Jones, SIR WILLIAM, one of the earliest English orientalists, was born in London, 28th September 1746, the son of William Jones (1680-1749), a learned mathematician and friend of Newton. He had his schooling at Harrow under Thackeray and Sumner, and entered University College, Oxford, in 1764, where his remarkable attainments quickly attracted attention. In 1765 he left
Oxford to become tutor to the eldest son of Earl Spencer, and with him remained five years. He was called to the bar in 1774, and two years later was appointed Commissioner of Bankrupts. In 1770 he published, at the request of the king of Denmark, a Life of Nadir Shah, translated into French from the Persian; in 1772 a Persian Grammar; in 1774 his Latin Commentaries on Asiatic Poetry; and in 1780 a translation of seven ancient Arabic poems, known as the Moallakát, so called from being 'suspended' in the temple at Mecca. In March 1783 he obtained a judgeship in the Supreme Court of Judicature in Bengal, and was knighted. With characteristic ardour he at once devoted himself to the study of Sanskrit with a view to prepare a digest of Hindu and Mohammedan law. He established the Royal Asiatic Society, 'for investigating the history, antiquities, arts, sciences, and literature of Asia,' and was its first president. He contributed largely to the Asiatic Researches. Already in 1789 he had finished his translation of Sacontala, or the Fatal Ring (1799), when in 1794 he published a translation of the Ordinances of Manu, a preparatory task for the greater work. Soon after he was attacked with an inflammation of the liver, which carried him off on the 27th April 1794. The East India Company erected a monument to his memory in St Paul's Cathedral, and a statue in Bengal. A collected edition of his works was published by Lord Teignmouth in six quarto volumes in 1799; two supplementary volumes followed in 1801; and a Life in 1804. The impulse that Sir William Jones gave to the study of Sanskrit literature was far more important than the performance his short and busy life enabled him to effect. He was indeed a learned scholar, but his scholarship was of the pre-scientific age, and has long since been superseded. But his noble and generous character and his ardent enthusiasm for learning have done much not only to promote learning, but to elevate the character of the scholar.