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One
of the most respected and popular of the many incumbents to hold
office at St. Cadoc's, Caerleon, was the grandfather of the writer
Arthur Machen who of course was himself born Arthur Jones. Before
settling in Caerleon the Reverend Daniel Jones M.A., was to be
found at St Johns Church in the centre of Cardiff, near the market.
Later he was parish priest in Caerleon for almost thirty years
until his death on September 29th 1857. The Vicarage that he and
his family would have called home was not the stone-built house
which we called the Vicarage in recent years i.e. Isca House,
the local doctors' premises. Rather it was an earlier, much smaller
building which was said to have stood practically in the churchyard.
The present building was erected in the 1860s, by which time the
Reverend Jones' widow and her daughters were living in 33 High
St, the house in which Arthur Machen was born in 1863.
Daniel Jones was descended from a long line of clergymen, the
family having originated in Carmarthenshire where they appear
in official records from 1750 onwards. His father was one of three
brothers who appear to have distinguished themselves in various
fields. One was a physician in Finsburg Square and was presumably
the head of the line which Machen referred to as the London
Jones cousins.
On the chapel front, Hezekiah another brother was known as Y
Ffeiriad Coch yr Castleton,
the Red Priest of Castleton, from the colour of his beard; Castleton
being between Newport and Cardiff. His oratory, at the turn of
the eighteenth century, drew crowds from far outside the county
and they were said to be moved to tears by his skill with what
was known in Wales as the hwyl.
He died in 1833 aged about eighty two. His son became Archdeacon
of Bangor Cathedral and was known as John Classical Jones (1797
- 1863). In an age where any clergyman would have had a good education
in Greek and Latin his scholarship must have been formidable.
A brother of our Daniel was the Reverend Judah Jones, onetime
Rector of Caerphilly in Glamorgan whilst their father was another
Reverend Daniel Jones curate of St Fagans who died in 1821. Daniel
Jones of Caerleon had an only son John, born in 1830, who followed
in his father's footsteps and read theology at Jesus College,
Oxford. After a spell as a curate at Alfreton in Derbyshire he
came home to Caerleon when his father died to care for his parishioners
and stayed nearby to run the churches of Llandewi Fach and Llandegfedd
just north of Caerleon. He died on 20 September 1887 and is buried
with his Scottish wife Janet in Llandewi churchyard.
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