(Patrick) Lloyd Jones (1811 - 1886) socialist, union activist, advocate of co-operation, journalist and writer was born in Bandon, County Cork in 1811. Described by Sidney and Beatrice Webb as one of "the more thoughtful working-men leaders"[1] and referred to by Karl Marx as "The Tailor", he was a friend, supporter and biographer of Robert Owen (his The Life and Times of Robert Owen was published posthumously in 1889) and aided Samuel Plimsoll in his campaign to improve safety at sea.
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Jones left Ireland for Manchester in 1827 in pursuit of work.[2] where he followed his father's trade taking employment as a fustian cutter and soon after joining the Journeyman's Union of Fustian Cutters was appointed its Secretary.
When there was some expectation of another Peterloo Massacre, Jones, like many thousands of others in the North, provided himself with arms, with a view to active resistance.
He joined the Salford Co-operative Society in 1829 and ran its free school until 1831. He subsequently became the chief platform advocate for Robert Owen's plan of village companies and later, when Owen's emphasis shifted to the utopian and religious, Jones was a paid Owenite "Social Missionary".[3] He continued evangelising until the mission was ended in 1845. For many years these plans were vigorously opposed by the clergy who regarded Owen's theories as immoral. Jones had a good presence and a fine voice, with readiness and courage in controversy. He was regarded as the best public debater of his day, and was in more discussions than any other of Owen's supporters. When the Chartists proposal of a month's annual holiday was put forward in 1839 with a view to showing practically the importance of the labouring classes, Jones was appointed to address the chartists of the Manchester district with whom the strength of the movement rested. An audience of five thousand men assembled in the Carpenters' Hall and a further five thousand outside. After Jones' speech in opposition to the "sacred month" the project was abandoned. He was later appointed a member of the first Parliamentary Committee of the Trades Union Congress.
Jones was born in to an Irish family of Welsh immigrant ancestry but in 1837 dropped his forename - Patrick - as a way of distancing himself from his father who had converted to Catholicism in the Protestant town of Bandon. His views became not only anti-Catholic but also anti-Christian blaming "a great portion" of the evils in the world on Christianity.[4] Jones however stopped short of atheism and held views which nowadays would be considered agnostic.
"Now what is an atheist? Is it not a man who denies the existence of God? Did I do that? Did I not tell you my knowledge was not sufficient to enable me to say that that being did not exist? Did I not tell I could not say he was there, nor positively say that he was not there?"[5]
Until his death, Jones was officially connected with the co-operative movement and had a chief part in its organisation and development. He largely contributed to political and co-operative journalism editing periodicals in Leeds and London as well as writing many pamphlets. Jones was founder of the Co-operative Industrial and Commercial Union, was on the inaugural board of the Co-operative Union and was involved in the organisation of the first annual Co-operative Congress in 1869. He was President of the Co-operative Congress four times including the Oldham Congress, 1885, the seventeenth annual meeting of the co-operative movement and was frequently appointed arbitrator in trade union disputes.
Jones died of cancer at home in Stockwell, London on 22 May 1886. He is buried in Norwood Cemetery with his wife who outlived him for only nine days.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.