Jones, Mary

Jones was a poet who lived modestly with her brother but made wealthy friends with an aristocratic circle including two women of Queen Caroline's household: Martha Lovelace and Mrs Charlotte Clayton. She also follows the Domestic/coterie MS circulation pattern. Her Miscellanies in Prose and Verse claims that she began writing verses ‘at a very early age’ with no view to publication. In April 1742 she found to her surprise that her ballad ‘The Lass of the Hill’ was published in London, and about the same time her verses on the death of Lord Aubrey Beauclerk were printed, regardless of permission, by his widow. Her poetry is well crafted and witty, her subjects typically epitaphs, mild moral counsel, and light satire; she was much influenced by Alexander Pope.