Noble Wymberley was born probably in 1724 near London, England, United Kingdom, the son of Noble Jones who moved to the Georgia colony very early in its existence and became a member of the council and the treasurer of the province.
Young Jones grew up in Savannah, where he came under the patronage of Oglethorpe.
Jones was made a cadet in Oglethorpe's regiment and, later, promoted to be a first lieutenant. He was too young to take an active part in Oglethorpe's attack on St. Augustine in 1740, but, a decade later, he commanded a force of dragoons ready to meet a threatened uprising of the Cherokee.
Following the profession of his father, he studied medicine and soon became virtually physician to the colony, prescribing for the prisoners in jail and for others dependent on the government. With a wife, six children, and twenty-seven slaves to care for he added, in 1771, eighteen hundred acres of land to the holdings he already possessed. Later he succeeded to his father's princely estate, the present "Wormsloe. "
In 1755 he was elected to the commons house of Assembly, where he remained almost continuously until the outbreak of the Revolution. In 1768 he was unanimously elected speaker. The next year he was again unanimously elected. In 1771 his election was vetoed by the royal governor, and the following year, when the Assembly elected him again, the governor again vetoed his election. The Assembly, in a bellicose mood, immediately reelected him only to receive another veto. A few months later, when the Assembly insisted on another reelection, he refused to serve on account of professional duties.
The royal displeasure had come from his outspoken opposition to the policies of the King. He had in 1765 been "a distinguished opposer of the stamp act, " and by 1771 "he began to enjoy the honour of being hateful to tyrants". In 1768 he had signed a list of grievances to be sent to the King. His swing into rebellion was rapid. He was elected to the Second Continental Congress but, out of respect for his father, who remained loyal to Great Britain, he refused to go.
At the outbreak of the Revolution, however, he became a member of the Council of Safety and of the various provincial congresses that were held. On May 11, 1775, with others, he broke open the powder magazine, which his father had helped to construct, and seized six hundred barrels of powder. He continued to be a powerful force in directing revolutionary affairs until the capture of Savannah in 1778, when he fled to Charleston. At the fall of the latter city he was seized and imprisoned in the old Spanish fort at St. Augustine.
Being exchanged the next year he moved to Philadelphia, where he began to practice medicine. While there he was appointed by Georgia to serve in the Continental Congress. He returned to Georgia in 1782, was immediately elected to the Assembly, and made speaker. He had professional interests in Charleston for the next five years, but by 1788 he had become definitely identified with Savannah. In 1791 he was chairman of the committee to welcome President Washington to Savannah.
He died in 1805.
Jones married Sarah Davis, daughter of John Davis of Georgia. They had six children.
