Clement-Jones family 12/22 - Person Sheet
Clement-Jones family 12/22 - Person Sheet
NameWilliam Henry JONES JP , 147
Birth11th July 1829
Death18 Jul 1884, Plas Mynach, Barmouth
Burial22 Jul 1884, Llanaber
FatherWilliam JONES , 70 (1792-1866)
MotherAnne MENZIES , 71 (1801-1874)
Spouses
Birth1840, Kettlethorpe
Death1925, Knighton
FatherRev George James ATKINSON , 149 (1811-1873)
MotherAnna Maria MASSINGBERD , 2777 (1821-1903)
Marriage1871, Gainsborough Lincs
Notes for William Henry JONES JP
Of Plas Mynach, Barmouth, Merionethshire. Shipowner merchant and underwriter Founder and 1st Chairman of Sea Insurance Company. Gave reredos to Gresford Church. JP 1883. Chairman Liverpool Underwriters Association 1866.

Comissioned Plas Mynach from the well known architect John Douglas who worked for the Duke of Westminster and William Gladstone and also designed Rossett church and St John’s Church, Barmouth (see Wikipedia Entry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

It seems that for him Plas Mynach may have been a holiday home as he is described in the 1881 Census as a Magistrate and retired when he lived at 30 Thurloe Square, Kensington, London.

Plas Mynch was completed in 1883 one year before his death. Subsequently it was sold to the Perrins family (of Lea & Perrins sauce).

His Will for probate was valued at £93,412. Equivalent on some measures to £10 million in 2008

See Liverpool Daily Post Obituary 24th July 1884 where he is described as “a hearty supporter of Liberal principles”

From: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/a2a/records.aspx?cat=138-368sea&cid=0#0

Administrative history:
A MS history of the Sea Insurance Co. and its forerunners was written in 1896 by Edward Stewart Jones (available in the Rare Books sequence, see Hq 368.2 SEA), a son of the founder of the firm. According to this MS "the business of the" Sea Insurance Co. is a direct and unbroken continuation of an Insurance business commenced in Feby. of the year 1813 by the late Mr. William Jones".

The firm of insurance brokers Willm. Jones & Co. first appears in Gore's Directory of Liverpool 1814. According to the Stewart Jones MS partners in the firm included not only William Jones but also "... the members of Cropper Benson & Co.... the most important merchants and shipowners in England - especially with the United States ...". These subsequently retired from the partnership and William Jones took into partnership at some later date an Adam Hodson. The firm is first listed as Jones & Hodson in Gore's Directory, 1834. This partnership was dissolved in 1842, according to the MS history, and William Jones later took into partnership a "Mr. Younghusband who subsequently changed his name to Palmer". The firm Jones, Younghusband & Co. first appears in Gore's Directory, 1847, and Jones, Palmer & Co., in the Directory for 1853.

William Jones' son, William Henry entered the firm in 1850. According to The Daily Post, 24 Jul. 1884 (see Liverpool Obituary Notices Feb. - Dec. 1884, Vol 4, pp. 44-45) William Henry Jones, on the retirement of Mr. Palmer took into partnership Palmer's nephew John Samuel Macknight"... and the new firm was styled Messrs. Jones, Macknight & Co. ...". This is not substantiated, however, by Gore's Directories in which the firm continues to be listed as Jones, Palmer & Co. until 1868 when it first appears as W.H. & S. Jones & Co., Mr. Edward Stewart Jones, according to the Daily Post op. cit. having "... joined his brother in the active management of the shipping property and the underwriting business... their list of underwriters containing the names of many of the leading merchants and shipowners of the port.

The name W.H. & S. Jones & Co. remained unchanged until 31 Dec. 1875 when the company ceased to do business as a private firm. On 1 Jan. 1876 it became a public company for underwriting and marine insurance, known as the Sea Insurance Co. Ltd., under the chairmanship of William Henry Jones. Minutes of the company promoters meetings for 28 and 29 Dec. 1875 are given in the first Directors' Minute Book, 1875-1892 (see 368 SEA/1/1, pp. 1 - 8 below). These minutes include a transcript of the Memorandum of Agreement and Articles of Association and details relating to registration under the Company's Acts 1862 - 1867.

Gore's Directory of Liverpool, 1814, lists William Jones & Co., insurance brokers, as having their counting house at 22 Exchange Buildings, Liverpool. Today (November 1971) the head offices of the Sea Insurance Co. Ltd. are in Derby House, Exchange Buildings, Liverpool 2. Some of the changes and developments in the "manner and methods" of underwriting and marine insurance in the period 1813 - 1896 are described by E. Stewart Jones in his MS history op. cit.

Described by his brother Edward Stewart Jones in the MS history of the Sea Insurance Co op cit as “universally beloved and respected”. “He left school a fine scholar and an excellent mathematician and if he had wanted to go to a university he would certainly have been highly distinguished, for his powers of brain were remarkable. But he preferred to plunge at once into the drudgery of office life from which he never shrank, his high capacity never prevented his becoming a master of routine”
Last Modified 24 Aug 2021Created 4 Mar 2023 using Reunion for Macintosh