Jones was born at Brynmelyn, Llandderfel. educated at Bala Grammar School, then the Liverpool Institute, Bala College and the Presbyterian United Theological College, Aberystwyth. He was pastor of a church in Bettws, Montgomery, for two years before being formally ordained into the English Baptists in 1897 prior to sailing for India on 26 June 1897. He arrived at Aizawl, in the Lushai Hills, two months later on 31 August.
