JONES, CALEB, slave owner and office holder; b. c. 1743, probably in Maryland; m. 11 Feb. 1773 Elizabeth Wheatley (she was sometimes called Betty) in Somerset County, Md; d. 21 Dec. 1816 in Saint Marys parish, N.B.

At the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, Caleb Jones was a planter and slave owner, and the sheriff of Somerset County. He was likely the Caleb Jones called before the Maryland council of safety in 1776 and required to post bond with the county’s committee of observation for his good behaviour and his “paying due obedience to the orders of the honourable Continental Congress and Convention.” After he fled to New York City aboard the frigate Brune, he was declared an outlaw by the General Court at Annapolis. He then travelled to Philadelphia and joined the Maryland Loyalists, with whom he served throughout the war as a captain. The regiment evacuated from Philadelphia on 18 June 1778, travelled through New Jersey, and ultimately established a cantonment on Long Island in the Province of New York. In the middle of the 19th century, Jones’s discarded regimental orderly book was discovered in the attic of a home in Newtown (Elmhurst), Queens. He may have been present when the Maryland Loyalists joined in the defence of Pensacola, in West Florida, against the Spanish invasion in the spring of 1781.

Before the evacuation of New York City in 1783, Jones was given six months’ leave of absence to explore lands in what would become New Brunswick, and after the arrival of the loyalists there, he obtained a grant on the Nashwaaksis Stream near St Anne’s Point (Fredericton). In 1785 he chartered a ship and sailed from New Brunswick to Maryland, leaving behind on his land two slaves he had purchased in New York City; returning shortly after with seven more slaves, he found that those he had left behind had run away, the first of many to flee. Beginning in July 1786 an advertisement ran in the Royal Gazette and New Brunswick Advertiser that detailed the escape of Isaac, Ben, Flora, Nancy*, and Lidge (Elijah), a four-year-old child; with the exception of Isaac all had been born in Maryland and were “lately brought to this country.” Nancy and Lidge, who may have been her son, were captured, probably that fall. Jones’s wife, Elizabeth, had remained in Maryland to collect her husband’s property, and he returned for his family and movables that year. He was disappointed to find, however, that his agents there had been unable to recover any of the debts owed to him. Once back in New Brunswick, he took up farming.

By the beginning of the 19th century there were several people in New Brunswick interested in the abolition of slavery, and in February 1800 Jones became involved in an attempt to test its legality in the colony. When the woman named Nancy claimed her freedom, a writ of habeas corpus was issued and the case was presented to the full bench of the Supreme Court. The best legal counsel in New Brunswick was employed by both sides. Nancy was defended by Ward Chipman*, who was later chief justice, and Samuel Denny Street*. Chipman and Street were not paid for their services, but they acted for Nancy as “volunteer[s] for the rights of human nature.” Jones was represented by Jonathan Bliss*, John Murray Bliss*, Thomas Wetmore*, Charles Jeffery Peters*, and William Botsford*. The judges who heard the case were Chief Justice George Duncan Ludlow, Joshua Upham, Isaac Allan, and John Saunders*. The first three were slave owners; Judge Saunders was the only opponent of slavery on the bench, though he had participated in the slave trade in Virginia before settling in New Brunswick. To strengthen his case, Chipman searched out every trial and legal decision on slavery in the British empire available to him, and his opponents undoubtedly did the same. At the conclusion of the trial Ludlow and Upham declared that slavery was legal in New Brunswick, while Allan changed his views and joined Saunders in declaring it illegal. Since the bench was equally divided, no judgement was recorded and, despite British custom at the time, Nancy remained enslaved to Jones; however, as a result of his decision Judge Allan released the people he had enslaved, and several others followed his example. Though the writ of habeas corpus was issued to Jones, some writers have concluded that his friend, Stair Agnew*, a member of the House of Assembly, was really Nancy’s owner. The confusion appears to have arisen from the fact that a woman enslaved by Agnew also claimed her freedom about the time of the trial [see Statia]. Nothing is known of Nancy’s fate after the court case. Lidge ran away again in 1816.

Jones was not happy in New Brunswick and felt that he had not been compensated adequately for his losses during the war. He became involved in disputes with the government and portions of his land were escheated for non-fulfilment of the conditions of the grant. In 1802 he made an unsuccessful attempt to win a seat in the House of Assembly. At that time he was accused of making seditious remarks by seven York County magistrates, among them Dugald Campbell and Stair Agnew. They requested that he be removed from his position as magistrate, to which he had been appointed in 1799, so that they would be spared “the mortification” of having to sit with him again at the Court of General Sessions. There is, however, no record of the cancellation of his commission. He continued to criticize the government and was involved in disputes over land and slavery until his death in 1816.

W. A. Spray