Betty Jones

Betty Jones appears in the first volume of Anne Cator Steele’s diary. Steele records in considerable detail a scandalous affair that occurs between Betty Jones, the wife of Joseph Jones, both members of the Baptist church at Broughton and relations of the Steeles, and the Rev. John Grant, a former member of the Broughton church who was at that time minister to the Baptist church in Whitchurch. Grant had been instructed in the ministry by Henry Steele at Broughton, and served the congregation at Whitchurch from 1721 to 1726, at which time he appears to have left for London and various other locations. He was back in Hampshire by 1730-31, and apparently doing occasional preaching and seeking a church, though not pastoring the Whitchurch congregation as he had previously. At this time he begins to appear in Anne Cator Steele’s diary. Betty Jones’s relationship with the Broughton church, however, began to deteriorate in the late 1720s, as she and another woman, Rebecca Bevis, were visited by William Steele III and some other members of the church in November 1727 concerning unspecified actions that were sufficient to warrant possible exclusion from the church. Neither woman was excluded at that time, but they must have continued to create some unrest in the church, for Bevis appears in the fall of 1730 once again causing problems in the church. The affair between Jones and Grant would have been especially poignant to ACS, not only because John Grant had such close ties to the Broughton church and to Henry and William Steele, but also because of her close familiarity with Betty Jones as a member of her church and a relation of the family. The story begins in the fall of 1730 and continues through 1733. For the account from Steele's diary, see Whelan, Nonconformist Women Writers, vol. 8.