Mary Jones (Bible)
Encyclopedia
The story of Mary Jones and her Bible inspired the founding of the British and Foreign Bible Society
British and Foreign Bible Society
The British and Foreign Bible Society, often known in England and Wales as simply as Bible Society, is a non-denominational Christian Bible society with charity status whose purpose is to make the Bible available throughout the world....

. Mary Jones (16 December 1784
1784 in Wales
This article is about the particular significance of the year 1784 to Wales and its people.-Incumbents:*Prince of Wales - George, Prince Regent*Princess of Wales - vacant-Events:*March 30 - Lloyd Kenyon becomes Master of the Rolls....

 – 28 December 1866
1866 in Wales
This article is about the particular significance of the year 1866 to Wales and its people.-Incumbents:*Prince of Wales — The Prince Albert Edward, son of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom*Princess of Wales — Alexandra of Denmark-Events:...

) was a Welsh
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

 Protestant Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

 girl who, at age fifteen, walked twenty-five miles across the countryside to buy a copy of the Welsh Bible
Welsh Bible
Bible translations into Welsh have existed since at least the 15th century, but the most widely used translation of the Bible into Welsh for several centuries was the 1588 translation by William Morgan, as revised in 1620...

 from Thomas Charles
Thomas Charles
Thomas Charles was a Welsh Nonconformist clergyman of considerable importance in the history of modern Wales.-Early life:...

 because she did not have one. Charles then used her story in proposing to the Religious Tract Society
Religious Tract Society
The Religious Tract Society, founded 1799, 56 Paternoster Row and 65 St. Paul's Chuchyard, was the original name of a major British publisher of Christian literature intended initially for evangelism, and including literature aimed at children, women, and the poor.The RTS is also notable for being...

 that it set up a new organisation to supply Wales with Bibles.

Journey

Mary Jones was from a poor family, the daughter of a weaver, who lived at the foot of Cader Idris, Llanfihangel-y-pennant, Merioneth (now part of Gwynedd
Gwynedd
Gwynedd is a county in north-west Wales, named after the old Kingdom of Gwynedd. Although the second biggest in terms of geographical area, it is also one of the most sparsely populated...

), near Dolgellau
Dolgellau
Dolgellau is a market town in Gwynedd, north-west Wales, lying on the River Wnion, a tributary of the River Mawddach. It was the county town of the former county of Merionethshire .-History and economy:...

. She was born in December 1784. Her parents were devout Calvinistic Methodists, and she herself professed the Christian faith at eight years of age. Having learned to read in the circulating schools organised by Thomas Charles
Thomas Charles
Thomas Charles was a Welsh Nonconformist clergyman of considerable importance in the history of modern Wales.-Early life:...

, it became her burning desire to possess a Bible of her own. The nearest copy was at a farm two miles distant from her little cottage, and there was no copy on sale nearer than Bala
Bala, Gwynedd
Bala is a market town and community in Gwynedd, Wales, and formerly an urban district of the historic county of Merionethshire. It lies at the north end of Bala Lake , 17 miles north-east of Dolgellau, with a population of 1,980...

 – 25 miles away; and it was not certain that a copy could be obtained there. Welsh Bibles were scarce in those days. Having saved for six years until she had enough money to pay for a copy, she started one morning in 1800 for Bala, and walked the 25 miles, barefoot as usual, to obtain a copy from the Rev. Charles, the only individual with Bibles for sale in the area. According to one version of the story, Mr. Charles told her that all of the copies which he had received were sold or already spoken for. Mary was so distraught that Charles spared her one of the copies already promised to another. In another version, she had to wait two days for a supply of Bibles to arrive, and was able to purchase a copy for herself and two other copies for members of her family. According to tradition, it was the impression that this visit by Mary Jones left upon him that impelled Charles to propose to the Council of the Religious Tract Society
Religious Tract Society
The Religious Tract Society, founded 1799, 56 Paternoster Row and 65 St. Paul's Chuchyard, was the original name of a major British publisher of Christian literature intended initially for evangelism, and including literature aimed at children, women, and the poor.The RTS is also notable for being...

 the formation of a Society to supply Wales with Bibles.

Mary later married a weaver of Bryn-crug named Thomas Lewis. She died in 1864 and was buried at the graveyard of Bryn-crug Calvinistic Methodist Chapel. Her Bible is now kept at the British and Foreign Bible Society's Archives in Cambridge University Library. It is a copy of the 1799 edition of the Welsh
Welsh language
Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...

 Bible, ten thousand copies of which were printed at Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...

 for the Society for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge
SPCK
The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge is the oldest Anglican mission organisation. It was founded in 1698 by Thomas Bray , and a small group of friends. The most important early leaders were Anton Wilhelm Boehm and court preacher Friedrich Michael Ziegenhagen...

. In addition to the Old and New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....

s and the Apocrypha
Apocrypha
The term apocrypha is used with various meanings, including "hidden", "esoteric", "spurious", "of questionable authenticity", ancient Chinese "revealed texts and objects" and "Christian texts that are not canonical"....

, the volume contains the Book of Common Prayer
Book of Common Prayer
The Book of Common Prayer is the short title of a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion, as well as by the Continuing Anglican, "Anglican realignment" and other Anglican churches. The original book, published in 1549 , in the reign of Edward VI, was a product of the English...

 (in Welsh) and Edmwnd Prys's Welsh metrical Psalms. Mary Jones wrote the following (in English) on the last page of the Apocrypha (spelling is her own):
In turn, this meant that she was fifteen, because at the time people counted the number of new years they had each had. "...In the sixteenth year of my age", which, of course means that she was in the year leading up to her sixteenth birthday.

Another of the copies she obtained in Bala is in the National Library of Wales
National Library of Wales
The National Library of Wales , Aberystwyth, is the national legal deposit library of Wales; one of the Welsh Government sponsored bodies.Welsh is its main medium of communication...

 at Aberystwyth
Aberystwyth
Aberystwyth is a historic market town, administrative centre and holiday resort within Ceredigion, Wales. Often colloquially known as Aber, it is located at the confluence of the rivers Ystwyth and Rheidol....

.

A "Mary Jones Walk" was held in the year 2000 to commemorate Mary's original feat, and has been repeated several times.

Memorial in Llanfihangel-y-Pennant

Incised on front lower part of a memorial obelisk erected over the ruin of the cottage where she lived (near north end of Pont Ty'n-y-fach) is this inscription:


Inscribed on the outer wall is

Further reading

  • Allchin, A. M.: 'Companions on the Way: Mary Jones, Ann Griffiths and Ruth Evans', Resurrection's Children (Norwich: Canterbury Press, 1998).
  • James, E. Wyn: 'Ann Griffiths, Mary Jones a Mecca'r Methodistiaid', Llên Cymru, 21 (1998) (Cardiff: Gwasg Prifysgol Cymru/University of Wales Press).
  • James, E. Wyn: 'Bala and the Bible: Thomas Charles, Ann Griffiths and Mary Jones', Eusebeia: The Bulletin of the Jonathan Edwards Centre for Reformed Spirituality, 5 (Autumn 2005) (Toronto, Canada: Toronto Baptist Seminary and Bible College)
  • Jones, Roger: 'Greater than Gold'. A musical/dramatic presentation of the story of Mary Jones.
  • Steer, Roger: Good News for the World (Monarch Books, 2004)
  • Williams, Elisabeth: To Bala for a Bible (Bridgend: Evangelical Press of Wales, 1988) ISBN 1-85049-050-3

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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