John Coffin Jones Sr.

Jones was born in 1749. He was the son of Ichabod Jones (d. 1790). John attended and graduated from Harvard College.{{Citation|author=Massachusetts Historical Society| title =Massachusetts Historical Society Proceedings October, 1920 - June, 1921, Volume LIV|page=22, fn 3|publisher=Massachusetts Historical Society|location=Boston, MA|year=1922}}

In 1790, Jones wrote to Thomas Jefferson upon his return from France as the U.S. Minister regarding "whalefishery," which Jones considered it to "ever been the most important branch of business to this State, by furnishing its most valuable Staple export, creating a great consumption of the Produce of the Country; and thereby giving employment to a vast number of husbandmen and mechanics, whilst it proved a most extensive nursery of expert and hardy seamen."{{cite web |title=To Thomas Jefferson from John Coffin Jones, 1 May 1790 |url=https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-16-02-0229 |website=founders.archives.gov |publisher=National Archives {{!}} Founders Online |accessdate=18 January 2019 |language=en |quote=Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 16, 30 November 1789–4 July 1790, ed. Julian P. Boyd. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1961, pp. 397–400.}} Jones was a businessman who became a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. From 1802 to 1803, he served as the Speaker of the House succeeding Edward Robbins. Jones was succeeded by Harrison Gray Otis,{{cite book |last1=Gast |first1=Ross H. |title=Contentious Consul: A Biography of John Coffin Jones, First United States Consular Agent at Hawaii |date=1976 |publisher=Dawson's Book Shop |isbn=9780870931758 |url=https://archive.org/details/contentiousconsu00gast |url-access=registration |accessdate=7 January 2019 |language=en}} who later served as the Mayor of Boston and a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts.{{cite book |last1=Morison|first1=Samuel Eliot |title=The Life and Letters of Harrison Gray Otis, Federalist, 1765-1848 |date=1913 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company |page=[https://archive.org/details/lifeandlettersh01morigoog/page/n284 238] |url=https://archive.org/details/lifeandlettersh01morigoog |accessdate=27 September 2018 |language=en|author1-link=Samuel Eliot Morison }}

In 1814, Jones was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society.[http://www.americanantiquarian.org/memberlistj American Antiquarian Society Members Directory], americanantiquarian.org; accessed 6 September 2015.

Jones was married three times. Among his wives were Mary Lee. Together, they were the parents of:

• Thomas Jones.

His second wife was Abigail C. Jones,{{cite book |last1=Bridgman |first1=Thomas |title=Memorials of the Dead in Boston: Containing Exact Transcripts of Inscriptions on the Sepulchral Monuments in the King's Chapel Burial Ground, in the City of Boston. With Copious Historical and Biographical Notices of the Early Settlers of the Metropolis of New England |date=1853 |publisher=B.B. Mussey |page=[https://archive.org/details/memorialsofdeadi00briduoft/page/84 84] |url=https://archive.org/details/memorialsofdeadi00briduoft |accessdate=7 January 2019 |language=en}} and Jones' third wife was Elizabeth (née Champlin) (1770–1837) the sister of U.S. Senator from Rhode Island Christopher G. Champlin and grandson of Christopher Champlin, a merchant, ship owner and financier of Newport, Rhode Island.{{cite web |title=Christopher Champlin Papers |url=https://www.rihs.org/mssinv/Mss020.htm |website=www.rihs.org |publisher=Rhode Island Historical Society |accessdate=7 January 2019}} Together, they were the parents of:

• Margaret Champlin Jones (1792–1848), who married Benjamin Underhill Coles in 1817.{{cite book |last1=Assembly |first1=New York (State) Legislature |title=Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York |date=1898 |publisher=E. Croswell |page=265 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eUE8AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA265 |accessdate=7 January 2019 |language=en}}{{cite web |title=Archives Directory for the History of Collecting |url=http://research.frick.org/directoryweb/browserecord.php?-action=browse&-recid=7905 |website=research.frick.org |publisher=Frick Art Reference Library |accessdate=7 January 2019 |language=en}} After his death, she married Hon. Benjamin Gorham in 1829.{{cite book |last1=Kenslea |first1=Timothy |title=The Sedgwicks in Love: Courtship, Engagement, and Marriage in the Early Republic |date=2006 |publisher=UPNE |isbn=9781584654940 |page=199 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rBrUERS0B38C&pg=PA199 |accessdate=7 January 2019 |language=en}}
• Martha Ellery Jones (b. 1794), who married Isaac Underill Coles, the brother of her elder sister's first husband, Benjamin Underhill Coles, in 1823.{{cite book |title=The Manifesto Church: Records of the Church in Brattle Square, Boston, with Lists of Communicants, Baptisms, Marriages and Funerals, 1699-1872 |date=1902 |publisher=Benevolent Fraternity of Churches |page=[https://archive.org/details/manifestochurch00massgoog/page/n350 274] |url=https://archive.org/details/manifestochurch00massgoog |accessdate=18 January 2019 |language=en}}
• Mary Jones (1795–1837), who died unmarried.
• John Coffin Jones Jr. (1796–1861), who was the first United States Consular Agent to the Kingdom of Hawaii.{{cite book |last1=Day |first1=Arthur Grove |title=History makers of Hawaii: a biographical dictionary |date=1984 |publisher=Mutual Publishing of Honolulu |isbn=9780935180091 |pages=32, 57 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wkp0AAAAMAAJ |accessdate=7 January 2019 |language=en}}
• Christopher Champlin Jones (b. 1798)
• Anna Powel Jones (b. 1803)

Jones died on October 25, 1829, in Boston, Massachusetts and was buried at King's Chapel Burying Ground in Boston.

Through his daughter Martha, he was the grandfather of Mary Lee Coles ({{Circa|1842}}–1922), who married Harry Coster,{{cite news |title=DIED. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1917/11/04/113303767.pdf |accessdate=6 January 2019 |work=The New York Times |date=November 4, 1917}} who were both prominent in New York society during the Gilded Age.{{cite news |title=Mrs. Henry A. Coster Dead {{!}} Funeral To-morrow From St. James's Church |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/18472708/mary_lee_coles_coster_obituary/ |accessdate=6 January 2019 |work=New York Herald |date=November 23, 1922 |page=11}}

{{reflist|30em}}

• {{find a Grave|120875990}}
• [http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HBS.Baker.EAD:bak00302 John Coffin Jones papers] at Baker Library Special Collections, Harvard Business School.
• {{citation |url= https://elections.lib.tufts.edu/catalog/JJ0099 |title=Jones, John Coffin, 1750-1829 |work=A New Nation Votes: American Electoral Returns, 1788-1825 |publisher= American Antiquarian Society |year=2007 |via=Tufts University }}

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{{succession box

| title = Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives

| before = Edward Robbins

| years = 1802 — 1803

| after = Harrison Gray Otis}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Jones, John Coffin Sr.}}

Category:1749 births

Category:1829 deaths

Category:Harvard College alumni

Category:Speakers of the Massachusetts House of Representatives

Category:Members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives

Category:Massachusetts Federalists

Category:19th-century members of the Massachusetts General Court