In 1755, when Miss Mary Jones was included in _Eminent Ladies_, she was still living, and therefore the date of her birth was not given. But the editorial comment says that Oxford was her home, and "hence deservedly called the Seat of the Muses." Miss Jones corresponded with a maid of honor, had many intimacies among the nobility, and rejoiced in the friendship of Her Royal Highness, the Princess of Orange. Her poems had, therefore, especial opportunities to make their way. But the modest author long resisted the suggested publication of her works. She felt that these "accidental ramblings of her thoughts into rhyme" were of too slight value to be preserved in print. But she finally, in 1752, came forward with a volume which was greeted with high praise. _The Monthly Review_ for 1752 began an Appreciation of her in the following flattering fashion: "To the applauded names of the ingenious _Molly Leapor_, and the truly admirable Mrs. _Cockburn_ (see Review, _the preceding volumes_) we have now the pleasure to add that of Mrs. Jones; whose name will not be less an honour to her country, and to the republic of letters, than her amiable life and manner are to her own sex: to that sex whose natural charms alone are found sufficient to attract our tenderest regards; but which, when joined to those uncommon accomplishments and virtues this lady is mistress of, so justly command our highest admiration, and most ardent esteem." _The Review_ considers her compositions in verse as "superior to those of any other of our female writers since _Catherine Phillips_" and her prose as "superior to any pieces of the kind that our own country has produced, from the pen of a woman." She was of a gay and vivacious temperament, and social by nature. Her interest in her friends' affairs brought forth many occasional poems. A spider frightens Charlot, Mrs. East's canary bird dies, a hare is sent to Mrs. Clayton, Lady Beauclerk desires an elegy in memory of her husband,--each incident receives poetical commemoration. Epistles on _Patience_, _Desire_, and _Hope_ are addressed to her friends among the nobility. Like Miss Leapor she is a satellite of Pope. She has studied him to such effect that phrases and whole lines from his poems occur in her verse, and to the best of her ability she copies his style. Her _Epistle to Lady Bowyer_ is throughout curiously reminiscent of his _Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot_. Her verse essays are loosely constructed amplifications of Pope's aphorism which she transforms into "Whatever is, is Best." [Sidenote: Mrs. Madan (fl. 1755)]