John Jones was born in Sydney in 1809. His father was a Welshman convicted of stealing pieces of linen and sentenced to death in 1799. Transported instead, he married in Australia and had six children, living in The Rocks area while he worked as a waterman on Sydney harbour. Jones was thus a ‘Currency lad’, one of the first generation of Australians who grew up around Sydney Harbour, living by their wits. It formed him as a streetwise and combative personality, later described as ‘uncultured and rude but “worldly-wise”’. He was always predisposed to settle disputes with his fists, even in his later years as a pillar of the community.
Like his father, Jones made his living initially as a waterman on Sydney harbour. He earned extra money from sealing expeditions in New Zealand and by the time he was 21 he had shares in three whaling ships. In the 1830s he parlayed this into ownership of a string of shore-whaling stations along the coast of southern New Zealand and established himself as a kingpin of the embryonic settlements that developed around them.
In 1843 he moved his family over to Waikouaiti and lived in Otago for the rest of his life. Despite some setbacks after the collapse of whaling, Jones eventually made the transition to a more diversified business model. He was also able to secure significant areas of land through his contacts with Otago Māori and his connections in Sydney.
Jones’s wife, Sarah Sizemore, was an important part of his success. Sarah had been transported to Australia at the age of 11, accompanying her mother who was convicted of receiving stolen cloth and sentenced to the standard seven-year sentence. John and Sarah were a devoted couple, married at a young age, and had 11 children, nine of whom survived to adulthood. Jones did very well in Otago. By the time the Otago Association settlers arrived in 1848, his estate at Waikouaiti was thriving. He was able to supply the new arrivals with the staples they needed and earned respect by not abusing his monopoly position with high prices. He moved to Dunedin in 1854 and was from the outset one of the town’s leading merchants.
Jones is a prime character in many accounts of life in the early settlement, as often a villain as a hero. He struggled with opposition and was sensitive about his convict origins. There are numerous accounts of fisticuffs involving Jones even in middle age. Yet he did many good deeds and proved a loyal supporter of the churches in particular.
Jones built a substantial mansion in central Dunedin in 1867 but only lived there briefly before his death in 1869. Nonetheless, the house ‘Fernhill’, long occupied by the elite Dunedin Club, is a fitting symbol of Jones’s successful transformation from harbourside urchin in convict-era Sydney to a prime mover and shaker in the Dunedin society he helped to create.
Mrs Sarah Jones (née Sizemore)
John Jones