[719] 



CHARACTERS. 



Account of the late Sir William 

 Jones, &;c. Sfc. Sfc. From his 

 Memoirs by Lord Teignmouth. 



HIS father was the celebrated 

 philosopher and mathemati- 

 cian, who so eminently distinguished 

 himself in the commencement of the 

 last century ; and a short, but more 

 accurate sketch of his lite than has 

 hitherto appeared, may be accepta- 

 ble to the lovers of science. 



Mr. William Jones was born in 

 the year 1680, in Anglesea ; his 

 parents were yeomen or little farm- 

 ers on that island, and he there re- 

 ceived the best education they were 

 able to atibrd ; but the industrious 

 exertion of vigorous intellet^tual 

 powers supplied the defecis of in- 

 adequate instrui^tion, and laid the 

 foundation of his future fame and 

 fortune. From his earliest years 

 Mr. Jones discovered a propensity 

 to mathematical studies, and having 

 cultivated them with assiduity, he 

 began his career in life by teaching 

 mathematics on board a man of war ; 

 and in this situation he attracted the 

 notice, and obtained the friendship 

 of lord Anson. He afterwards es- 

 tablished himself as a teacher of ma- 

 thematics in London, where, at the 

 age of twenty-six, he published his 

 Sjjnopsis Palmurioruin Maihcscos, 

 a decisive proof of his early and 



consummate proficiency in his fa- 

 vourite science. 



The private character of Mr. 

 Jones was respectable : his manners 

 were agreeable and inviling ; and 

 these qualities not only contributed 

 to enlarge the circle of his friends, 

 whom his established reputation for 

 science had attradted, but also to 

 secure their attachment to him. 



Among others who honoured him 

 with their esteem, I am authorized 

 to mention the great and virtuous 

 lord Hardwicke. lie was also in- 

 troduced to the friendship of lord 

 Parker, (afterwards president of the 

 royal society), which terminated 

 only with his life ; and amongst 

 other distinguished characters in the 

 annals of science and literature, the 

 names of sir Isaac Newton, Hailey, 

 Mead, and Samuel Johnson, may 

 be enumerated as the intimate 

 friends of Air. Jones. 



After the retirement of Lord Mac- 

 clesfield to Sherborne Castle, Mr. 

 Jortes resided with his lordship as a 

 member of his family, and instruft- 

 ed them in the sciences. In this situ- 

 ation he had the misfortune to lose 

 the greatest part of his property, 

 the accumulation of industry and 

 economy, by the failure of a banker ; 

 but the friendship of lord Maccles- 

 field diminished the weight of the 

 losSj by procuring for him a sine- 

 cure 



