Boston. Eight children
Generation 3:
Catherine Plummer Jones, born about 1799, died 2 May 1828 probably in
Boston; married on 23 October 1816 in Gloucester, Massachusetts to Levi
Younger, son of Levi Younger and Mary Wotton.
He was born 1 May 1786 in Gloucester, and died 8 December 1858 in
Boston. Five children.
Generation 4: Mary
Esther Younger, born 17 February 1826, died 7 January 1913 in Boston; married
on 11 August 1845 in Boston to George Emerson, son of Romanus Emerson and
Jemima Burnham. He was born 11 July 1817
in South Boston, and died 11 January 1890 in Dorchester. Eight children.
Generation 5: Mary Katharine Emerson m. George E. Batchelder
Generation 6: Carrie
Maude Batchelder m. Joseph Elmer Allen
Generation 7: Stanley Elmer Allen m. Gertrude Matilda
Hitchings (my grandparents)
-----------------------------------------
Heather Wilkinson Rojo, " Surname Saturday ~ JONES of
Wales and Boston, Massachusetts ", Nutfield Genealogy, posted January 14,
2017, (
No comments:
Post a Comment