Wednesday, September 29, 2010

To reproduce another day



Sunday, September 26, 2010

Legionary Veterans

Legionary veterans were viewed as military reserve, but also became leading members of provincial society. This would especially be true around Vera (Chester) and Virconium (Wroxeter) where there was a large garrison maintained. Those who could speak both the Celtic and Latin languages would certainly have an advantage over those who could not. Soldiers were allowed to engage in business (other than farming) in the provinces in which they were assigned. Since our JONES family had farmed this land for centuries, it would allow one part of the family to continue farming (feed the troops)and another part to engage in business. Records from the period show that even "troopers" could have a slave or freeman, and often these individuals would be agents for the soldier. This process must have happened on such a scale that by 200 AD soldiers were granted the legal right to set up a home, including a wife, children, slaves, and freedmen. Our family must have gone through this process, for by the time the Anglo-Saxons arrived [in another 200 to 300 years], they called us "walas".

At retirement, soldiers often returned to the province in which they had previously been stationed. Certainly, our family members would have returned to the families' land. They most likely would have settled back on their family's land and brought with them their Roman world. A study of animal species bones found around Shropshire/Cheshire plain showed that cattle was the predominate animal. This was followed by sheep, ox, horses, and pigs. Cattle and sheep were to play a major part in our JONES families' future history.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Follow the Leaders

The town of Wroxeter contained a forum, a classical Roman temple, baths, aqueduct supply, a fortress and its defenses, and a lot of houses. There is a suggestion that a large municipal stone quarry was active just outside of town. Glass production was done. Access to multiple mining areas (lead, zinc, and cooper) were just northwest, into the mountains through the only land bridge available. It must have been a very active place. The key to participation in this new Roman way of life was of course Latin. It was essential to speak it to get around in this new and different complex world. The spread of Latin (practical Latin) must have been due to the army. Over time, legionary recruits tended to come from wherever citizens were found. This would be especially true around the civil settlements that were located near the legionary bases. Since our Jones family seemed to survive, some must have become "citizens" and certainly some joined the army. Thus at least part of our family would become "Romanized". You can imagine what it must have been like with more than 5,000 men spending their money (or free time) in the only town close by. It was not until around 200 AD that Roman soldiers (other than officers) were allowed to marry. Under Roman law, illegitimate children followed the social status of their mother. Thus, serving soldiers' children were citizens or non-citizens according to their mother's status. The grant of citizenship to retiring solders included the right to full legal marriage with the wives that they had at the time of their discharge from the army. The children, now being legitimate sons or daughters of Roman fathers, were Roman citizens. Thus for around 400 years our family would have gone through this type of social arrangement.

Monday, September 20, 2010

New Kids on the Block

The Romans had a keen sense of class and pride in their family histories. In spite of this, on the whole, there is little evidence that the Romans had much in the way of racial prejudice in the modern sense. Anyone could absorb Roman culture and manners. Rome, as a culture, treated a man on the basis of what he had obtained rather than on the background from which he had come. There were privileges attached to class and legal statue, but this did not "make the man". Broadly, the class system from top to bottom was; senator, equestrian, citizen or no non-citizen, freedman, and slave. I suspect that our JONES family was at first considered "slave", but those of us who managed to survive the first few waves of Roman occupation would be considered "non-citizen" and "freedman". It would become clear fairly early that participation in the Roman way of life was necessary to survive, and this participation required Latin.

The language of law and public administration was Latin. At first Rome organized our island into administrative units called "Britannia, Superior", and "Britannia Inferior". Our JONES tribal land was in "Britannia Superior" and under the military control of the Roman fortress of Deva (now called Chester). The town of "Viroconium Cornoviorum" (Wroxeter) developed at our families' front door. This would be the first "town" that our family would ever see. The XX legion (Twentieth legion) spent a fair amount of time around this area. The legion had a nominal strength of just over 5,000 men. The bulk of the legion was the infantry. This included engineers, architects, masons, clerks, medical staff, and any other needed trades. They built the town of Viroconium (Wroxeter) in our very back yard.

Saturday, September 18, 2010


Christianity brought with it a group of names including Peter, James, Andrew, Nathan, David, Philip, Moses, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and a bunch of others beside the name JOHN. Why did JOHN seem to take first place among the women and men naming their children. First, John was a follower (disciple) of Jesus. Writing about himself in his own book called John, he describes himself as " of His disciples, whom Jesus loved." [Book of John 13:22] John also records that Jesus himself gave him the responsibility to care for his mother at the time of his death. John writes:

"When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, 'Woman, behold, your son!' Then He said to the disciple, 'Behold, your mother!' And from that hour the disciple took her into his own household" [Book of John 19:26-27]

Taken from The Ryrie Study Bible: New American Standard, Translation, Moody Press, Chicago, 1976.

