Digital Victorian Periodical Poetry

Working-class poet. Born in Clearwell village, Forest of Dean. Received minimal education for a few years in his village and was largely self-educated. Became a domestic servant in Bath at age 17. From January 1804 worked as a servant at Kirkby Hall, near Catterick, Northamptonshire, when he began writing poems in earnest. On 19 June 1827 he wrote to Robert Southey enclosing his poem, The Red-Breast, and Southey replied with an encouraging response and asked for a copy of his other poems, which led to his edition, published by subscription, of Jones’s poetry. Biographical information: John Jones, Attempts in Verse, John Murray, 1831, which contains Jones’s own memoir as well as Southey’s account of his correspondence with Jones; Goodridge (AC)