Joshua Jeays (1812–1881) was a Leicester-born carpenter who became a successful developer, an alderman and mayor of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

Jeays purchased land and built 'Roma Villa' on the corner of Upper Roma and Skew Streets, Petrie Terrace (an area then known as 'the Green Hills'), where he lived with his wife and family.

Accordingly, Jeays built a grand English-style home, using rough stone and decorated with gables and casement windows, naming it 'Bardon' after Bardon Hill in his native Leicestershire.

[13] In Brisbane, he worked as a builder, architect and stonemason[3] and was involved in the construction of the gallery of the original St John's (Church of England) pro-cathedral in the Queen's Gardens (1854), the second Albert Street Methodist Church building (1856, since demolished), as well as building homes of prominent Brisbane residents Walter Hill, (founder of the Botanic Gardens), the infamous Patrick Mayne's 'Moorlands' at Auchenflower, and the Cribb family.

[14] Jeays built and provided the stone from his quarry at Woogaroo (the area now named Goodna) for Brisbane's first Government House, now part of the Queensland University of Technology's Gardens Point campus.