Lord of Griffin's Roost as a young man, and Hand of the King to Aerys II in the last days before the war that toppled the dragons. He had been a companion to Prince Rhaegar Targaryen since boyhood, and some at court whispered that he loved the silver prince more than any man should love another. When Lord Owen Merryweather was set aside, Aerys called Jon to King's Landing and gave him the white rod, less for any gift of governance than because Rhaegar had asked it.
His Handship ended at the town of Stoney Sept on the Mander's tributary, where he ran Robert Baratheon to ground and lost him in the warren of the town's alleys. Lord Hoster Tully and the lords of the Trident came down on his host before he could ferret the rebel out; the bells of the town rang while Connington's men were cut to pieces in the streets, and the day became the Battle of the Bells. Aerys stripped him of titles, lands, and lordship, attainted his house, and would have taken his head had the Spider not whispered that exile would shame him more.
By the events of A Dance with Dragons Jon Connington has come quietly back into the world. He has lived a hidden life in the Free Cities as Griff, sellsword and tutor, raising a silver-haired boy he calls Young Griff and the rest of the conspirators call Aegon, sixth of his name. At Volantis he takes the captaincy of the Golden Company in Myles Toyne's place, brings the company down on the stormlands ahead of all expectation, retakes Griffin's Roost from his cousin's son Ser Ronnet, and seats the boy he raised as the heir of Rhaegar above its hearth. A glove of greyscale climbs slowly up his sword-hand from a touch given him on the bridge to Westeros; he hides it from the boy and from the company, and rides on regardless.