Welsh Journals

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The first valuable piece of information, written in the form of a note by Thomas Jones, the Common Sergeant of London, on 20 October 1621, was enclosed in a covering letter sent to Wynn by John Jones.19 Dr. Nesta Lloyd doubts whether these two letters were written by John Jones since they seem not to have been in his own hand. There is no evidence to prove, however, that they were not written on his behalf, and since he may have been at London or Ludlow in 1621 and was fully recognised by then as a keen copyist of manuscripts and antiquarian, it seems fair to assume that the person responsible for the first letter was John Jones of Gellilyfdy.20 It is not known of any other person of that name living at Ludlow at that time who might have taken such a keen interest in Welsh antiquities. He was particularly active around that time as his detailed list of complaints against the Council and the administration of law at Ludlow amply proves.21 It is also known that he helped English antiquarians with their enquiries about Wales. His brother, Thomas Jones, is designated 'gentleman' in legal records but no further information is forthcoming about him other than that he was Common Sergeant of London in 1621 and that he had a residence in Hope, Flintshire.22 Up until the quarrel between the two brothers over a legal matter in 1622, they seemed to have been firm friends as John Jones testifies in a note which he himself wrote, probably early on in the seventeenth century.23 The note sent by Thomas Jones, which was probably addressed to all gentlemen in north Wales who were expected to assist Speed in his heavy task,24 indicated that he was in the process of correcting and printing his work and that he had complained in his first edition (1611) that he had received very little information regarding the six counties of north Wales. This implied that the gentry in that region had been either lax or reluctant to cooperate or had simply not complied with his wishes for unknown reasons.25 Speed was not prepared to concoct history, but relied on the information which recognised historians were in a position to give him.26 In his first edition he had 'omitted many things worth the writing and many things that he observed are mistaken and imperfect'.27 Speed wished his work to be as accurate as possible and had specifically asked for reliable persons to supply him with the names of every hundred, commote, parish, township, and every other place of note in each township. The letter specified further that if any gentlemen could supply the necessary information on their respective counties before the middle of Hilary Term (late January or early February 1622) and send their contributions to Thomas Jones at Gray's Inn or at his house near Blackwelhall, or even to his brother, John Jones, who may have been an attorney at Ludlow, they would be gladly received and would be conveyed forthwith to Speed.28 John Jones's letter to Wynn, written on 31 October 1621 to explain the accompanying letter, urged Wynn to persuade any gentleman of experience to undertake this task. He did not specifically imply that Wynn should do the work himself, in part or as a whole, but since he was a public figure at Caernarfon, Ludlow and London, and a man of contacts who was also conversant with the