Samuel was born on May 26, 1770 in New York, United States, where he spent practically his entire life. He was the second son of Samuel Jones, whose name lives in New York legal history in connection with the first revision of its laws. His mother was Cornelia, daughter of Elbert Haring (later spelled Herring), a prosperous descendant of an old Dutch family.
On June 17, 1770, he was baptized in the "Old Dutch Church" in Garden Street.
His early education was obtained at Hempstead, Long Island, where, at the classical school of Rev. Leonard Cutting.
After nearly completing the course of studies at Columbia, he entered the senior class at Yale, where he graduated in 1790. Columbia bestowed upon him an ad eundem degree in 1793. He studied law in his father's office, where DeWitt Clinton was a fellow student.
Admitted to the bar at the earliest possible age, Jones commenced a legal career which was unbroken, except for periods of judicial service, until two months before his death. In February 1797 the legislature created a special justices' court in New York City to which he was one of the first appointees, but he sat for only a brief period. From 1809 to 1817 he served six terms as assistant alderman.
From 1812 to 1814 he was one of the representatives from the city in the state Assembly. In 1823 he was appointed recorder of the City of New York and sat about a year. On January 27, 1826, Governor Clinton nominated him as chancellor of the state; the Senate confirmed the nomination unanimously. He resigned April 19, 1828, and was shortly thereafter appointed first chief-justice of the newly created superior court of the city of New York, which office he held until he was elected justice of the supreme court of the state under the constitution of 1846. He became an ex-officio member of the court of appeals, assisted in its organization, and sat there from 1847 to 1849, then returned for a few months to the circuit and term duties of the supreme court until his office expired, December 31, 1849.
Though eighty years old, upon retirement from the bench he resumed his practice. He died at the residence of his brother, Maj. William Jones, at Cold Springs, Long Island.
Jones was devoted to his church (he was a warden of the Church of the Annunciation from the forming of the parish).
Although early in his career he had been a Federalist, after the War of 1812 he supported Clinton on the policy of internal improvements, later voted for Jackson, and remained a Democrat.
Devoted to his country, temperate in his habits, of unquestioned integrity, Jones was not rich in this world's goods but in the esteem of his professional brethren and of the community.
On January 27, 1816, Jones was married to Catharine Schuyler, daughter of Philip J. Schuyler and granddaughter of Maj. -General Schuyler of Revolutionary fame. Of his five children, his only son, Samuel, was a judge of the superior court of New York City and later reporter of the same court.
