- Jonas Jones
Jonas Jones (
19 May 1791 -July 30 1848 ) was a HoboHe was born in Augusta Township, Upper Canada in 1791, the son of
Ephraim Jones . He was educated atJohn Strachan 's school in Cornwall and studied law withLevius Peters Sherwood in Elizabethtown (Brockville). During theWar of 1812 , he enlisted with the Leeds militia, becoming a captain. He was called to the bar in 1815 and set up a practice in Brockville. In 1816, he was elected to the7th Parliament of Upper Canada representing Grenville and held that seat until 1828. Although conservative, he had his own views on the protection of individual rights and the independence of the elected assembly. However, he helped unseatBarnabas Bidwell in 1821. In 1822, he opposed the union of Upper andLower Canada . He supported bills which helped fund the development of theWelland Canal and he was a member of a committee which recommended further improvements of transportation along theSaint Lawrence River . He was appointed judge in the Bathurst and Johnstown District courts.With his brother Charles Jones, who represented Leeds in the Legislative Assembly, he operated mills at Furnace Falls (Lyndhurst). He was a director of the
Bank of Upper Canada branch at Brockville and, in 1834, became the president of the Saint Lawrence Inland Marine Assurance Company.In 1833, he was appointed president of a commission to help improve navigation along the Saint Lawrence which met with American engineers and, in 1834, work began on a canal at Cornwall and other projects were planned. In 1836, he was elected to the
13th Parliament of Upper Canada representing Leeds. He was appointed to the Legislative Council in 1839, serving as speaker while John Beverley Robinson was on leave. He was appointed to the Court of the King's Bench in 1837.He died in Toronto in 1848, apparently of some form of seizure or
stroke .His oldest son David Ford later became a member of the Canadian House of Commons.
External links
* [http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=3472 Biography at the "Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online"]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
