Mouns Jones House Ruins, Douglassville Pennsylvania
Mouns Jones and his wife Ingaborg (or Ingabo) were the original owners of the house, which stands on the south end of a 500-acre tract they took up October 21, 1701, and which was patented to them May 15, 1705. Mouns Jones was a son of a Swedish immigrant Jonas Nilsson, whose children took the name Jones. Thus, the building is sometimes called Old Swede's House, Mouns is sometimes spelled Mounce. Before 1820 the building was used for some years as a tavern and known as Lamb's Inn. The building was later included in the extensive holdings of George Douglas, for whom Douglassville is named.
Mouns Jones's father, Jonas Nilsson, was born in 1621 in Skoonings-harad, Skaraborge-lan, Sweden. He immigrated in 1642 with Governor Printz, four years after the first Swedes settled in Delaware. Nilsson had been in the Royal Swedish Army and served 1642-1645 with the Swedish garrison at Fort Elfsborg. He later acquired 200 acres in Kingsessing, now southwest Philadelphia, and made his home at 77th Street and Laycoek Avenue, where he lived with his wife Gertrude until his death in 1693. Nilsson became wealthy, mainly through fur trading. He is buried in the cemetery of Old Swedes Church, Gloria Dei, Philadelphia
The Douglassville area of the Schuylkill Valley was first settled in 1705-1716 by Swedes from the Swedish settlements along the Delaware River, and was variously known at that time as Molatton, Malatten, or Morlatten. Mouns Jones was one of these Swedish settlers, and his house is apparently the only architectural relic of that settlement. Jones was active in local affairs, and various public events took place in his house. Visitors to the house included Conrad Weiser, and various members of the Boone and Lincoln families. A daughter of Jones married Mark Bird, the founder of the iron furnace at Hopewell.
The house was 20' by 34' divided into three bays, and two stories high.
