Deacon Jonas Stone

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"My glass is run"

Jonas was born in Concord, MA on December 3, 1710. He was the third child and second son born to Samuel and Abigail (Reed) Stone, and the last of their children born in Concord: in 1712 the family moved to the "Pelham's Island" farm in neighboring Sudbury. This area is now in the town of Wayland. In all the Stones had eleven children.

On November 5, 1731 he married Elizabeth Adams of Framingham in Framingham. Shortly after their marriage they moved to what is now Rutland, MA on land given to Jonas by his father. The elder Stone had acquired nearly 900 acres in the area and set his children up to farm there. Jonas and Elizabeth had six children: Elizabeth in 1733, Deborah in 1736, Jonas in 1740/1, Lucy in 1742/3, Hannah in 1746, and Zerviah in 1749. During his nearly two decades in Rutland he served the local commuity as constable and later as town treasurer. Elizabeth his wife died in on May 21, 1751. Though her gravestone is in Lexington, she is likely buried in Rutland where she died.

Jonas and his children moved to Lexington, MA to take over management of the Stone properties there from his aging father. When his father died in 1769 he was given his father's husbandry tools. Jonas married his cousin Sarah Stone in Lexington on May 12, 1752. The couple had no children. On December 27 of that year Jonas lost his eldest and youngest daughters. The other four children were be raised by Jonas and their step-mother and all lived into adulthood.

Just like he had been in Rutland, Jonas was was very active in local politics and civic life in Lexington. He served as an assessor, selectman, and town treasurer on and off throughout the 1750s, 1760s, and 1770s. He was a Deacon in the Lexington Church from 1766-1787, which was one of the most important managerial position in the Congregational Church. The town of Lexington appointed him to the committees in 1765 and 1768 tasked with drafting resolutions against the taxes being levied against the colonies by the British government. During the volatile years leading up to the American Revolution Deacon Stone was a representative for Lexington to the General Court, was a member of the Committee of Correspondence, and was a delegate to the Provincial Congress.

Though he was 64 years of age, Deacon Stone volunteered for militia duty in the aftermath of the Battles of Concord and Lexington. He was stationed in Cambridge with Capt. Edmund Munroe's Militia Company in mid-May of 1775.

Deacon Stone died in Lexington on October 29, 1790 and is buried in Ye Old Burying Place.

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SACRED

To the Memory of

Deacon Jonas Stone;

who departed this Life

Octr. ye 20th 1790

In the 80th year of his age,

He worthily sustained the Office of a Deacon

in the Church of Christ in Lexington

for _____ years: and was a Representative

for the Town for several years:

He was a very useful member of ye Society

to which he did belong and was much

esteemed by his respectable Acquaintance

for his Piety, Charity,

Benevolance and Liberality; and we trust

having finished his course

and kept the faith has now entered into

the joy of his Lord.

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