- John Gabriel Jones
Infobox Person
name = John Gabriel Jones
caption =
birth_date = birth date|1752|6|6
birth_place =
death_date = death date and age|1776|12|25|1752|6|6
death_place = Lower Blue Lick,Kentucky
other_names =
known_for =
occupation = Pioneer, lawyer and politician
nationality = AmericanJohn Gabriel Jones (
June 6 ,1752 –December 25 ,1776 ) was a 18th century colonial American pioneer and politician. An early settler of Kentucky, he andGeorge Rogers Clark sought to petition Virginia to allow Kentucky to become a part of theColony of Virginia at the outset of theAmerican Revolution .He was named in honor of his uncle, the noted Virginian lawyer
Gabriel Jones .Biography
Born to John Jones, John Gabriel Jones set out for Kentucky at a young age where he lived for several years and eventually became a prominent lawyer in the region. In June 1776, after a 7-day meeting in
Harrod's Town lasting fromJune 8 toJune 15 , he andGeorge Rogers Clark were elected by popular vote to represent western Fincastle County as members of theGeneral Assembly of Virginia . Shortly before the two reached Williamsburg however, the state legislature had already adjourned and Jones instead turned back at Richmond to visit the settlements on theHolston River while Clark continued to the capital.On
October 8 , Jones and Clark were both in attendance at the fall session and they were successfully able to use their influence to have Kentucky constituted as a county of Virginia by reconstituting Fincastle County into Montgomery, Washington and Kentucky counties, [Kleber, John E. "The Kentucky Encyclopedia". Lexington: University Press of Lexington, 1992. (pg. 495) ISBN 0-8131-1772-0] however they were not recognized as members of the assembly. While in Richmond, Clark visited GovernorPatrick Henry and managed to acquire 500 pounds ofgunpowder from Virginia which was ordered to be shipped to Pittsburgh. They later helped ship the gunpowder down theOhio River and hid the cargo 11 miles outside of present-dayMaysville, Kentucky .In December, Jones and Colonel John Todd gathered a group of ten men to retrieve the gunpowder. On
December 25 , as they marched along the Ohio River, they were ambushed near the Lower Blue Lick by a group of warriors led by theMingo chieftainPluggy with Jones and several others being killed in the fighting. [Waddell, Jos A. "Annals of Augusta County, Virginia, from 1726 to 1871". Staunton, Virginia: C. Russell Caldwell, 1902. (pg. 84)] [Nester, William R. "The Frontier War for American Independence". Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole Books, 2004. ISBN 0-8117-0077-1] [Giles, Janice Holt. "The Kentuckians". Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1987. (pg. 165-167) ISBN 0-8131-0177-8]References
Persondata
NAME = John Gabriel Jones
ALTERNATIVE NAMES =
SHORT DESCRIPTION = Kentucky pioneer and statesman
DATE OF BIRTH = 1752
PLACE OF BIRTH =
DATE OF DEATH = Lower Blue Lick,Kentucky
PLACE OF DEATH =December 25 ,1776
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