Jones, William B. (William Basket), 1791-1857

William Basket Jones (1791-1857), of Alexander County, N.C., was a collector and transciber of traditional song lyrics. The Jones family began began exchanging "song ballets" or copies of the words of songs they knew in the mid-19th century. Many of the family's transcriptions of popular ballads were collected by Jones' daughter, Ruth Emaline Jones Barnes (1834-1924), and her granddaughter, Sue Campbell Watts (1897-1968).