Plymouth County Biographies



Part of the Massachusetts Biographies Project



Dr. David Jones

Dr. David Jones of Abington settled in that town about 1750. He was a scientific man and one of fine distinctions. Cole brook courses through the farm which he occupied and various reasons have been given for the name, many supposing that it was named in honor of some person of that name. Others have said that Cold Brook was the correct name and it took other other name from the prevailing habit of Yankees to neglect sounding the final d. Dr. Jones, however, observed that along the banks of this stream cole, a kind of kale or cabbage which does not form a head, grew luxuriantly and he named the brook in various references as deserving of this distinction.

He was one of the selectmen of Abington six years, was chosen by the town to purchase a bell of about 600 pounds weight for the First Church. In 1774, he was chosen a delegate from the town to a county congress held in Plympton. At the convention he was chosen one of the committee to report resolves on the oppressive acts of the British Parliament and the rights of the Colonies. He was a delegate to the first Provincial Congress at Salem, October 5, 1774, and also at the third at Watertown, july 31, 1775. He was a delegate to the convention at Cambridge in September, 1779, to form a State Constitution. His son, Dr. David Jones, Jr., was a surgeon in the Revolutionary War. He had a hospital for smallpox patients in Abington for a year or two. He moved to Yarmouth, Maine, where he practiced over thirty years.

Source: "History of Plymouth, Norfolk and Barnstable Counties Massachusetts; Volume I" by Elroy S. Thompson. Pub. 1928. Page 124



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