• Born: Abt 1616, Michaelston-super-Ely, Glamorgan, Wales

  Research Notes:

Named as a beneficiary in his father's Will (1658)

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Scholar and physician, son of Richard Jones, of Michaelston-super-Ely, and Jane , his wife, daughter of Thomas Bassett , esquire and high sheriff of Miskin, Glam. Bassett entered Jesus College, Oxford, in 1634 , and afterwards the Dutch university of Franeker , and other seats of learning on the Continent, where he studied physics and chemistry. He returned home, and in 1648 (the year of the battle of S. Fagans ) was published in Oxford his Lapis chymicus philosophorum examini subjectus . He was involved in his family's dispute with Philip Jones (q.v.) over the manor of Wrinston, Glam. ; the documents of this affair were published in 1654 including Bassett Jones ' petition to Cromwell and his comments on Philip Jones 's reply. In 1659 appeared his Hermaelogium, or, an Essay at the Rationality of the Art of Speaking. As a Supplement to Lillie's Grammar (sic), philosophically, mythologically and emblematically offered by B.J. (London ), 1659, 8vo. In a Latin address at the end, signed 'Basset Joanesius,' the volume is dedicated to the master and professors of the university of Franeker in Holland, where probably he had previously been a student. He seems to have been author of an 'englyn' inscribed on a mural monument in the church of Michaelston-super-Ely to the memory of his father, who died 21 April 1658 (Archĉologia Cambrensis for 1889, pp. 198-213).

Bassett Jones 's wife was Catherine , daughter of William Lloyd; if she came from Brecknock this might help to explain the reference by G.T. Clark to the possession of lands in Pencelly , near Brecon , by Bassett Jones , although there is no reference to it in Theophilus Jones 's History of Brecknockshire . According to Richard Jones 's will (d. 1659 ), Bassett had a son, Thomas Jones, by a Marie Hughes , and a daughter Marie Jones , by a Katherine Miles. According to the pedigrees in the ' Golden Grove Book ' he had no children from Catherine Lloyd , his wife.

David Myrddin Lloyd, M.A., (1909-81), Aberystwyth / Scotland ¹