314 



Sir William 

 Jones. 



His Father. 



GANGETIG HIND COST AN. 



The BritWj nation hath carried to thefe diftant realms its love 

 of hteratnre. On 'January 15th, 1784, the Afiatic Society was 

 formed in this city, under the prefidentfliip of Sir JViUiam Jone^, 

 Knight, one of the puifne judges of the court of judicature. 

 As we have a diftant clame to that gentleman as a countryman, 

 a defcendant of the antient Britons, I muft indulge an honeft 

 pride in giving the proof. His father, William Jo7ies, was born 

 as fome fay in the year 1675, in the parilh of Llanfihangel Trer 

 Beirdd, in Anglefey. Sir F/illiam ufed to fay it was in 1680. 

 By his fecond wife he had two children. Sir William, and a 

 daughter, now living. His education was at a common fchool 

 in the parifli of Llanfechell. It muft have been by ftrength of 

 natural genius, that he acquired that fcience which afterwards 

 rendered him fo eminent. It could not have been from little 

 parifli-fchools in thofe days in Anglefey that he could reap any 

 fuch advantages. He became the moft able mathematician of 

 his time, and taught that fcience under the patronage of Sir 

 Isaac Newton, which he obtained by publifliing, when only 

 twenty-fix years of age, the Synopfu Palmariorum Mathefeos. 

 This difproves the common report of his having gone to 

 London for the firft time m 17 14? with the family of Lord 

 Bulkeley. He became fo diftinguilhed by his knowlege in va- 

 rious branches of fcience, as to be admitted a member, of the 

 Royal Society, and to have died one of the vice-prefidents 

 in 1749. Such is the date of his death given in the obituary 

 of the Gentleman's Magazine, in the month of that year. 



Sir William, that glory to his name, was born only three 

 years before that event took place. I muft lament that it is from 



a foreign 



