- Jones, Henry
- (1721-1770)A self-educated Irish poet who was born at Beaulieu, near Drogheda, County Louth, he was employed as a bricklayer in the repair of Parliament House, Dublin, when Lord Chesterfield was appointed Lord-lieutenant of Ireland in 1745. Lord Chesterfield patronized the young poet who accompanied him to England in 1748 and helped his protégé publish Poems on Several Occasions (1749). His tragedy The Earl of Essex was played at Covent Garden in 1753 with Spranger Barry (1719-1777) in the title role. Jones died in the workhouse, his life ruined by success and drunkenness. Some of his other poetry publications: An Epistle to the Right Honorable the Earl of Orrery, 1751. Fortitude, 1751. Merit, 1753. The Relief, or, Day Thoughts, 1754. Verses to His Grace the Duke of Newcastle, 1754. The Invention of Letters, 1755. An Address to Britain, 1758. The Royal Vision, 1763. Kew Garden: A Poem in Two Cantos, 1767. Inoculation, or Beauty's Triumph, 1768. Shrewsbury Quarry, 1769. Clifton: A Poem in Two Cantos, 1778. Vectis, The Isle of Wight: A Poem in Three Cantos, 1782.Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. English Poetry, Second Edition Bibliography (http://collections.chadwyck.co.uk/html/ep2/bibliography/g.htm). English Poetry: Author Search. Chadwyck-Healey Ltd., 1995 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu:8080/search/epoetry/author.html). The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org).
British and Irish poets. A biographical dictionary. William Stewart. 2015.