[1] Jane was born in 1685, the daughter of Thomas Hughes of Bryn Gruffydd, near Mold, Flintshire, and his wife Anne Jones.
Some time after that, a separation took place and she retired in 1721 to Flintshire, where she led a solitary life, seeing little company other than some intimate friends.
About that time Thomas Brereton obtained from Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland a post belonging to the customs at Parkgate, Cheshire, but in February 1722 he was drowned in the River Dee at Saltney, when the tide was coming in.
His widow then retired to Wrexham for the benefit of her children's education, where she died 7 August 1740, aged 55, leaving two daughters, Lucy and Charlotte.
[1] Brereton possessed talents for versification, if not for poetry, which she displayed for some years as a correspondent to The Gentleman's Magazine, under the pseudonym Melissa.