JONES, Sir William, the son of William Jones, Esq. an eminent mathematician, contemporary with the great Newton, was born in London on the 28th of September 1746, and received the rudiments of his education at Harrow School, under the tuition of Dr Robert Sumner, whom he has celebrated in an elegant and affecting eulogium. From Harrow School he went to University College, Oxford, where the rapidity of his literary acquisitions excited universal admiration.
He travelled through France at the age of twenty-three, taking up his residence for some time at Nice, where society, and the various forms of government, became the favourite objects of his investigation. A wish to relieve his mother from the burden of his education made him long for a fellowship in his college; but having no immediate prospect of obtaining it, he, in 1765, became tutor to young Lord Althorp, afterwards Earl Spencer, in which situation he was introduced to the best of company, and had also leisure to prosecute the acquisition of knowledge, and the further cultivation of his intellectual powers, which were objects ever dear to him.
He obtained next year the fellowship he expected, and was thus raised to a state which he could not help viewing
as independent. Being at Spa with his pupil in the year 1767, he employed much of his time in making himself acquainted with the German language; and in the following year he was requested, by the Duke of Grafton's under-secretary, to undertake a translation of a Persian manuscript of the life of Nadir Shah into the French language, of which the king of Denmark was anxious to have a version. This, his first publication, appeared in 1770, with the addition of a treatise on oriental poetry, which was very much admired on account of the elegance of the French style and the accuracy of the translation. For this excellent publication it appears that he received nothing more than a diploma from his Danish majesty, constituting him a member of the Royal Society of Copenhagen, with a warm recommendation to the notice of his own sovereign.
That he might be enabled to gratify his commendable ambition, he now began to think seriously of some profession; and, as he had conceived an early predilection for the law, he made that the object of his choice, and, in the month of September 1770, entered himself at the Temple. Yet the studies of his profession did not prevent him from making those literary advances in which he so much delighted; and oriental literature still continued a favourite object. When the life of Zoroaster by Anquetil Duperron made its appearance, in the preliminary discourse to which the university of Oxford had been attacked, our author defended it in a pamphlet written with equal severity and elegance. In 1772, he published a small volume of poems, being translations from the Asiatic poets, remarkable for the grace and brilliancy of their style; and in 1774 appeared his work De Poësi Asiatica, the beauty and purity of the Latin in which it is composed exciting the admiration of men of taste and learning both at home and abroad. He was called to the bar in the beginning of 1774, but declined to act in that capacity without a previous knowledge of the actual business of the profession. He was appointed a commissioner of bankrupts in 1776, about which period he addressed a letter to Lord Althorp, in which he expresses his ardent wish to have constitutional liberty established by constitutional means.
His translation of the speech of Isæus, on account of the elegant style and the profound critical and historical knowledge it displayed, commanded the admiration of every competent judge. Soon after this his practice at the bar increased with rapidity; but he had little reason to flatter himself with the prospect of advancement in professional rank and dignity, because he was known to be convinced of the injustice of the British cause respecting the American war, which he was at no pains to conceal; and an opponent of the measures of those who had then the direction of public affairs, had little preference to look for. In 1780 he became a candidate to succeed to Sir Roger Newdigate as representative in parliament for the university of Oxford, in which he was respectably supported; but his political sentiments were ill suited to secure him a majority, a circumstance which made him decline the contest prior to the election. He soon afterwards published a pamphlet entitled "An Inquiry into the legal mode of suppressing Riots, with a Constitutional Plan of future Defence," recommending the propriety of making every citizen a soldier in cases of imminent danger. He next published a translation of seven ancient poems of the highest reputation in Arabia, which, with an ode on the marriage of Lord Althorp, procured for him the highest reputation. His essay on the law of bailment was also much admired, as was his speech at the London Tavern in defence of a parliamentary reform in 1782. At Paris he drew up a dialogue between a farmer and a country gentleman on the principles of government, which was published in Wales by the dean of St Asaph, and for which a bill of indictment was preferred against
Sir that clergyman. In a letter to Lord Kenyon, Mr Jones avowed himself the author, and asserted the principles it contained to be perfectly agreeable to the British constitution; but it appears that he afterwards relaxed considerably in his political ardour.
After the resignation of Lord North, and the appointment of Lord Shelburne, Mr Jones was nominated one of the judges in the British territories of India; an appointment which he had long wished for, as it would afford him an opportunity of prosecuting his favourite researches into oriental literature. He was appointed a judge in March 1783, and on the 20th of that month the honour of knighthood was conferred upon him. He arrived at Calcutta in September, and entered upon his office in December, opening the sessions with a very elegant charge to the grand jury. Here he planned the institution of a society similar to the Royal Society of London, the valuable labours and researches of which are already in the hands of the public. He collected materials for a complete digest of the Hindu and Mahomedan laws, which interesting work he did not live to bring to a conclusion. The publication of the Asiatic Researches occupied much of his attention. In 1789 he translated an ancient Indian drama called Sacontala, which has been considered as an interesting curiosity. In 1794 he gave the world his Ordinances of Menu, a famous Indian legislator, containing a system of duties both civil and religious.
The climate of India having proved unfavourable to the health of Lady Jones, she was obliged to return to England, whither Sir William designed soon to follow her. But, on the 20th of April 1794, he was seized at Calcutta with an inflammation of the liver, which set the powers of medicine at defiance, and on the 27th of the same month he expired without pain or struggle.
It may be fairly asserted that few men have died more respected or regretted, as few have passed a more useful and irreproachable life. The uncommon extent of his erudition has been displayed in all his writings, and hardly any subject of human research escaped his notice. He has scarcely ever been equalled as a linguist, for he is said to have been more or less acquainted with about twenty-eight different languages. Taste and elegance marked all his exertions, and he might have risen as a poet to the very first rank. Great as his knowledge was, his virtue and religion were not inferior. In whatever light we think proper to view him as standing in relation to society, he was undoubtedly a pattern worthy of imitation.
As a permanent monument to his memory, his affectionate lady published his whole finished works in six quarto volumes, in the year 1799; and a marble monument to his memory by the same endeared friend was placed in the anti-chamber of University College, Oxford. The East India Company also voted a monument to his memory in St Paul's Cathedral, and a statue of him to be sent out to Bengal. Memoirs of his life were published by Lord Teignmouth; and a society of gentlemen in Bengal, who had been educated at Oxford, subscribed a sum for a prize dissertation on his character and merits, by students of that university.