J.P., Colliery Proprietor, Ynishir, Member of the South Wales Institute of Mining Engineers, was born in 1828. He is a son of the late Mr. Thomas Zachariah Jones, and developing at an early age a taste for mining, passed through every part of that important industry, so that he may justly be described as the pioneer of the mining industry in South Wales. Amongst the collieries which he has sunk or worked may be named the following :-" The Coedcai", "Tylacoch", Ynishir", "Mynydd Mayo", "Denia", "Pantdrain", Maesmawr", "Risca", "Adare", "Nantddyrus", and the "Jones Navigation Colliery, Hafod", which is one of the deepest pits in the Rhondda Valley, and the first one sunk for the celebrated steam coal in that district. Having spent a large sum in exploring mineral properties in various places in the Rhondda, Taft, Llantwit, Aber and Rhymney Valleys, and having successfully overcome all difficulties. Mr. Jones, in the year 1881, agreed to lease his Hafod Colliery to a limited liability company, which quickly brought him difficulties in the shape of litigation. Ever foremost in danger and knowing no fear, his lifelong practical knowledge, presence of mind, and foresight has been of great assistance and value, and to instance this fact reference has only to be made to the occasion on which his courageous conduct was- when he recovered alive the entombed miners who had been cut off for eleven days during the inundation at Tynewydd Colliery in 1877 - rewarded with the Albert Medal (2nd Class). Mr. Jones, notwithstanding his remarkably busy career, sat on the Glamorgan County Council for the first three years of its existence, and for a great many years was a member of the Pontypridd Board of Guardians. He is a Justice of the Peace for the County of Glamorgan, and his opinion respecting the geographical and geological positions of the strata in the South Wales coalfields has always met with much respect at the hands of colliery proprietors and mining engineers.
Source: Contemporary Portraits 1896