Thomas Ap Catesby was born on April 24, 1790 at his maternal grandfather's estate, "Hickory Hill, " Westmoreland County, Virginia, United States. He was the second son of the seven children of Major Catesby and Lettice Corbin (Turberville) Jones.
He was of Welsh and English ancestry, a descendant of Capt. Roger Jones who emigrated from London to Virginia in 1680. Orphaned, he was taken by his uncle, Meriwether Jones of Richmond.
Jones was sent to school by his uncle.
Becoming a midshipman November 22, 1805, Jones began his career under Hull and Decatur at Norfolk. Afterwards, at the New Orleans Station, he served for seven years under Captains Porter, Shaw, and Patterson, suppressing the slave trade, smuggling, and piracy, and enforcing neutrality laws. He became a lieutenant May 24, 1812.
In an attack on the pirates at Barataria September 16, 1814, according to Patterson's report, "Jones particularly distinguished himself by boarding one of the schooners which had been fired and extinguishing the fire after it had made great progress; a quantity of powder being left in her open cabin, evidently designed to blow her up. " With five gunboats and two small schooners, he then opposed the entrance into Lake Borgne of Vice-Admiral Cochrane's fleet transporting General Pakenham's army against New Orleans.
On December 14, 1814, about a thousand British in forty barges, bearing forty-two cannon, attacked Jones's squadron, with its twenty-three guns and 175 men, and after a desperate engagement lasting two hours captured the gunboats, Jones being dangerously wounded. The British, however, lost ninety-four men; the Americans, only forty-one.
Recovering his health, he spent three years in the Mediterranean Squadron under Chauncey and five years at the Washington Navy Yard and as inspector of ordnance. Meanwhile, he became master commandant March 28, 1820. Commanding the Pacific Squadron in 1825, he visited in his flagship, the Peacock, the Sandwich (now Hawaiian) Islands to collect debts and look after deserters from American merchantmen. Here he supported the party led by American missionaries against the English consul's claim of British sovereignty over the islands. After five years as inspector of ordnance, Jones, a captain since March 11, 1829, was appointed, June 28, 1836, to command the South Seas Surveying and Exploring Expedition.
Unable to agree with Secretary of the Navy Dickerson as to the equipment and personnel of his ships, he resigned his command, December 5, 1837, ill from worry and exasperation.
After four years of inactive service, in 1842 he was again placed in command of the Pacific Squadron. The British frigate Dublin was maneuvering suspiciously off Callao, and Jones, thinking war had begun between the United States and Mexico, hastened north with two ships, October 19, 1842, and took possession of Monterey. For this indiscretion he was relieved of his command, to conciliate Mexico, but was not censured by his government. Two years afterwards, he commanded the Pacific Squadron for the third time.
After the Mexican War, he transported 300 refugees out of Lower California, paying the expenses from the military contributions levied at Mazatlan. For this the Secretary of the Navy commended him; but for later using this fund for "an improper and unauthorized" purpose, a general courtmartial in February 1850 suspended him from the service for five years with loss of pay for half that period. This suspension was remitted by President Fillmore, in 1853. Jones saw no further active service and was placed on the reserved list in 1855.
On May 30, 1858, he died at Sharon, Fairfax County, Virginia.
Thomas Jones was the famous Commodore, who sucessfully participated in the miitary actions of the War of 1812 and the Mexican–American War. Namely, he received honors for bravery at the Battle of Lake Borgne (1814), Louisiana, delaying the British before the Battle of New Orleans. In his late years, Jones was found guilty in a politically charged court-martial in using the fund for "an improper and unauthorized" purpose.
Jones married, July 1, 1823, Mary Walker Carter, daughter of Charles B. Carter of "Richmond Hill, " Virginia. They had four children.
