S50 
JONES. 
companion on the circuit when he was chief juftice; and 
this nobleman, when he afterwards held the great feal, 
availed himfelf of the opportunity to teltify his regard for 
the merit and character of his friend, by conferring upon 
him the office of fecretary for the peace. He was alfo in¬ 
troduced to the friendfhip of lord Parker (afterwards pre- 
fident of the Royal Society), which terminated only with 
his death ; and amongft other diftinguifhed characters in 
the annals of lcience and literature, the names of fir Ifaac 
Newton, Halley, Mead, and Samuel Johnfton, may be 
enumerated as the intimate friends of Mr. Jones. By fir 
Ifaac Newton he was treated with particular, regard and 
confidence ; and, having afterwards found, among fotne 
papers of Collins which fell into his hands, a trafl of 
Newton’s, entitled, Analyjis per Quantitatum Series, Ftuxiones , 
dc Differcntias ; cum Enumeration Lintarum tertii Ordines ; 
with the confent and aflifhince of that great man, he 
un (tiered it into the world, accompanied by other pieces 
on analytical fubjeffs, in 1711, 4-to. By being thus 
the means of preferving fome of Newton’s papers, which 
might otherwife have been loft, he fecured to his friend 
the honour of having applied the method of infinite feries 
to all forts of curves, fome time before Mercator had 
publifhed his Quadrature of the Hyperbola by a fimilar 
method. And its appearance at a time when the difpute 
ran high between Leibnitz and the friends of Newton, con¬ 
cerning the invention of fluxions, contributed to the deci- 
ilon of the queftion in favour of our ilLuftrious countryman. 
Mr. Jones was elected a member, and afterwards a vice- 
prefident, of the Royal Society. After the retirement of 
lord Macclesfield to Sherbone-caftle, Mr. Jones refided 
with his lordlhip as a member of his family, and inftruft- 
cd him in the fciences. While he was in this fituation, 
he had the misfortune to lofe the greateft part of his pro¬ 
perty, the accumulation of induftry and economy) by the 
failure of a banker ; but the friendfhip of lord Macclef- 
field diminifhed the weight of the lofs, by procuring for 
him a finecure place of conliderable emolument. From 
the fame nobleman he had the offer of a more lucrative 
fituation; but he declined the acceptance of it, as it re¬ 
quired a more clofe official attendance than was agreeable 
to his temper, or compatible with his attachment to fci- 
entific purfuits. While he was in this fituation alfo he 
entered into a matrimonial connection, from which fprang 
three children, the laft of whom was the late fir William 
Jones, the fubjeft of the f'uccecding article. Mr. Jones 
Survived the birth of this fon only three years, being at¬ 
tacked with a diforder, which the fagacity of Dr. Mead, 
who attended him with the anxiety of an affeftionate 
friend, immediately difcovered to be a polypus in the 
heart, and wholly incurable. He died in July 1749, when 
about fixty-nine years of age, leaving behind hiirra great 
reputation, and moderate property. “The hiftory of men 
of letters,” fays lord Teignrnouth, from whom we,have 
chiefly extracted the preceding particulars, “is too often 
a melancholy detail of human mifery, exhibiting the un¬ 
availing ftruggles of genius and learning againft penury, 
and life confumed in fruitlefs expectation of patronage 
and reward. We contemplate with fatisfaClion the re¬ 
verie of this picture in the hiftory of Mr. Jones, as we 
trace him in his progrefs from obfcurity to diftinction, 
and in his participation of the friendfhip and beneficence 
of the firft characters of the times. Nor is it lefs grateful 
to remark, that the attachment of his profeffed friends 
did not expire with his life ; after a proper interval, they 
vifited his widow, and vied in their offers of fervice to 
her; amongft others to whom Ihe was particularly obliged, 
I mention with refpeCt Mr. Baker, author of a treatife on 
the improved microfcope, who afforded her important af- 
fiftance in arranging the collection of fhells, foflils, and 
other curiofities, left by her deceafed hufband, and in dil- 
pofing of them to the belt advantage.” 
