Jones, Roland

18 Nov. 1813–5 Feb. 1869

Roland Jones, attorney, congressman, and judge, was born in Salisbury, the son of Drucilla Brown and Samuel Jones. Samuel Jones was a man of some prominence in Rowan County. Besides having considerable landholdings, he operated an inn in Salisbury known as the Farmer's Hotel and served in the General Assembly (1819–20) and as county sheriff (1823).

Young Jones attended private schools in Rowan County and taught at the Wilkesboro Academy (1830–35). After graduation from the Cambridge (Mass.) Law School in 1838, he was admitted to the bar and began a practice in Brandon, Miss,; he also was editor of the Brandon Republican (1838–40). In 1840 Jones moved to Shreveport, La., where he continued to practice law. He served in the Louisiana House of Representatives (1844–48) and as district judge of Caddo Parish (1851–52). From March 1853 to March 1855 he served as a Democrat in the Thirty-third Congress but declined renomination in 1854 in order to resume his law practice. In 1860 he was again elected district judge, a position he held until 1868.

In 1844 Jones married Ann Neville Stokes, the daughter of North Carolina Governor Montfort Stokes, and the couple had six children: Montfort Stokes (m. Florence Burkett), Katherine Boylan (m. James B. Pickett), Mary Alice, Anne (m. Charles J. Randall), Roland, and Esmeralda Mathews. Jones died in Shreveport and was buried in Oakland Cemetery.