Background
William was born at Lowick, Northamptonshire, but was descended from an old Welsh family.
William was born at Lowick, Northamptonshire, but was descended from an old Welsh family.
William was educated at Charterhouse School and University College, Oxford.
One of his ancestors was Colonel John Jones, brother-in-law of Oliver Cromwell. There a taste for music, as well as a similarity of character, led to his close intimacy with George Horne, later bishop of Norwich, whom he induced to study Hutchinsonian doctrines. After obtaining his bachelor's degree at University College, Oxford in 1749, Jones held various preferences (Vicar of Bethersden, Kent (1764).
Rector of Pluckley, Kent (1765)). In 1777 he obtained the perpetual curacy of Nayland, Suffolk, and on Horne's appointment to Norwich became his chaplain, afterward writing his life. His vicarage became the center of a High Church coterie, and Jones himself was a link between the non-jurors and the Oxford Movement.
He could write intelligibly on abstruse topics.