THOMAS JONCE.
Reading edition
The name of this man, (Jones,) which Corbet, for the sake of the rhyme, has corrupted, sufficiently denotes his extraction; and I would have ascertained the time of his death, but the register was not to be found upon application for that purpose.
Antony à Wood says, in his History of the City of Oxford, “Thomas Jonce, a clergyman and inhabitant of this place, (St. Giles’s parish, Oxford,) desiring here to lay his bones, was of note sufficient to excite bishop Corbet to write an epitaph on him.”
‘Say’st thou this of thyself, or did others tell it thee of me?’
AN EPITAPH ON THOMAS JONCE.
Here, for the nonce, Came Thomas Jonce, In St. Giles church to lye. None Welsh before, None Welshman more, Till Shon Clerk die. I’ll tole the bell, I’ll ring his knell; He died well, He’s sav’d from hell; And so farwel Tom Jonce.