This lays the foundation for the use of the name JOHN among those mother's of the Christain faith. It was this disciple that was considered the "closest" to Jesus. Not only that, but he was given the responsibility to care for the mother of Jesus, Mary. John also is credited with writing five books of the New Testiment, thus making him one of the leading figures of the first generation of Christians. Thus, a Christian mother would want to name at least one male child JOHN. She would also want to name at least one daughter MARY. Now remember that the language these names would have been written in was LATIN. The Latin alphabet did not include the letter "J". It had the letters (sounds) "O", and "A", and "H". Therefore, the name JOHN would have been written in the Latin as "IOAN". This begins the groundwork for our surname JONES as early as 300 AD.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

How do you spell JOHN

The following is a chronological account of the spelling of JOHN. Starting with the Hebrew language around 970 B.C., it has been spelled differently in many languages throughout the world. The Greek's were the second language having translated the Hebrew's sacred writings into Greek at Alexandria in the third century before the Christian era. [Called the Septuagint.] Of course the Roman Empire followed the Greeks, and their Latin took over the world. This was followed by many other languages throughout the Empire as Christianity became the Western World's official religion. It was Christianity that brought the name JOHN to our little Island.

Hebrew (900 B.C.) = Yohanan = Johanan

Greek (400 B.C.) = Ioannes = Ioannhn = Joannes

Latin (100 B.C.) = Ioan = Johannes

After Christianity introduced:

French (old) = Johan = Jehan = Jan

French (later) = Jean = Jeanno

Gaelic = Iain = Ian

Irish = Sean = Shawn

Welsh = Sion

Scotch = Jock

Russian = Ivan

Polish = Jan

Spanish = Juan

Dutch = Jan

Hungarian = Janos

Slavonic = Janez = Jovan

Italian = Giovanni

Middle English = Jon

Modern English = John

So how do you spell JOHN?

Tuesday, September 14, 2010


The name JOHN comes from a long, long history dating back to the Hebrew King David. It was toward the end of his reign (970 B.C.), and he was collecting supplies to build a temple to his God, Yahweh. This account is written in a book called Chronicles [I Chronicles 22-26], and gives a very detailed plan for this building. Part of this plan was assigning musicians who were to prophesy [exalt David according to the words of Yahweh] with lyres, harps, and cymbals. Our Celtic blood called these folks "bards" who continued with the harp! Anyway, David's chief "seer" was Heman who records a prayer (song) including the words "...Jerimoth Hananiah..." translated by some to be "Be gracious, O Lord, be gracious to me". This song must have been heard by others for the gatekeepers (guards) recorded in chapter 26 of the same book states that one guard name his sixth son "Johanan", meaning "Jah" [the existing one] "anan" [is gracious]. What a story. Naming your son after a song. Thus the name John comes down through the ages from a Hebrew word 'Yohanan' written 'Johanan' meaning "the existing one" [Yahweh] is gracious. [ja being an abbreviation for Yahweh used in song]

Sunday, September 12, 2010

The Name of JOHN

The "official" abandonment of persecution of Christians is dated 313 A.D. Thus it was before this date that Christianity was introduced to our little part of the world. Most likely it was during the reign of Diocletian (248 A.D.) when one of the earliest Christian writers records: "It was the nineteenth year of Diocletian's reign and the month Dystrus, called March by the Romans, and the festival of the Saviour's Passion was approaching, when an imperial decree was published everywhere, ordering the churches to be razed to the ground and the Scriptures destroyed by fire, and giving notice that those in places of honour would lose their places, and domestic staff, if they continued to profess Christianity, would be deprived of their liberty. Such was the first edict against us. Soon afterwards other decrees arrived in rapid succession, ordering that the presidents of the churches in every place should all be first committed to prison and the coerced by every possible means into offering sacrifice. Then it was that many rulers of the churches bore up heroically under horrible torments, and object lesson in endurance of fearful ordeals...each was subjected to a series of different tortures, one flogged unmercifully with the whip, another racked and scraped beyond endurance, so that the lives of some came to a most miserable end."

[taken from The History of The Church by Eusebius written around 325 A.D.]

It was this Christianity that brought with it the name of JOHN.

Friday, September 10, 2010

World's End

Rome had pretty much taken over the world by might, when another belief system was beginning that took over the "hearts and minds" of those living in the this Roman world. This small sect started in Jerusalem and began to attract attention from the Romans right from its very beginning. Early on, as Christianity spread, the authorities of Rome saw it as their duty to defend public order against these men and women who seemed to them traitors or irresponsible madmen. The real rub was that the Christian's refusal to accept the divinity of the emperor, and to sacrifice to him as a god. You can certainly imagine that "The Empire" was not very concerned with the details of the morals and faiths of its hundreds of component city-states, tribes, and nations. There were scores of gods and goddesses, innumerable spirits and demons, that filled the minds of the millions and millions under Roman rule. On the other hand, Christians were "monotheists" [only one god] and in fact they felt that an "Emperor" who pretended to be a god, was really a "devil". You can begin to see how this difference might generate a conflict, more and more as those who accepted this new belief increased in number, and spread throughout the Roman world. Early in this period, the imperial authorities did not consistently seek to "stamp out" the Christan religion. Persecutions were sporadic and came in several waves over three centuries. [ The persecutions were also subject to great local variations.] Each "wave" of persecution would force many of the Christian faith to the edges of the empire. The final edge was our families' little part of the world. Interestingly, there is a place called "World's End" located among a series of terraced limestone cliffs very near the ruins of Valle Crucis Abbey. The limestone ridge can be seen from "Horseshoe Pass" on A542 in the heart of our Jones families' land.

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Standing on Hadrain's Wall


Tuesday, September 7, 2010




Several references are helpful:


Saturday, September 4, 2010

The Roman Dance





Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Lud's Town






Ludsgate and Ludshill are discussed in:


The Catuvellanuni are discussed in:
