387 



The following obituary notice of Judge Joel Jones, late 

 member of the Society, Ayas read by Judge Sharswood : — 



The subject of this obituary notice was born the 22d October, 

 1796, in Coventry, Connecticut. On his father's side he was a 

 lineal descendant of Col. John Jones, who married Henrietta, the 

 second sister of Oliver Cromwell, and was one of the Judges who 

 sat on the trial of Charles the First. Colonel Jones was one of 

 Cromwell's House of Lords in 1653, and Lord Lieutenant of Ire- 

 land from 1650 to 1659. He was tried and beheaded for high trea- 

 son October 17, 1660. His son, William Jones, was for several 

 years Deputy Governor of New Haven and Connecticut. From 

 him Joel Jones was the fourth in descent. 



Joel entered Yale College in 1813, and graduated in 1817. He 

 was, during this time, between the ages of seventeen and twenty-one, 

 and was able to support himself by teaching school. The necessity 

 he was under of doing this was, no doubt, a great advantage to him, 

 as it has been to so many others. Nothing makes so accurate a 

 scholar, or lays a more thorough foundation in the classics, while the 

 habits of close attention and patience which are cultivated are of the 

 utmost importance. Mr. Jones graduated with the highest honors 

 of his class. He studied law with Judge Bristol, of New Haven, 

 and afterwards in the Litchfield Law School, under the care of 

 Judges Keeves and Grould. Upon the completion of his studies, his 

 parents removed to Wilkesbarre, in this State. Joel accompanied 

 them, and was admitted to practise law in Luzerne. He did not 

 open an office there nor until he determined to settle in Easton. 

 Here he occupied himself laboriously in law studies, and distin- 

 guished himself in some cases which required much research into 

 forgotten if not obsolete law. He was counsel in the case of Barnet 

 V. Ihricj in which the old remedy of assize of nuisance was revived; 

 and his argument for the plaintiff in error in the Supreme Court 

 (17 S. & R. 187) is at once a testimony to his learning and industry. 

 In 1830, the Legislature passed resolutions for the appointment by 

 the Governor of " three competent persons, learned in the laws of 

 this Commonwealth, as commissioners to revise, collate, and digest 

 all such public acts and statutes of the Civil Code of this State, and 

 all such British statutes in force in this State, as are general and per- 

 manent in their nature." Governor Wolf, who, having been a mem- 

 ber of the bar of Northampton County, and associated with Mr. 

 Jones, was well acquainted with his capacity, appointed him, with 



