John Taylor Jones

John Taylor Jones (July 16, 1802 – September 13, 1851) was an American missionary, and one of the earliest Protestant missionary to Siam (now Thailand) with his wife, Eliza Grew Jones. He is credited with introducing to Siam the modern world map, and producing a translation of the New Testament in Siamese (Thai) from Greek.

Early life and education Jones was born in New Ipswich, New Hampshire, on July 16, 1802, to Elisha and Persia Taylor Jones. He attended preparatory school at New Ipswich Academy and Bradford Academy. He attended Brown College from 1819 to 1820, and worked as a teacher from 1820 to 1823. He graduated from Amherst College in 1825, and undertook graduate studies at Andover Theological Seminary from 1827 to 1830, and then at Newton Theological Institution in 1830.

Career He married Eliza Grew Jones on July 14, 1830, and was ordained in Boston on July 28, 1830, as a missionary to Burma under the American Baptist Missionary Union (ABMU). He and his wife set sail for the country shortly thereafter. Rev. and Mrs. Jones worked with Adoniram Judson in Burma, residing for about two years at Maulmein, and later at Rangoon.

After Karl Gutzlaff petitioned the ABMU for more missionaries, the Rev. and Mrs. Jones were reassigned to Siam in 1832. Destined to become the first long-term Protestant missionaries in the country, they arrived in April 1833 on the schooner Reliance owned by Robert Hunter, who was a friend of the Siamese foreign minister (known only by his office, that of praklang.) Hunter had interceded with him on behalf of Rev. Gutzlaff, who, in an excess of zeal, offended the Siamese within the first two days of his arrival by throwing thousands of tracts into many cottages, and every floating house, boat, and junk—following which he was ordered expelled and his tracts burnt. Hunter persuaded the praklang to have the tracts translated for the king to read. The king found nothing objectionable in them, but said candidly and openly that he preferred his own religion.

Death Jones died on September 13, 1851. He is buried at the Bangkok Protestant Cemetery.

Works Various tracts in Siamese (1834) Brief Grammatical Notices of the Siamese Language (1842) Siamese translation of the New Testament (1843)