Mary Jones (Christian)

Memorial stone in memory of Mary Jones in Llanfihangel-y-pennant

Mary [Jacob] Jones (born December 16, 1784 , † December 29, 1864 ) was a Welsh girl who was instrumental in founding the British and Foreign Bible Society . She wandered barefoot 25 miles to buy a Welsh Bible after saving six years on it.

your journey

Mary Jones came from a poor family; she was the daughter of a wool weaver and lived at the foot of the Cader Idris , in the village of Llanfihangel-y-pennant near Merioneth (now part of Gwynedd ), near Dolgellau . Her parents were devout Methodists and she herself professed her Christian faith at the age of eight. After learning to read, she really wanted to have her own Bible. The closest way to buy one was in the town of Bala - 25 miles away, but even there a Bible wasn't always available, at that time Welsh Bibles were very rare. After saving six years for it, Mary Jones set out for Bala one morning in 1800. She hiked barefoot to protect her shoes. In Bala she turned to Pastor Thomas Charles. According to one version of the story, Mr. Charles told her that all Bibles were sold or pre-ordered. Mary was so desperate that Charles gave her a Bible that he had already promised someone else. According to another version, she had to wait two days for a shipment of Bibles to arrive so that she could receive a Bible for herself and two others for family members. Charles is said to have been so impressed by this story that he asked the Religious Tract Society to found a society to supply Wales with Bibles.

Mary later married a Bryn-crug weaver named Thomas Lewis and died at the age of 80. Her Bible is on display in the archives of the British and Foreign Bible Society in the library at Cambridge University . It is a copy of the Welsh Bible, published in 1799, 10,000 copies of which were printed in Oxford .

Mary Jones wrote (in English) on the last page: “Mary Jones was born December 16, 1784. I bought this book when I was sixteen. I am the daughter of Jakob Jones and his wife Mary Jones. May the Lord have mercy on me. Amen. Mary Jones "

The very touching story is told as the founding tradition of the globally active British and Foreign Bible Society . The first Bible Society in the world was founded in Halle (Saale) almost a hundred years earlier .