Master Christopher Jones Jr. (c. 1570 – about 5 March 1622) was the captain of the 1620 voyage of the Pilgrim ship Mayflower.
English origins
Christopher Jones is believed to have been born in Harwich, Essex, around 1570, although baptismal records are blank for his parish church for the period of time between April 1565 and June 1571.
He was the son of Christopher Jones Sr. and his wife Sybil. The senior Jones was also a mariner and ship owner who died in 1578, leaving to his young son, bearing his name, his interest in the ship Marie Fortune when he should attain the age of eighteen years. Jones' mother Sybil married Robert Russell after his father's death and continued to reside at the Jones family home on Kings Head Street in Harwich, which is presently a visitor attraction. The family home of Christopher Jones' first wife Sara Twitt is across from the Jones home on Kings Head Street and is now a hostelry, the Alma.
Family
Christopher Jones married twice:
1. Jones married Sara Twitt at St. Nicholas Church, Harwich on 27 December 1593. She was aged 17 and had been born about 1576. She was Jones' neighbour, living opposite each other on Kings Head Street, Harwich; both residences still exist as visitor attractions. Sara had a wealthy father, Thomas Twitt, who had strong shipping interests. At his death, her father provided considerable funds for her and a 1/12 share in his ship Apollo. The two families combined their shipping interests to mutual advantage.
Within a year of his marriage to Sara, they had a boy named Thomas, after Sara's father. But the church burial register records the infant's death on 17 April 1596. Sara had no more children and died at age 27. She was buried in Harwich on 18 May 1603.
2. Jones married his second wife, Josian Gray (née Thompson), widow of Richard Gray, age 19, at St. Nicholas Church in Harwich a few months after his first wife's Sara's death in 1603. Josian had seafaring relatives and her late husband was a noted mariner with friends among the captains of the 1588 Armada Fleet and which included 'treasure hunting' in the Indies; this have may included attacks on Spanish treasure ships. Josian probably brought a substantial marriage portion and had inherited her late husband's house in Church Street, Harwich together with other land and property. One of his ships was named Josian, in honour of his wife.
It is believed Josian may have remarried in 1626 as in that year a 'Joan Jones', widow, married one Thomas Bartelmore at Stepney, London, directly across the Thames from Rotherhithe.
Their marriage produced eight children, of whom the following four children were known to have been born in Harwich: Christopher Jones b. 1604 Thomas Jones, b. 1607 Josian Jones, b. 1609 John Jones, b. 1621. He was baptised 4 March 1621 in Harwich, Essex, where Jones' wife had gone to reside while he was on his voyage to the New World and was anchored in Plymouth Harbour over the winter of 1620-21.
And the following children were born in Rotherhithe, London, to which the family moved in 1611. Roger Jones, b. 1611 Christopher Jones, b. 1614 Joane Jones, b. 1615 Grace Jones, b. 1619
Harwich, Essex
Queen Elizabeth I called Harwich "a pretty town", and it was extremely loyal to her in sending three ships to join the attack against the Spanish Armada in 1588. As with Plymouth, Harwich became wealthy by the pillaging of Spanish ships of the Armada though its primary business then was the export of English woollen cloth to Holland for finishing. Its explorers also could relate some stories of far places travelled to, with tales when Jones was a youth of their men voyaging as far as Baffin Island in the far Arctic.
The entrance to Harwich port was covered with dangerous sandbars, and sailors had to stay alert at all times. A prime example of this was on a night in 1627 when a strong North Sea storm wrecked more than thirty ships. These were the waters in when Jones served his apprenticeship at the side of his father and grandfather, who were both Harwich skippers. At age eighteen, Jones inherited his first part-share of a ship.
Harwich was a town managed by a company of mariners and shipwrights who enforced harsh discipline. In 1605 some women were hanged as witches and harlots and were dragged through the streets by a cart and with such as dice games also being banned. As with other seaports around the country, Harwich was a place where sea captains and merchants ran the local government and levied their own taxes on the citizens to take care of town business.