 His great-grandfather, Joseph Jones, was a general in the Revolutionary War, an intimate and trusted friend of Lafayette, and subsequently postmaster of Petersburg, Virginia by appointment of Thomas Jefferson.Thomas Jones, the son of Joseph, married Mary Lee, the daughter of Richard Lee, long a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses from Westmoreland County, a first cousin of the famous Richard Henry Lee; and from this marriage was born Thomas Jones II, his father who married Anne Seymour Trowbridge of Plattsburgh, New York.James Trowbridge, his maternal grandfather, was recognized by the Congress for his gallantry at the Battle of Plattsburgh in 1814.