Noble Jones
One of the colony’s original settlers, Noble Jones (1701-1775) arrived on the Ann with General James Oglethorpe in 1733, and in fact remained friends with Oglethorpe all his life. Jones did not plan to stay in the colony but soon found himself quite at home in Georgia and became Oglethorpe’s Surveyor. Oglethorpe also appointed Jones as the “Agent for the Indians” and for Tomochichi.Jones also aided Oglethorpe when the general laid siege to Spanish-controlled St. Augustine. Shortly after his service, he received a land grant and built Wormsloe. Jones came to Oglethorpe’s aid again in 1742 when Spanish forces invaded, and it was Jones’ scouts who provided vital information to Oglethorpe that led to the Spanish defeat at the Battle of Bloody Marsh.
Jones also served the Trustees government as Captain of the Marines and Scout-boat at Wormsloe, Assistant to the President, Register of the Province, Member of the Council that reported on the state of the colony, and Colonel of the Regiment.
Adapted from Dictionary of Georgia Biography and Men of Mark in Georgia by William Northern
Suggested Readings:
A List of the Early Settlers of Georgia, edited by E. Merton Coulter and Albert B. Saye
Captain Jones’ Wormsloe by William M. Kelso
Wormsloe: Two Centuries of a Georgia Family by E. Merton Coulter
British Drums on the Southern Frontier by Larry E. Ivers
Georgia Journeys by Sarah B. Gober Temple and Kenneth Coleman
The Fledgling Province by Harold E. Davis
Men of Mark in Georgia by William Northern
From the GHS Collection:
Main Collection: Captain Jones’s Wormslow : a historical, archaeological, and architectural study of an eighteenth-century plantation site near Savannah, Georgia / by William M. Kelso, F294.W6 K44; The Jones family papers, 1760-1810 edited by John Eddins Simpson, F281 .G35 v.17
Manuscript: Court of Savannah, Grand Jury record, MS 690; Court of Savannah, Grand Jury record, MS 690;
Rare: Wormsloe; two centuries of a Georgia Family by E. Merton Coulter, F289.J69 C6; Wormsloe : an historical plantation dating from 1733, cover piece by Cornelia Cunningham,F294.W6 W67 1937 (rare pamphlet)
