Jones was a native of Lancashire. He was the son of Henry Jones, Esq. of Middleton. His brother, Sir Roger Jones, Alderman of London, was knighted at Whitehall. Thomas acquired a Master of Arts from Christ's College, Cambridge in 1573, after which he relocated to Ireland. He married a widow, Margaret Purdon, who was also a sister-in-law of Archbishop Adam Loftus. His relationship with Loftus proved beneficial to Jones. He has been referred to, uncharitably, as Loftus's "pale shadow"; a more balanced view is that the two men thought alike on most issues and so worked harmoniously together. Jones was named Chancellor of St. Patrick's Cathedral and was elected Dean in 1581. While Dean, Jones granted questionable leases of church property including in particular a 161-year lease of a coal mine which caused a later Dean of St. Patrick's, Jonathan Swift, to rebuke Jones severely for his improvidence:
Archbishop
When the Archbishop of Armagh, Thomas Lancaster, died in 1584, the Lord Chancellor of Ireland, Adam Loftus, recommended Jones as his replacement, despite the unfortunate effects of his improvident leases of Church land. John Long was chosen for the position instead but, on 10 May 1584, at the written urging of Queen Elizabeth, Jones was named Bishop of Meath. He was immediately called to the Privy Council of Ireland by the government of Lord DeputyJohn Perrot, a position he held for 20 years. In August 1591 Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, the effective leader of the old Gaelic nobility, and a man of very dubious loyalty to the English Crown, scandalised Dublin society by eloping with the English-born aristocrat Mabel Bagenal, whose family were his implacable enemies. Since Mabel wished for a Protestant marriage ceremony, and O'Neill, although he was himself a Roman Catholic, was happy to indulge her wish, Jones was summoned to Drumcondra Castle, where the couple had taken refuge, by their host Sir William Warren. The Bishop was persuaded, although only with great reluctance, to perform the marriage. According to his own version of events, he did so solely to protect Mabel's reputation. In April 1605, Adam Loftus died and King James I emphatically chose Jones to be Archbishop of Dublin, commencing the following November. He was also named prebendary of both Castleknock parish of St. Patrick's and the rectory of Trim in the Diocese of Meath:
Lord Chancellor
In 1605, Jones was appointed Lord Chancellor of Ireland, a position he held for the rest of his life. He was staunchly anti-Catholic, and a firm supporter of King James's Plantation of Ulster. In 1611, he sat on a Protestant Council in Dublin "to prevent sectarianism and extirpate Popery." He attended the opening of the Parliament of Ireland in 1613, where he gave an important speech. During this period, he had eight Roman Catholicsexcommunicated and imprisoned for recusancy and then had them reimprisoned after Parliament released them soon afterwards. Jones was Lord Justice of Ireland in 1613, received an honorary DD degree from the University of Dublin in 1614, and again served as Lord Justice in 1615. He and his son, Roger Jones, 1st Viscount Ranelagh, were involved in several disputes with Christopher St Lawrence, 10th Baron Howth, the most serious of which involved an affray in Thomas St. in Dublin in 1609 in which a man was killed. The Crown was anxious to resolve the feud, and in later years Jones and Lord Howth managed to settle their differences and work together amicably. During his time as Lord Chancellor, Jones saw that Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin underwent extensive repairs. In old age, according to Elrington Ball, Jones suffered a notable deterioration in his character; he became fretful and querulous, and was quite unable to bear the robust criticism which all Irish public figures are expected to endure. His enemies would spread malicious stories, such as a farcical claim that he was a wizard, simply to enjoy the hysterical efforts which Jones, who seems to have lacked a sense of humour, would make to refute them. He grew ill very suddenly and died at his episcopal palace, St. Sepulchre's Palace in Dublin in 1619. He was buried in St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin beside his wife, who had died four months earlier. Viscount Ranelagh, his only surviving son, had a monument and statue created with inscriptions for Thomas and his wife: The monument was restored in 1731 at the request of the then Dean of St. Patrick's, Jonathan Swift, despite his low opinion of Jones, quoted above.
