Theophilus Jones

Sir Theophilus Jones, (circa 1606–1610 to 1685) was an Irish soldier and government official of Welsh descent. One of five sons born to Lewis Jones, Bishop of Killaloe in the Church of Ireland, he formed part of a close-knit and powerful Protestant family. A grandson of James Ussher, head of the Church of Ireland from 1625 to 1656, in 1648 he married his cousin Alicia Ussher, another of his grandchildren. Of his four brothers, Henry and Ambrose were also bishops in the Church of Ireland, while Michael and Oliver were senior soldiers and politicians. Little is known of his career prior to the Irish Rebellion of 1641 when he fought in the Irish Confederate Wars, first with the Earl of Ormonde's Royal Irish Army, then later under Oliver Cromwell. When Ireland was part of the Commonwealth of England from 1653 to 1660, he sat as MP in the Second and Third Protectorate Parliaments. Prior to The Restoration in 1660, he and his brother Henry were instrumental in securing Ireland for Charles II. In return, he was appointed to the Privy Council of Ireland, made Clerk of the Pells in the Exchequer of Ireland, Scoutmaster of Ireland and elected for County Meath in the 1661 to 1666 Parliament of Ireland. He largely withdrew from public life after 1664 and died in Osbertstown, County Kildare on 2 January 1685.