A Calvinist Methodist Minister for more than fifty years, John Jones, eldest son of an Anglesey Blacksmith went to his first religious meeting when he was 13. He began preaching at the age of 26, studied under the poet and teacher Eben Fardd at Clynog and became a friend of his successor Dewi Arfon. In 1861 he studied at Coleg Y Bala and after his marriage moved to Pencaenewydd where his wife Catherine ran a shop and he preached at the chapel until a month before his death. Described in his obituary as “not a popular preacher but a good one” it spoke of his firm beliefs. “What our country needs is people of generous nature and strong character and firm in their beliefs. We have an abundance of rushes and willows who bend in the wind”