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This article is from the Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, 6 volumes, edited by William S. Powell. Copyright ©1979-1996 by the University of North Carolina Press. Used by permission of the publisher. For personal use and not for further distribution. Please submit permission requests for other use directly to the publisher.

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Jones, William Branch

by Armistead Jones Maupin, 1988

22 June 1890–21 Sept. 1943

William Branch Jones, lawyer, was born in Raleigh, the son of Armistead and Nancy Haywood Branch Jones. Descended from the Armistead, Blount, Boyd, Branch, Haywood, and Hawkins families of North Carolina and Virginia, he was educated at the Raleigh Male Academy, North Carolina State College, and The University of North Carolina. He was admitted to the bar in 1901. Jones immediately began the practice of law with his father in Raleigh and followed his profession until the year of his death. After his father's death, he practiced alone until 1931 when he formed a partnership with Leon S. Brassfield. His nephew, Armistead Jones Maupin, became associated with the firm in 1939.

William Branch Jones (or "Buck," as he was widely known) became a trial lawyer of note and appeared in many important cases. A conservative Democrat, he was deeply interested in politics. He was president of various bar associations, and for a while he was president of the North Carolina Railroad. Jones was a lifelong member of Christ Episcopal Church.

On 22 Apr. 1903 he married Mary Seaton Hay, the daughter of Thomas T. Hay of Raleigh. They had one child, Isabelle Hay, who married William Carl Ethridge. Jones died in Duke Hospital, Durham, and was buried in Oakwood Cemetery, Raleigh.

References:

Daniel L. Grant, Alumni History of the University of North Carolina, 1795–1924 (1924).

North Carolina Bar Association, Proceedings (1899–1948).

North Carolina Biography, vols. 3, 4 (1929, 1941).

Additional Resources:

Henderson, Archibald. "William Branch Jones." North Carolina, the Old north state and the new vol. 4. Chicago: The Lewis publishing company. 1941. 51-54. http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015051124603;view=2up;seq=80

A Pocket manual of North Carolina for the use of members of the General Assembly session 1909. [Raleigh, N.C.]: North Carolina Historical Commission. 1909. 224. https://archive.org/stream/pocketmanualofno1909nort#page/224/mode/2up

Colcock, Charles Jones. A history of the progenitors and some South Carolina descendants of Colonel Ann Hawkes Hay, with collateral genealogies, A. D. 500-1908. New York City: Privately printed for the author by the Genealogical Association. 1908. 161. https://archive.org/stream/historyofprogeni00colc#page/160/mode/2up

Subjects: 
Biographies
Lawyers
Authors: 
Maupin, Armistead J.
Origin - location: 
Wake County
Raleigh
From: 
Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, University of North Carolina Press.

1 January 1988 | Maupin, Armistead J.