Richard Jones, 1st Earl of Ranelagh

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For other people named Richard Jones, see Richard Jones.

Richard Jones (8 February 1641- 5 January 1712) was the eldest son of Arthur Jones, 2nd Viscount Ranelagh and Katherine Boyle, daughter of the Earl of Cork who counted amongst her brothers the chemist Robert Boyle and Lord Broghill, the later Earl of Orrery who was a prominent politician in Cromwellian and Restoration times.

Richard Jones's mother was estranged from her husband who appears to have been a drunkard and Richard Jones was largely brought up in his mother's household in London. Following the Restoration of Charles II he became a member of the Irish Parliament for Roscommon, and in 1668 was appointed to the Privy Council of Ireland.

In 1670 he inherited his father's viscountcy, and in 1674 was created First Earl of Ranelagh. Both these peerages being in the Peerage of Ireland they did not disqualify him from sitting in the English House of Commons and in 1685 was elected as MP for Plymouth; in the same year he was appointed to the lucrative post of Paymaster of the Forces. He was subsequently member for Newtown (Isle of Wight), Chichester, Marlborough and West Looe, and was made a member of the English Privy Council in 1692.

Ranelagh was expelled from the Commons in 1703 when discrepancies were found in his accounts as Paymaster, and he was discovered to have appropriated more than £900,000 of public finds.

On Ranelagh's death in 1712 his earldom became extinct, and the viscountcy dormant.