Alfred Gilpin Jones was born on September 28, 1824, in Weymouth, Nova Scotia.

He was a businessman, politician, and officeholder. He was educated at Weymouth and Yarmouth Academy before moving to Halifax at the age of 18. He began work as a bookkeeper for Thomas Clifford Kinnear, West India merchant, and shipowner, and was made partner as early as 1850. When Kinnear retired in 1872, Jones established his own firm, A.G. Jones and Company, in the same line of business, which he presided over until 1900. He became involved in politics and provided financial and moral support to the Anti-Confederation League prior to his election to the House of Commons as MP for Halifax (1867-1872, 1874-1878, 1887-1891). After 1872, he ran for election as a Liberal. Jones also served as Minister of Militia and Defence (1878) and 8th Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia (1900-1906). He sat on the boards of Dalhousie University and Halifax Protestant Orphans' Home, served as president of Nova Scotia Marine Insurance Co. and director of Acadia Fire Insurance Co., and was lieutenant-colonel of the Halifax Volunteer Battalion before organizing the Halifax Volunteer Artillery Brigade in 1864.

In 1850, he married Margaret Wiseman Stairs (1825–1875) and in 1877, he remarried Emma Susan Albro (1843–). He died on March 15, 1906, in Halifax, Nova Scotia.