ABSTRACT
Like William Brimble, to whom he addresses one of his poems, Christopher Jones presents his Miscellaneous Attempts as written to secure charitable support for himself and his family. As perhaps the only journeyman wool-comber in the annals of British labouring-class poetry, Jones was a victim of the unstable labour market, and he claims he would not have had the audacity to publish his collected poems, 'till the rapid decline of trade, in the WoollenWay, and the better support of a large family, made it eligible in the opinion of his Friends'. However, that Jones might have other aspirations is belied by the fact that he also authored a long poem prior to his 1782 collection. In 1775, he published a poem entitled Sowton. The poem 'On Manning his Majesty's Fleet by the Irregular Mode of Pressing Indiscriminately' speaks out in no uncertain terms about this unjust practice.
