John Peyton-Jones was born in Ardnaglass Castle, County Sligo, Ireland, on 29/01/1809. ;;He arrived in Van Diemen's Land in 1829/1830 as an ensign in the 63rd Regiment. He was soon stationed with the military guard at Eagle Hawk Neck on the Tasman Peninsula. Here he devised the scheme of placing a chain of dogs (the dogline) across the neck of the isthmus to prevent prisoners escaping from Port Arthur. In 1834 he was appointed to the rank of Lieutenant.;;On 20 February 1837 John Peyton-Jones married Eliza, daughter of Major John Craig Dumas of the 63rd Regiment (who had also become a settler), in St John's Church, New Town. They had five sons (John Peyton b.1840; Loftus Francis b.1842; Lewis Tobias b.1849, Edward Pitcairn, b.1850, Charles Asholm b.1856) and five daughters (Mary Dorothea b.1837; Eliza b.1841; Fanny b.1844; Eliza-Jane, b.1846, Georgina Jessie, b.1852). Eliza Peyton-Jones passed away 1/10/1880 aged 65.;;In 1838 Peyton-Jones was appointed as a Justice of the Peace. In 1841 he relocated to Westbury to take up an appointment as Assistant Police Magistrate. Shortly afterwards he was also appointed as Coroner for the territory. In 1851 he was appointed Chairman for Quarter Session for Westbury District, and in 1857 was made Police Magistrate for Westbury, visiting Carrick, and Chairman of the Court of General Sessions, Westbury in 1859. In 1863 he was elected as the first warden of the newly formed Westbury Municipal Council. He was appointed a deputy commissioner of the Court of Requests Westbury in 1857, and a Commissioner of the Court of Requests, Longford in 1859. He obtained the rank of Captain of the Westbury Rifles, Northern Tasmanian Volunteers, in 1861. He was the returning officer for Meander in the 1870s. Peyton-Jones was also president of the Westbury Library.;;John Peyton-Jones died at Westbury on 21 November 1891.