Robert Jones (figure skater)

[4] He was most likely associated with the macaronis,[5] the 18th-century English subculture of men who dressed, spoke, and behaved in an unusually sentimental and androgynous manner.

[4][13] According to Hines, the colour plates demonstrate the conservative nature of skating at the time; the clothing the skaters in them wore were "elaborate and formal"[14] (coats with tails and top hats), and one of the figures Jones describes, the flying Mercury, was inspired by mythology and "represented a nod to neoclassicism".

Jones filled the need for a record of these figures and served as a starting point for understanding the rapid development of the sport that occurred in Britain during the 19th century and was the first time the technical foundation of skating was described.

[9] The latter part of the book describes the following more advanced skating moves: backward skating, spread eagles, spirals, inside and outside circles, the "Serpentine Line" (repeated change of edges on one foot), the "Salutation" (two skaters joining their hands when passing each other), and what Jones called a "figure of a heart on one leg", which later became a principal component of the three-turn.

[8] During Jones' time, skating was viewed as a recreational activity suitable only for men, but he saw no reason for the exclusion of women, writing that doing so was "the effect of prejudice and confined ideas", although he humorously said that skating allowed a woman to "indulge in a tête-à-tête with an acquaintance without provoking the jealousy of her husband with any prejudice to her repetition".

As a social activity, however, he viewed skating as part of the "long and established tradition of fun and courtship on the ice”,[14] even though women during the 18th century were attempting the same figures as men.

[14] As Kestbaum states, "The participation of women in skating was thus conceived in terms of potential social advantages for innocent interaction between the sexes".

[19][20] In July 1772, Jones was convicted in the Old Bailey for sodomy against a boy named Francis Henry Hay, who was under thirteen years of age.

[1][21] Jones was found guilty based solely on the basis of the alleged victim's accusation, and that there was no medical evidence or corroboration of Hay's testimony in court.

[5] Jones was sentenced to death,[1] but was held in Newgate Prison, and a month after his scheduled execution, King George III pardoned him on the condition that he go into exile (transportation).

[6][23] Scholar Frances H. I. Henry claimed that Jones had the support of the British aristocracy, including Henry Howard, 12th Earl of Suffolk and one of the government's secretaries of state, and Chief Justice Lord Mansfield, who believed that Jones was found guilty based on insufficient evidence.