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Errors in the Jenny Jones Story

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Information on Jenny Jones( formally Jane Griffith, maiden name Jane Drumble, thought by some historians to have a maiden name of Jane brown ) is to be found in a number of different documents, these are mainly held in the Dolgellau Record Office and I would like to thank the Staff for all their assistance in my research.

Having spent some time with all the different documents relating to Jenny Jones it is my opion that the currently available information on Jenny comes mainly from one source. After carefull consideration I think that this could well be from the records of the Royal Welch Fusileers who record her and Lewis Griffith in several of their documents.

Most of the available information on Jenny Jones is contained in a typed manuscript by John Arther Williams written in the 1960's.

During this research I have checked all the available information to hand and it is my opion that some of the information contained in these accounts is inaccurate.

I can only suppose that the reason for this is because when the various documents were being written access to original material was not possible and these records were written from memory, often many years after the events had taken place.

Jennie's maiden name.

I think that Jennie Jones's maiden name was not Brown but Drumble and that she was born in Ireland not Scotland. To justify this I would draw attention to the record of Lewis & Jane's child's christening of Dorothy in March 1833.

This record is available in the Mormon records from a microfilm of the original registers held in the British National records of the Ystrad Gwyn Independent Methodist Church a church still in use in 1999. Located at the North East End of the Talyllyn lake the Chapel is a small building close to the junction of the B4405 and the A487 close to Minffordd.

In this record Jenny gives her maiden name as Jane Drumble and her place of birth as Ireland, there is further evidence when in the 1841 & 1851 censuses she also gives her birthplace as Ireland.

When she married John Jones in 1853 she also gives her maiden name as Drumble and the original register with this record is located in the Dolgellau record office.

Jennie's age.

In some of the documents relating to Jenny they give her age at death as being 94, I think this was incorrect as, in the 1881 census her age is given as 92 and a note is added by the ennumerator saying that she is handicapped and blind. It therefore makes me wonder if she was able to give her age accuratly and the ennumerator may have relied on someone else possibly Mary Griffith to give him the details.

If we go to the 1841 census her age is given as 45 although ages over 21 in this census were rounded up to the nearest 5, again in the 1851 census she gives the ennumerator her age as 54 and I feel that this is more likely to be her true age as almost certainly she told the ennumerator her age face to face, so when she died in 1884 she would have been 87.

Jane (Jennie) was at the time of the 1881 census living in a house called Tanyriwen just outside the Churchyard wall in Talyllyn with a Mary Griffiths aged 66 (widower) who was born in Towyn. Mary Griffith was married to John Griffith and I know that John was Lewis’s brother although by 1881 John appears to have died. John and Mary appear in many of the censuses for Talyllyn as inn keepers or publicans, from many different sources I have managed to put together the following information about John and Mary.


1841 Census details for the Griffith family are as follows:

House name	Full name	Age	Position	Birth place
Cildydd	Jane Griffith	45	Washerwoman	Ireland
	William	15	Man servant	Ireland
	Jane	13
	Ann	5	( Thought to be the dau of Morgan & Gwen Griffith )
	Ann Evan	60
	Catherine Pugh	55	( Her husband was Edward & almost certainly had died prveiously )
	Jane Pugh	8	( Jane is Catherine's daughter )
Dalffanog	Harriot Griffith	11	( Harriot is William's sister )

I think that the Pugh's and the Evans were related to the Griffith's.

1851 Census details

House name	Full name	Age	Position	Occupation	Birth place
Cildydd	Jane Griffith	54	Head	Washerwoman	Ireland
	Elizabeth Pugh	9	Grandaughter		Talyllyn Merionithshire

I have checked the IGI in Ireland for William's & his mothers birth and the marriage of Lewis to Jane but there are no clues to be had. The only records of Drumble's in Ireland are to found in County Down at a place called Magheralin.

Before we leave the Talyllyn end of the family it is worth mentioning here that in the appendix ( not yet on the web ) I have listed all the records I noted from the Bishop Transcripts for the Parish of Talyllyn where the name was Griffith, the important ones in relation to the Griffith's are -:

Humphrey = Jane Lewis marriage on 11th Nov 1786
The birth of William on the 3rd June 1787
The birth of Jane on the 4th December 1788
The birth of Elizabeth daughter of Humphrey Griffiths 8th July 1804
The death of Humphrey Griffiths on 16th December 1804.




If you have any information on Jenny Jones please e-mail me
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