Roger Jones, 1st Viscount Ranelagh


Roger Jones, 1st Viscount Ranelagh PC was Lord President of Connaught. He was Chief Leader of the Army and Forces of Connaught during the early years of the Irish Confederate Wars. In addition to Viscount Ranelagh, he held the title Baron Jones of Navan.

Birth and origin

Roger was born before 1589, the only son of Thomas Jones and his wife Margaret Purdon. His father was Archbishop of Dublin and Lord Chancellor of Ireland. His mother was a daughter of Adam Purdon of Lurgan Race, County Louth.

Early life

He was knighted at Drogheda on 26 March 1607 and thus became Sir Roger Jones.
In 1608 his father became involved in a bitter feud with Christopher St Lawrence, 10th Baron Howth, in which Sir Roger also became embroiled. His reference to Howth as a brave man among cowards was enough to provoke his opponent, a notoriously quarrelsome man, to violence. In the spring of 1609, Jones, Howth and their followers engaged in a violent fracas at a tennis court in Thomas Street, Dublin, and a Mr. Barnewall was killed. The Lord Deputy of Ireland, Sir Arthur Chichester, an enemy of Howth, had him arrested immediately, though he was never brought to trial.

First marriage and children

Sir Roger married Frances Moore, the daughter of Sir Garret Moore, 1st Viscount Moore of Drogheda and Mary Colley, daughter of Sir Henry Colley.
The couple had four children:
  1. Arthur, married Lady Catherine Boyle, who was the daughter of Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork, and also the older sister of pioneering chemist Robert Boyle, and the writer Mary Rich, Countess of Warwick;
  2. Margaret, married John Clotworthy, 1st Viscount Massereene;
  3. Mary, married firstly Lieutenant Colonel John Chichester, son of Edward Chichester, 1st Viscount Chichester. Their son Arthur Chichester, 2nd Earl of Donegall inherited the earldom from his uncle. After his death she remarried Colonel Christopher Copley of Wadworth, and had further issue; and
  4. Thomas, whose descendants reclaimed the Ranelagh viscountcy in 1759 after it had been dormant after the death of Richard Jones, 1st Earl of Ranelagh in 1711.

    Midlife

Sir Roger was a member of the Parliament of Ireland for the borough of Trim in County Meath from 1613 to 1615.
In 1620, he was named to the privy council of Ireland. He was the Chief Leader of the Army and Forces of Connaught and was Vice President of Connaught from 1626.
On 23 November 1620 his first wife died.
On 25 August 1628, Sir Roger was created Baron Jones of Navan and 1st Viscount Ranelagh by King Charles I.

Second Marriage and daughter

Lord Ranelagh, as he was now, married secondly Catherine Longueville, by whom he had one daughter:
On 11 September 1630 he was made joint President of Connaught alongside Charles Wilmot, 1st Viscount Wilmot who had occupied this post alone since 3 June 1616.
According to Lord Ranelagh died in 1643 in Oxford while attending the King Charles I. However, according to he died in 1628.