JONES, William, an eminent divine of the Church of England, was born at Lowick, in Northamptonshire, in 1726. He received his education at the Charter-House and University College, Oxford. He became in succession vicar of Bethersden, Kent, in 1764; rector of Pluckley, perpetual curate of Nayland, Suffolk, and rector of Hollingbourne, Kent, in 1798. He took up his residence at Nayland, in 1776, and remained there till his death, in 1800. He was
an intimate friend of Bishop Horne, with whom he was associated in the defence of John Hutchinson's philosophical and theological tenets, and whose biography he wrote in 1795.
Although best known for his book on the Trinity, Jones employed his pen with considerable felicity on political and other subjects. Bishop Horsley eulogizes him for his "quick penetration, extensive learning, and sound piety, and for the talent he had of writing upon the deepest subjects to the plainest understandings."
His works were published, in 12 vols. 8vo, in 1801. The theological and miscellaneous works were republished in 6 vols. 8vo, in 1810. In addition, two posthumous volumes of sermons were published in 1830. The principal treatises are—The Catholic Doctrine of the Trinity proved from Scripture; A full Answer to Bishop Clayton's Essay on Spirit; Remarks on the Confessional; Zoologia Ethica; A Course of Lectures on the Figurative Language of Scripture; An Essay on the Church; An Essay on the First Principles of Natural Philosophy, and a number of political tracts written after the commencement of the French Revolution. Prefixed to the first volume is a life of the author (by William Stevens). Jones of Nayland was the originator of the British Britic.