Mr. Jones’s papers in the Philofophical TranfaCtions 
are, A compendious Difpofition of Equations for exhibit¬ 
ing the Relations of Goniometrical Lines, in the forty- 
fourth volume; A traCt on Logarithms, in the fixty-firft; 
An account of the Perfon killed by Lightning in Tot- 
tenbam-court Chapel, and its EffCCts on the Building, in 
the fixty-fecond ; and Properties of the Conic Sections, 
deduced by a compendious Method, in the fixty-third, 
volume. Thefe pieces, and indeed all his works, are dif¬ 
tinguifhed by remarkable neatnefs, brevity, accuracy, and 
perf'picuity. If, however, Mr. Nichols is not deceived in 
his information, the world has been deprived of his’laft 
and molt laborious work, which he lived to complete, 
but not to fee it printed. It was a work, of the fame na¬ 
ture with his Synopfis, but far more copious and diffuflve, 
and intended to ferve as ageneral introduction to the fci¬ 
ences, or, which is the fame thing, to the mathematical 
and philofophical works of Newton. A work of this kind 
was a dcfidtratum in literature, and it required a geome¬ 
trician of the firft clafs to fuftain the weight of fo impor¬ 
tant an undertaking; for which, as D’Alembert juftly 
obferves, •“ the combined force of the greateft mathemati¬ 
cians would not have been more than fufficient.” Mr. 
Jones was fully aware of the arduous nature of fuch a talk; 
but the importunity of his numerous acquaintance, and 
particularly of his friend lord Macclesfield, induced him 
to commence, and to perfift till he had completed his de- 
fign, the refult of all his knowledge and experience, and 
what he had reafon to hope would prove a lafting monu¬ 
ment of his talents and induftry. Scarcely had he fent 
the firft fheet to the prefs, when his ilinefs, which proved 
fatal, obliged him to ftop the impreffion ; but before his 
death he entrufted his manufcript, fairly tranfcribed, to 
the care of lord Macclesfield, who promifed to v publifh it, 
as well for' the honour of the author, as for the benefit of 
his family. The earl furvived his friend many years; 
but the manufcript was forgotten or neglefted, and, af¬ 
ter lord Macclesfield’s death, was not to be found. Whe¬ 
ther it was accidentally deftroyed, or whether, as has been 
fuggefted, it was lent to fome geometrician, who bafely 
concealed it, or pofiibly burnt the original, to prevent the 
advantages which he derived from it from detection, can¬ 
not now be afcertained. Such is the relation given in the 
Anecdotes of Bowyer, on which lord Teignrnouth re¬ 
marks, that there is no evidence, in the memoranda left 
by fir William Jones, to confirm or difprove thefe afler- 
tions. Mr. Jones is faid to have poftefled the beft mathe¬ 
matical library in England, containing almoft every book: 
of that kind which was to be met with. By a bequeft in 
his will, it became the property of lord Macclesfield, and 
forms at prefent a diftinguifhed part of the Macclesfield 
colie£tion at Sherborne-caftle, in Oxfordfhire. He had 
alfo colle&ed a great quantity of manufcript papers and 
letters of former mathematicians, which have often proved 
ufefui to writers of their lives, &c. After his death, 
thefe were difperfed, and fell into the hands of different 
perfons, and among others, into thofe of Mr. Robertfon, 
librarian and clerk to the Royal Society, from whofe exe¬ 
cutors Dr. Hutton purchafed a confiderable number of 
them. Lord Teignrnouth's Memoirs of Sir William Jones. Hut - 
ton's Di£l. 
JONES (fir William), an eminent lawyer, and moft ac- 
ccmplifhed fcholar, fon of the fubjeft of the preceding- 
article, was born in London on Michaelmas eve, 1746. 
He loft His father when he was only three years of age, 
and the care of his education was affumed by his mother, 
a woman of uncommon mental endowments. It was her 
firft object to kindle in his mind a love for reading, which 
file effected by conftantly replying to thofe queftions that 
a native ardour for inftruction iuceflantly prompted, 
“ Read, and you will know.” His memory was early ex- 
ercifed, and his imagination fed, by paffages from the En- 
glifli poets; and he was fuffered to indulge his curiofity 
in the perufal of a variety of books which promifcuoufly 
fell in liis way at a very early period. Many examples in 
literary hiftory prove that, upon a habit thus formed of 
taking delight in difeurfive reading, the moft diftinguifhed 
proficiency in after-life has been founded; but it has gene- 
