Henry Jones of Oxfordshire

Henry Jones of Asthall Manor (died 1673), Oxfordshire was an officer in the New Model Army during the Interregnum. He transferred to the new small Royalist army of Charles II, serving as a Life Guard until he was dismissed after becoming a Roman Catholic. With King Charles's blessing he raised an English regiment of horse (cavalry) known as English Regiment of Light Horse in France for the French Army of Louis XIV. He was killed in action at the siege of Maastricht.

Early life

Henry Jones was the son of Rice Jones (died probably by 1644) and his wife Jane daughter of Giles Bray of Harrington.

Early military career

Jones was a captain in, or possibly was major of, John Humphrey's regiment of foot in Barbados and Jamaica in 1655 and 1656. He was lucky to survive service in the West Indies.

Battle of the Dunes

Jones and another officer, Colonel Drummond, accompanied Lord Fauconberg (a son-in-law of the Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell). Jones volunteered to join Sir William Lockhart's Brigade which fought alongside the French army at the siege of Dunkirk and at the Battle of the Dunes on 4 June 1658.

At the Battle of the Dunes Jones was attached to Lockhart's New Model Army regiment. The regiment was under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Roger Fenwick when it attacked veteran Spanish soldiers ensconced on top of 150 feet (46 m) dune (sand-hill). The sides of the dune were so steep that attacking English had to scramble up on hands and knees. The English, after two volleys and push of pike, drove the Spanish from the crest of the dune and then pursued them down the far side. They were then in turn attacked by Anglo-Spanish cavalry who were unable to break the English formation and were themselves then driven off by French cavalry. By then all the regimental officers were either dead, or wounded. Jones himself had been, shot through the shoulder and wounded in two other places, but this did not deter him from seizing a loose French cavalry horse and joining the French cavalry in the counter-attack on the Anglo-Spanish cavalry. However Jones pursued the enemy too far and was captured.

Jones had displayed such valour in this action that on his release from a short captivity (he was part of a prisoner exchange), he was dubbed a knight bachelor by Oliver Cromwell on 17 July 1658 (this honour, like all Protectorate honours passed into oblivion at the Restoration in May 1660), and was promoted to the lieutenant-colonelcy of John Hewson's infantry regiment.

Hampton Court, July 17.—His Highness [Oliver Cromwell] hath been pleased ... to confer the honor of Knighthood upon Henry Jones, Esq. a gentleman that hath given more then ordinary proofs of high courage in several services; particularly in the late battle near Dunkirk, where as a volunteer, he performed service on foot, along with that gallant Gentleman Lieutenant-Colonel Roger Fenwick (who sustaining the first fury of the enemy, received his death's-wound, and lies asleep in the bed of honor) in which action the said volunteer was also wounded; and afterwards mounting himself he struck in with the French horse, and among them did farther service against the emeny; whereby he stands a noble example to the young gentry of England.

— Mercurius Politicus, July 15–22.

Restoration

At the Restoration, he found his way into a lieutenant's commission in Lord Hawley's troop in the Royal Horse Guards, probably through the patronage and influence of George Monck and Sir William Lockhart. By 1665 he had risen to captain.

Recusancy

In September 1667 Parliament passed an act that forbade Roman Catholics being officers in the English Army and on the 26th of that month all Roman Catholics officers were dismissed. Charles II, who recognised that many of the dismissed officers, or their fathers. had been devoted to the Royalist cause during the English Civil War and Interregnum, and was not ungrateful for the loyalty they had shown, so he did his best to make arrangements the affected officers to enter the regiment of Sir George Hamilton in the French army. Jones who must have converted to Roman Catholicism some time before the act of Parliament, was one of those who left England for Service abroad. He may have initially gone to Spain, but then became the lieutenant of Sir George Hamilton's Troop of English Gens d'Armes in the French army. However he retained his troop in the Royal Horse Guards whilst in France.

Regiment of Light Horse, and death

In 1671 Jones obtained permission to expand the Gens d'Armes into a full-sized light cavalry regiment under his own command. The regiment known as Sir Henry Jones's Regiment of Light Horse or the English Regiment of Light Horse in France was about 500 strong. Jones was its first colonel and Ferdinando Lyttelton its first lieutenant-colonel. Jones tried to recruit men from his own troop in the Royal Horse Guards; much to his annoyance, there were few volunteers. Jones was killed by a bullet through the throat whilst he was attending the Duke of Monmouth at the siege of Maastricht in 1673.

Family

Jones married Frances, daughter Henry Belasyse (1604–1647). [1]

They had a daughter and sole heir: Frances (born March 1667), who married Richard, Viscount Lumley.