[1] In 1824 the family moved to Bontnewydd in Gwynedd, but his poor health as a child resulted in an erratic education, with Jones attending a variety of schools.

[2] That same year he made several attempts to open schools in the area, including Brithdir, Pen-y-Bont and Llanwddyn, but failed on every occasion due to a lack of local support.

[2] In March 1848 he moved to Cardiff to edit The Principality, a weekly English-language newspaper which had been established the previous year by David Tudor Evans.

[4] A month later he was working on John Cassell's Standard of Freedom in London, followed by an editorial role on The Pathway before editing Almanac y Cymru in 1849.

[2][5] Before ill health forced him to return to Cardiff he remarried, to Rachel, daughter of Reverend Walter Lewis of Tredustan.

[8] He set out to prove that the morality of the Welsh were no different to the English to which the Bill compared them, making detailed studies of facts such as the comparison of the countries' illegitimacy rates.

[9] The decision to publish Y Gymraes was not taken lightly as Jones' health had worsened and he did not expect to live to see more than a few issues of the monthly paper.