Richard Jones (burgess)
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Richard Jones | |
|---|---|
| Member of the Virginia House of Burgesses representing Amelia County | |
| In office 1736-1740 Serving with Edward Booker | |
| Preceded by | position created |
| Succeeded by | Samuel Cobb |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1691 |
| Died | late 1758 |
| Occupation | planter, politician |
Richard Jones (circa 1691 – 1758) was a planter who represented Amelia County in the House of Burgesses (1734-1736).[1] The eldest of four generations of related men sharing the same name who held local or legislative offices in Amelia or later Nottoway County.[2]
Born circa 1688 or 1691 in the western part of Charles City County that became Prince George County in 1703.[3] He was either a son or brother of Peter Jones (III), the third generation of traders of that name who founded Petersburg, then moved upstream on the Appomattox River to Amelia County where Peter Jones died in 1754. Peter Jones received land patents on the lower side of Deep Creek and Richard Jones on the upper side of Flatt Creek and south side of Buckskin Creek.[4]
Career
On September 28, 1728 Richard Jones (then of Prince George County) patented (claimed) 337 acres on the Bush River in what in 1754 became Prince Edward County. The following year, Charles Winston patented another 252 acres in the same area, and Edward Booker of Henrico County slightly to the west received a grant of 2050 acres on both sides of Knibbs Creek and another 950 acres in 1732. Also in 1732, Samuel Cobbs (who would become Amelia County's first Clerk of Court and this man's legislative successor) received a grant of 2120 acres between Knibbs and Flat creeks.[5] Thus, development proceeded in what had been the frontier upstream on the Appomatox and south of the James River.
After Virginia's legislature established Amelia County in 1735, Edward and Richard Booker, as well as their relative James Clark and Abraham Green (all from the county's Namozine area), became the first justices of the peace for the new County (the justices jointly also administering counties in that era). Soon this man, Wood Jones, Samuel Cobbs and prominent merchant Thomas Tabb, as well as Henry Anderson, William Booker, John Dawson, Abraham Cocke, George Walker, William Clement, Hezekiah Ford and William Archer also became local justices of the peace in Amelia County.[6]
In the first legislative election, Amelia County voters elected Jones and fellow planter Edward Booker as their (part-time) representatives in the House of Burgesses in the 1736–1740 term. However, unlike Edward Booker, Jones was not re-elected. However, the election of Joseph Scott was declared void, and in the resulting new election, Samuel Cobbs was elected to sit alongside Booker.[7]