History Website for Dibdin, Aglio, Rowntree, Guise, and other Families
History   Homepage Picture Gallery Photo Gallery Museum Articles Sitemap
Jones-Dibdin Connection  Tetley - Jones Connection

The Rev. William Taylor Jones
and Immediate Family

Taken from  
The Story of a Well Connected Framlington Family

By Michael Blow

Father of  Reverend William Taylor Jones was William Jones
Son of Reverend William Taylor Jones was Dr George Jones

William Jones married Ann Taylor in 1812, at St George’s, Westminster. Their son, the Rev. William Taylor Jones was born on the 9th March 1814 and christened in Saint Mary’s, St Marylebone Road, London. Their daughter Ann Alice Jones was born 1817 in Lewisham.

By 1832, the Rev. William Taylor Jones may have been employed in a day and boarding school in Bridge End, Saffron Walden run by Luke Taylor. Luke died in 1834, leaving legacies to his sister Mary Ann Taylor, who was living at the school and his father also a Luke Taylor, a hairdresser, from Botesdale, Suffolk. The Rev. William Taylor Jones perhaps inherited both the school and Luke’s sister as; he married Mary Ann Taylor later the same year. Their new school, The Grove, Saffron Walden was advertised locally both in 1839 and 1848. Mary Ann was older than her husband and died relatively young; her date of birth as stated on her marriage certificate was nine years younger than that on her birth certificate! They were both free and easy with their ages on official documents, as on their marriage certificate in 1834, William stated his age as 28 yet seven years later for the 1841 census claimed his age to be 30, neither age confirmed by his birth certificate. Mary Ann’s age on their wedding certificate claimed to be 21 and yet seven years later for the 1841 census her age is entered as 40!

Dr. George Jones and his elder brother, William Taylor Jones, named after his father, were born in Saffron Walden in 1838 and 1837. In 1857 Rev. William Taylor Jones founded and was headmaster of Sydenham College, Lewisham. His qualifications include: graduating from Queens College, Cambridge, BA 1849; MA 1853; deacon 1849 by Bishop of Lichfield; priest 1850 by Bishop of Rochester; Vice-President and Examiner of College of Preceptors; former Chaplain of Romford Union 1840-58; and morning preacher at St Edwards Romford 1857.

Philip George Jones, Dr George Jones's eldest child was being educated at Sydenham College age 9 in 1881. Alongside pupils from Jerusalem Palestine, Kandy Ceylon, Sydney Australia, Ceylon East Indies, British Honduras, Calcutta East Indies, Cobran Guatemala, - only four of the fourteen pupils were British! After being educated at his grandfathers school Philip George Jones emigrated to New Zealand age 18. It is said that Philip did not get on with his family and ended up estranged from them, although financial dependant on a remittance sent regularly from England. He named his son Philip George Tetley-Jones and there are still Tetley-Jones’s in New Zealand today.

Rev. William Taylor Jones’s second wife, Canadian, Julia Caroline Henrietta Montgomery, was able to trace her family back to early 18th century America and the Rev. Joseph Green of Salem Village, Essex, Massachusetts, famous for witch burning. His son Richard Green Sr. happened to be a merchant in Boston before the American War of Independence. Living thereafter in Halifax, Newfoundland and becoming a prominent Government official, who was not altogether precise with his bookkeeping.

A letter, written by Rev William Taylor Jones on 29th May 1875 in the Sydenham, Forest Hill & Penge Gazette, a "Plea for a People's Recreation Ground". It regretted that "all available land in our neighbourhood is being taken for building purposes" and young people "meet and loiter about the roads, congregate at every street corner, becoming a moral pest and a nuisance". Furthermore, the poor had nothing but "the streets, the music hall, the penny gaff or the public house for their evening's resort". This appeal eventually lead to the "Great and Good" of Lewisham raising enough money to purchase one of the first public parks in England. Thomas Coleman Dibdin, well known artist in his day, and local resident, donated "six delightful sketches" of the site of the park, for sale at £5 each, to raise money. There is a memorial to the Rev William Taylor Jones in Mayow Park in Sydenham.

William’s niece Mary E Dibdin worked at the school, his sister, Ann Alice Jones was married to Thomas Coleman Dibdin, grandson of Charles Dibdin, composer of Sea shanties including "Tom Bowling". Thomas Coleman Dibdin was born in Bletchworth, Surrey on October 22nd 1810. After working as a General Post Office clerk, he took up painting professionally. He travelled widely throughout Europe. His paintings were displayed on many occasions at the Royal Academy annual exhibition. Dibdin invented the process of Chromo-lithography. He died in Sydenham on December 26th 1893.

Their daughter Eve Mary Dibdin born in 1840 went on to marry William Heseltine one of whose children, John William Dibdin Heseltine, was to be educated in Margate by the son of the Rev. William Taylor Jones.

Another of Thomas Coleman’s children Robert Lowes Dibdin, was a scholar age 8 in 1851 attending the Rev.William Taylor Jones’s school in North Street, Romford. By 1875 he was an experienced gold buyer in Queensland, Australia and married to Emma Horler. He paid a weekly visit to Crocodile to make purchases, and buy gold in the town. At first he bought gold for himself, but subsequently he purchased it for the Bank of New South Wales. He was never attacked on the road either going or coming, though he was well known to be travelling with either gold or cash. Mr. Dibdin never kept a record of the quantity of gold he purchased, but he estimates it at 50,000 oz.

A third child, William Joseph Dibdin was in 1896 chairman of the Sutton Urban Council. He was an industrial chemist, inventor of the bacteriological system for treating sewage. The system almost universally applied in sewage farms all over the world.

Rev. William Taylor Jones’s, son, also called William Taylor Jones and also educated like his father at Cambridge, opened a school, in Margate, Kent. He called it Herne House, initially situated in Arthur Road, and then transferring to The Eastern Esplanade. In 1881, his 36 year old cousin, Ellen J Taylor, from Botesdale, Suffolk, was being employed as a Housekeeper. Amongst the 31 pupils, was John William Dibdin Heseltine age 8, John’s father, William was living with his family in Anson Road, Islington, describing himself as a Tea Merchant. By the time of the 1891 census, John age 18, stated occupation, "Agent to Tea Dealer", living in St John Wood, London, was visiting Dr. George Jones and his family in Framlingham. At this time John was responsible for his mother and five younger siblings, coming after William Heseltine & Son Ltd, according to Board of Trade records, was dissolved in 1889, and further financial troubles led to the suicide of his father in 1890. John later went on to marry Marie Berthe Lefauvre, daughter of a French shipowner from Grimouville, Normandy, whose family had moved to Swansea. They were the grandparents of Lord Michael Ray Dibdin Heseltine, a well known Tory cabinet minister in Margaret Thatcher’s government, known also as "Tarzan". Lord Heseltine knew his Grandfather well, who was always protective of the memory of his mother, Eve Mary Dibdin. Lord Heseltine is still a voting member of the House of Lords, and runs his own publishing house. The peak enrolment for Herne House was 64 in 1891; it was later run by the second Rev. William Taylor Jones’s son, Henry George T. Jones.

Dr George Jones and his wife Sara Jane Tetley resided in a house on the corner of Fore Street and Castle Street between 1871 and 1891. Producing six children, Philip George Jones, Florence Alice Muriel Jones, Ella Mary Jones, Edith Jane Jones, William Tetley-Jones and Winifred Gwynnet Jones, who died at less than one year of age, and all living together there with their three servants. George having two spells in Scotland obtaining medical qualifications from Glasgow and Edinburgh University. Also being an active member of the Suffolk Forresters militia. It is said George died of a heart attack while playing bowls at the Framlingham castle club in 1891 age 53.

The Family Story continues at
The Story of a Well Connected Framlington Family