STONE, Jerome, the son of a reputable seaman, was born in the parish of Scone, in the county of Fife, North Britain. His father died abroad when he was but three years of age, and his mother, with her young family, was left in very narrow circumstances. Jerome, like the rest of the children, having got the ordinary school education, reading English, writing, and arithmetic, betook himself to the business of a travelling chapman. But the dealing in buckles, garters, and such small articles, not suiting his superior genius, he soon converted his little stock into books, and for some years went through the country, and attended the fairs as an itinerant bookseller. There is great reason to believe that he engaged in this new species of traffic, more with a view to the improvement of his mind than for any pecuniary emolument. Formed by nature for literature, he possessed a peculiar talent for acquiring languages with amazing facility. Whether from a desire to understand the Scriptures in their original languages, or from being informed that these languages are the parents of many others, he began his philological pursuits with the study of the Hebrew and Greek tongues; and, by a wonderful effort of genius and application, made himself so far master of these, without any kind of assistance, as to be able to interpret the
Hebrew Bible and Greek Testament into English ad aperturam libri. At this time he did not know one word of Latin. Sensible that he could make no great progress in learning, without the knowledge of at least the grammar of that language, he made application to the parish schoolmaster for his assistance. Some time afterwards, he was encouraged to prosecute his studies at the university of St Andrews. An unexampled proficiency in every branch of literature recommended him to the esteem of the professors; and an uncommon fund of wit and pleasantry rendered him, at the same time, the favourite of all his fellow students, some of whom speak of him to this day with an enthusiastic degree of admiration and respect. About this period some very humorous poetical pieces of his composition were published in the Scots Magazine. Before he had finished his third session, or term, at St Andrew's, on an application to the college by the master of the school of Dunkeld for an usher, Mr Stone was recommended as the best qualified for that office; and about two or three years after, the master being removed to Perth, Mr Stone, by the favour of his Grace the Duke of Atholl, who had conceived a high opinion of his abilities, was appointed his successor.
When he first went to Dunkeld, he entertained but an unfavourable opinion of the Gaelic language, which he considered as nothing better than a barbarous inarticulate gibberish; but being bent on investigating the origin and descent of the ancient Scots, he suffered not his prejudices to make him neglect the study of their primitive tongue. Having, with his usual assiduity and success, mastered the grammatical difficulties which he encountered, he set himself to discover something of the true genius and character of the language. He collected a number of ancient poems, the production of Irish or Scottish bards, which, he said, were daring, innocent, passionate, and bold. Some of these poems were translated into English verse, which several persons now alive have seen in manuscript, before Mr Macpherson published any of his translations from Ossian.
He died while he was writing and preparing for the press a treatise, intitled, "An Inquiry into the Original of the Nation and Language of the ancient Scots, with Conjectures about the Primitive State of the Celtic and other European Nations;" an idea which could not have been conceived by an ordinary genius. In this treatise he proves that the Scots drew their original, as well as their language, from the ancient Gauls. Had Mr Stone lived to finish this work, which discovers great ingenuity, immense reading, and indefatigable industry, it would have thrown light upon the dark and early periods of the Scottish history, as he opens a new and plain path for leading us through the unexplored labyrinths of antiquity. But a fever put an end to his life, his 12-hours, and his usefulness, in the year 1757, being then only in the 30th year of his age. He left, in manuscript, a much esteemed and well-known allegory, intitled "The Immortality of Authors," which has been published and often reprinted since his death, and will be a lasting monument of a lively fancy, sound judgement, and correct taste. It was no small ornament of this extraordinary character, that he paid a pious regard to his aged mother, who survived him two years, and received an annual pension from the Duchess of Atholl as a testimony of respect to the memory of her son.