User:Krysty9889/sandbox

Family
She had 4 children over the span of her life. Her children were:


 * Catherine, born 1633, who married Sir William Parsons and then in 1660 Hugh Montgomery, 1st Earl of Mount Alexander. Later on, Catherine and Hugh would have a child named Catherine Montgomery. She would go on to marry Sir Francis Hamilton, 3rd Baronet of Castle Hamilton.


 * Elizabeth, Jones's second daughter, was born around 1635 and would then go on to marry a footman much to her mother's dismay.
 * Frances, born in Stalbridge in Dorset, England, on August 17, 1639, was Jones's youngest daughter. Frances was born prematurely and was often sick. She never married and instead lived with her mother for the majority of her life.
 * Richard Jones, 1st Earl of Ranelagh, was born February 8, 1641. Richard was the only son born to Jones and her husband. He went on to marry Elizabeth Willoughby and they had three daughters together, Elizabeth, Frances, and Catherine. After Elizabeth, his wife, died he went on to marry widow Lady Margaret Cecil. They did not produce any children together.

Politics
Many people know of Jones because of her involvement in science and medicine, but her letters reveal that she was an avid political and religious philosopher. Jones primarily used epistolary as her means of communication, mostly when it came to sociopolitical ties. She used the connections she had with people through familial ties and friends in order to disperse information about the English Civil Wars and other politically charged situations. She would often write to powerful acquaintances during the civil wars that held high positions in order to sway peace between both parties. This would be her main form of communication and persuasion throughout her life.

Jones was open-minded and her beliefs changed as she was confronted with new experiences. In the 1630s, Jones followed the radical political belief of constitutional monarchy. In the 1640s due to her determination to spread critical thinking throughout all of Europe, she changed her political beliefs to support a republic. Another theory as to why she changed her beliefs from royalism to republicanism was that she saw the system of monarchy as a threat to the nation. This likely had to do with King Charles I of England, when during the English Civil Wars, Charles became increasingly resistant to giving up political power to Parliament in order to achieve peace between England and the Scots. Between 1642-46, the beginning years of the first civil war, Jones was a staunch supporter of Charles, wanting him to find a quick resolution to the war. She wrote to Edward Hyde, a close friend, who was a political advisor to Charles. In the letter she offered advice to Hyde to give to Charles on ways in which he may reconcile with Parliament to end the war quickly. However, the war would drag on for two more years and Jones would ultimately end her support and sympathy for the king. Initially, Jones had sent a letter to Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia, in the late 1640s in order to encourage her to talk to Charles, her brother. Within the letter, Jones discussed her increasing disappointment with Charles as he refused to come to a peaceful resolution with Parliament. It is within this letter that Jones became more sympathetic to Parliament's cause. Between these two letters, it is apparent that Jones wanted peace more than anything. Her continuous shift in political alliances was chiefly for her desire to maintain peace within the country. If she felt that one side was closer to this desire than the other, then she would align herself with them. In 1648, Jones wrote to the Hartlib circle listing out seven questions total relating to the recent changes in political power. Jones, and other members of the Hartlib, were concerned about the legality of power being transferred from Charles to Parliament. Jones believed that Charles should remain King, but he should have the majority of his powers revoked. This included the royal veto. Essentially, she was advocating for a limited constitutional monarchy.

In the late 1640s, Jones's political alliances changed once again as she became involved in religious nonconformists. These religious radicals, Protestants, Presbyterians, Independents, and Baptists, banned together in order to face the opposition of the Church of England. Jones was included within these groups as she was an advocate of the toleration movement when there was great division within London. Jones believed in respecting other people despite their religious affiliations and fought to unite nonconformist and conformists during the Great Plague of 1665. Although she called herself a conformist, she had a deep concern for the nonconformists and their treatment during the Plague. She argued that they were following their spiritual duties and doing what they believed God would want them to do despite what the law says. She said that they have the right to follow their own religious beliefs. The toleration movement carried on into the 1670s and 80s, until the Toleration Act of 1689 was enacted. In the 1670s, she supported the Whig cause and their belief in a limited monarchy and limited religious toleration.[citation needed]