Bradford People: Canon Jones
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The Rev William Henry Rich Jones MA, FSA (1817-1885) was the Vicar of Holy Trinity Church from 1851 until his death and a Canon of Salisbury Cathedral. He was an antiquarian and historian, who is chiefly remembered as the man who recognised the Saxon Church in Bradford for what it is, in 1856. He wrote what is more-or-less the definitive history of Bradford in 1859, delivered as papers to the Wiltshire Archaeological & Natural History Society and edited into a book in 1907 by John Beddoe.
He was educated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford and served as a Curate at St Andrew’s church, Holborn, London and then at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster. He was Vicar of St James’, Shoreditch before coming to Bradford.
His many historical writings included Wiltshire Domesday in 1865, Fasti ecclesiae Sarisberiensis in 1879, Register of St Osmund 2 vols. 1883, 1884 and numerous articles, especially in the Wiltshire Archaeological & Natural History Magazine.
Despite all his antiquarian and archaeological knowledge, it was during his period as Vicar of Bradford that Holy Trinity Church was greatly altered.