David JONES

JONES, DAVID (b. Llandilo-Faur, Wales, 8 March 1793; d. Sydney, NSW, 29 March 1873). Congregationalist merchant philanthropist, church elder.

Born to pious farming parents, Thomas and Nancy Jones, David showed little early interest in farm or church, and was apprenticed at 15 to a grocer's business in Carmarthen. Continuing his apprenticeship under a 'pious widow' managing a store in Pembrokeshire, Jones entered a household 'accustomed to receive and entertain Ministers of the Gospel' and which was often used as a preaching venue. 'It was in this situation', suggests one funeral orator at the other end of his life, that Jones 'evidently received the determination of his future course', both in things of this world and the next. These few years saw Jones become 'seriously impressed with the importance of Divine things' and seriously depressed with his own spiritual state. In 1813 Jones married the local pastor's daughter, but was emotionally hammered by the death of his wife and child in childbirth only a year later. Partly to settle the emotional and spiritual riot in his soul, and partly to satisfy his typically rising nonconformist urge for pastures on which he could exercise himself, Jones left Eglwyswrw for London, a major, if not unprecedented, move considering he spoke no English. The felicitous combination of chapel, commerce and connubiality, which tended to follow the intense, inworldly religiosity of mid-Victorian nonconformist mercantilism, was to remain a central principle of coherence throughout his life.

In London Jones rose through a number of minor managerial positions and various stores to become a confidential assistant in R N Nicholls, Cheapside. His assiduous involvement in the world of independency, and membership of Robert Phillip's Maberly chapel, brought him into contact with the world of the LMS and of international Congregationalism. Through those 'zealous independents', the Mander family (from among whom he chose a wife, Jane Mander Hall, in 1828), Jones met the former deputy commissary general of NSW, William Wemyss, and the Hobart-based merchant, Charles Appleton. The latter's recent opening of a branch in Sydney under the management of former Congregationalist missionary, Robert Bourne, was the catalyst for the two to form a partnership. Jones sailed for Hobart in 1834, and after a visit to Launceston, arrived in Sydney with his family in September 1835 determined to establish Appleton and Jones 'on the principles of the respectable London Wholesale Firms'. His 'new' business practices coincided with an expansiveness of character which, arriving as he did in the aggressively expanding colonial economy of the mid-1830s caused Appleton and Jones to grow dramatically: in the two years of his oversight turnover increased tenfold. The positive faith of his providential view of this world, reinforced by a character trait which led his eulogist to note that 'not infrequently he suffered from an unsuspicious and charitable judgement, in giving other with whom he dealt credit for the integrity with which he himself was actuated', was demonstrated in the company's very liberal credit policy. On Appleton's return, a rift appeared within days over payables amounting to some £30 000, and the two separated, Appleton retaining the drapery at 32 Pitt Street and Jones moving to the corner of Barrack Lane, opposite the GPO. Appleton was not wrong—within years, the colonial economy came to a grinding halt, and Jones' new establishment only squeaked through after the owner sold off numerous personal possessions and cut his staff to the bone.

With the help of his fellow Congregationalists, (formalised in agreements like the mutual protective association that he formed with Bourne, Ambrose Foss, and G A Lloyd) the non-conformist oligarchy centred on the Pitt Street church emerged by the end of the decade stronger than ever. Through Jones the Congregational press baron, John Fairfax (q.v.), was able to meet the financial requirements of his purchase of the Sydney Herald. It was also through Jones' philanthropy that Pitt Street Congregational church obtained its influential minister, Robert Ross (q.v.). Jones' daughter, Eliza, married Ross' son (also named Robert) in 1848, and in time Jones took his son-in-law into partnership. So well did the House that Jones built grow that, by 1856, he could leave £30 000 in the business and retire from active management. The partners that bought into the business, however, were no match for the delicate balancing act involved in colonial merchandising, and Jones was forced to buy back the company and take the helm. Within three years, all major creditors had been discharged, and the now aging founder remained in charge until he retired in 1868.

Jones' energy was too great to be restricted to one branch of industry. Moving with the expansion of colonial economy and population, and in association with his co-religionists, he built up an extensive business portfolio covering building, shipping, insurance and building. He was a founder of the AMP Society, and the Sydney Exchange Company. He was a founding, elected member of the Sydney Municipal Council, and a member of the NSW Legislative Council. His philanthropy in the church was legendary: with John Fairfax, he was a major sponsor and council member of Camden Theological College, a committee member of the Bible and Religious Tract Society, among many other responsibilities. His tie to his origins was strong and continuing. George Forbes notes that 'It was customary with him ... to read his Welsh hymn book each Sunday afternoon, for he always maintained that no language in the world was so expressive as the Welsh'. He regularly presided over Welsh gatherings on St David's Day (1 March), took a special interest in visiting Welsh speakers, 'and opened his purse for every Welsh brother in distress'.

It was as a man of action that Jones made his mark, and it is perhaps because he had fewer opportunities to give voice to his belief that he has not been as roundly treated by historians as his contemporaries. This is a pity, as it is clearly the activism of such men that built the culture expressed by the colonial press, 'diligent in business, fervent in Spirit, serving the Lord'.

This activism was underpinned by a vibrant personal piety—not only did Jones keep the Sabbath with the Welsh hymnal, but had a regular practice of retiring after 'tea' on a Saturday night for several hours of Bible reading and prayer before re-emerging for family devotions at 9.30. Five years after retiring, Jones died, aged 80, at his Liverpool Street house, predeceasing his wife by some three weeks. Among his last words as he lay dying were an extended quotation of his favourite Bible passage, John ch. 14, 'In my father's house are many mansions ...', a passage illustrating not merely a preparation for death, but a credo for the life he had lived. They were the words of a doer. To the sense of the superintending hand and model of Christ, we also have to add the sense of guidance that Jones often expressed as the word he meditated upon came alive. He was used to opening discussions with phrases like 'It has been impressed upon my heart', suggesting a strain of Welsh revivalist mysticism, of the 'Spirit of Truth', and revelation among the every day affairs of business. (viz John 14: 16-17.)

ADB 2; J G Fraser & W Slatyer, 'Funeral services in Connection with the Death of Mr David Jones ...t, ML

MARK HUTCHINSON