Jones, Willie, 1741-1801

<p>Willie Jones (pronounced Wiley Jones, May 25, 1741 – June 18, 1801) was an American planter and statesman from Halifax County, North Carolina. He represented North Carolina as a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1780. His brother Allen Jones was also a delegate to the congress.</p>

<p>In 1774, 1775 and 1776, Jones was elected to represent either the county of Halifax or the town of Halifax in the North Carolina Provincial Congress. For a brief time in 1776, as the head of North Carolina's centralized Council of Safety, he was the head of the state's revolutionary government. Richard Caswell took over after being elected as governor.</p>

<p>Thereafter, Jones was elected to the North Carolina House of Commons and the North Carolina Senate. He was elected to the United States Constitutional Convention in 1787 but declined to accept his seat. He led the faction that opposed North Carolina's ratification of the Constitution in 1788 because he feared that the national government would be too powerful.</p>

<p>Among his last public roles was helping to determine the site for the new state capital in 1791, which was named Raleigh. He moved to Raleigh and lived there until his death in 1801. He was buried in an unmarked grave on ground that is now occupied by St. Augustine's College.</p>

<p>Willie Jones, Revolutionary patriot, consummate politician, Jeffersonian Democrat, and ardent states' righter, was born in Surry County, Va., of Welsh and English parentage. His father, Robin Jones, was sent to Eton where he is said to have attracted the attention of Earl Granville, who later appointed him as his agent for the province of North Carolina. Robin married Sarah Cobb of York County, Va., in 1737 or 1738. They were the parents of five children, including Willie's prominent, conservative brother, Allen, whose daughter, Sarah, married William Richardson Davie. In the early 1750s Robin Jones and his family moved to present Northampton County, N.C., about six miles from the then thriving and important borough town, Halifax. As Granville's land agent and as attorney general of North Carolina, he was probably the largest landed proprietor on the Roanoke River.</p>

<p>Willie (pronounced Wiley) was named for one of his godfathers, the Reverend William Willie of Albemarle Parish, Va. He and his brother Allen both attended their father's alma mater, Eton, which Willie left in 1758 to make the continental "grand tour." On his return to North Carolina, he found that Allen had built his home, Mount Gallant, on the Northampton side of the Roanoke and that his father had left him his large colonial home, The Castle, three miles south of present Jackson. Preferring to live in Halifax, he is said to have torn down his paternal home and built from these timbers, many of which may have come from England, a new home in the southern end of the town—The Groves, behind which was one of the finest race tracks in the colony. This home (which collapsed in the early 1900s) soon became the council hall of many stirring political meetings and the focal point for the belles and blades of the section—both groups of which sought Halifax as the political and social mecca of northeastern North Carolina.</p>

<p>Despite the imminence of war, Jones married Mary Montfort, the daughter of Colonel Joseph Montfort, appointed by the Duke of Beaufort as the first and only "Grand Master of Masons of and for America." Willie and his wife had thirteen children, only five of whom lived to maturity. Of those who survived, two were sons who died unmarried. Thus there was not one to carry on the name of Jones. The three daughters who lived to maturity all married. Anna Maria married Joseph B. Littlejohn, who served as secretary to William R. Davie on the French mission of 1800. Martha (or Patsy) married U.S. Senator John Wayles Eppes of Buckingham County, Va., whose first wife was Maria, daughter of Thomas Jefferson. The third daughter, Sally Welch, married, first, Hutchins G. Burton, later governor, and second, Andrew Joyner of Poplar Grove near Weldon, N.C.</p>

<b>Willie Jones</b><br>
<b>BIRTH</b> 25 May 1741<br>
Northampton County, North Carolina, USA<br>
<b>DEATH</b> 18 Jun 1801 (aged 60)<br>
Raleigh, Wake County, North Carolina, USA<br>
<b>BURIAL</b><br>
Willie Jones Burial Site<br>
Raleigh, Wake County, North Carolina, USA

JONES, Willie, (Brother of Allen Jones), a Delegate from North Carolina; born in Northampton County, N.C., December 24, 1740; attended Eton College, England; engaged in agricultural pursuits; member of the Provincial Congress in 1774 and 1776; president of the North Carolina Committee of Safety in 1776 and first Governor ex officio of the new State; member of the first constitutional convention in 1776; member of the State house of commons 1776-1778; Member of the Continental Congress in 1780; elected to the United States Constitutional Convention in 1787 but declined to accept; member of the State constitutional convention called to ratify the Constitution of the United States July 21, 1788; resumed agricultural pursuits; died at his summer home in Raleigh, N.C., June 18, 1801; interment in the family burying ground on his plantation near Raleigh, N.C.

<ul><b>RACES</b>
<li> 08/01/1788 NC St Senate - Halifax County Won 100.00% (+100.00%)</li>
<li>12/13/1787 NC Council of State Chair Won 100.00% (+100.00%)</li>
<li>03/01/1784 NC St Senate - Halifax County Won 100.00% (+100.00%)</li>
<li>03/01/1782 NC St Senate - Halifax County Won 100.00% (+100.00%)</li>
<li>12/31/1780 NC Continental Congress Won 100.00% (+100.00%)</li>
<li>12/31/1779 NC Continental Congress Won 100.00% (+100.00%)</li>
<li>03/00/1778 NC State House - Halifax Town Won 100.00% (+100.00%)</li>
<li>03/01/1777 NC State House - Halifax Town Won 100.00% (+100.00%)</li>
</ul>