JONES, Jacob William (fl.1841-1857) — Wellington & Sydney
Artist, draughtsman and lithographer. Produced Robert Park, Plan of Wades Town adjoining the city of Wellington, New Zealand, the property of Messrs. Watt & Wade, laid out in building lots 1841; Plan of the city of Wellington, Port Nicholson, New Zealand 1841; Edward Main Chaffers, Chart of Port Nicholson New Zealand 1841 — all with Thomas Bluett.
He was perhaps the Jacob William Jones baptised 7 Sep 1815 at Claines, Worcestershire, the son of Jacob and Sarah Jones. He can probably be identified as the W. Jones aged twenty-five who arrived in Wellington as a cabin passenger on board the Olympus 20 Apr 1841 — the same ship on which Thomas Bluett and his family arrived — certainly the two were working together shortly thereafter. He was presumably the Jacob William Jones of Wood’s Hotel, Furnival’s Inn, who paid £125 for a parcel of land (Wainuiomata No. 31) in New Zealand 5 Nov 1840, but which he transferred to David Roberts 2 Jul 1841. He moved to Sydney early in 1842 and worked as a clerk and later an inspector at the Custom House between 1843 and 1854. An album of his sketches of New Zealand is owned by the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia, while some sketches of Sydney executed in the 1840s are in the Mitchell Library. One of his works was exhibited at the second Society for the Promotion of the Fine Arts exhibition at Sydney in 1849 and he was a member of the Sydney Sketching Club. He was last recorded in Sydney in 1857 and may possibly to be identified with the man of this name who died at Windsor, Berkshire, in 1858.
DAAO. Trove.