nently distinguished himself in the commencement of the laft century: and a short, but more accurate fketch of his life than has hitherto appeared, which I am enabled to give from the authority of his fon, may be acceptable to the lovers of science.

Mr. William Jones was born in the year 1680, in Anglesey; his parents were yeomen, or little farmers, on that ifland; and he there received the beft education which they were able to afford: but the industrious exertion of vigorous intellectual powers, supplied the defects of inadequate inftruction, and laid the foundation of his future fame and fortune. From his earliest years, Mr. Jones discovered a propenfity to mathematical ftudies, and, having cultivated them with affiduity, he be gan his career in life, by teaching mathematics on-board a man of war: and in this fituation he attracted the notice, and obtained the friendship, of Lord Anfon. In his twenty-fecond year, Mr. Jones published a Treatife on the Art of Navigation; which was received with great approbation. He was

present at the capture of Vigo, in 1702; and, having joined his comrades in quest of pillage, he eagerly fixed upon a bookseller's fhop as the object of his depredation; but finding in it no literary treasures, which were the fole plunder that he coveted, he contented himself with a pair of fciffars, which he frequently exhibited to his friends as a trophy of his military fuccefs, relating the anecdote by which he gained it. He returned with the fleet to England, and immediately afterwards established himself as a teacher of mathematics, in London; where, at the age of twenty-fix, he published his Synopfis palmariorum Mathefeos; a decifive proof of his early and confummate proficiency in his favourite fcience.

The private character of Mr. Jones was refpectable, his manners were agreeable and inviting; and these qualities not only contri buted to enlarge the circle of his friends, whom his established reputation for science had attracted, but alfo to fecure their attachment to him.

Amongst others who honoured him with their efteem, I am authorized to mention the great and virtuous Lord Hardwicke. Mr. Jones attended him as a companion on the circuit when he was chief justice; and this nobleman, when he afterwards held the great feal, availed himself of the opportunity to testify his regard for the merit and character of his friend, by conferring upon him the office of fecretary for the peace. He was alfo introduced to the friendship of Lord Parker (afterwards prefident of the Royal Society), which terminated only with his death; and, amongst other distinguished characters in the annals of science and literature, the names of Sir Ifaac Newton, Halley, Mead, and Samuel Johnson, may be enumerated as the intimate friends of Mr. Jones, By Sir Isaac Newton, he was treated with particular regard and confidence, and prepared, with his affent, the very elegant edition of fmall tracts on the higher mathematics, in a mode which obtained the approbation, 'and increased the esteem, of the author for him.

After the retirement of Lord Macclesfield to Sherborne Caftle, Mr. Jones refided with his lordship as a member of his family, and inftructed him in the fciences. In this fituation, 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 Macclesfield diminished the weight of the lofs, by procuring for him a finecure place of confiderable emolument. The fame nobleman, who was then Teller of the Exchequer, made him an offer of a more lucrative fituation; but he declined the acceptance of it, as it would have imposed on him the obligation of more official attendance, than was agreeable to his temper, or compatible with his attachment to scientific pursuits.

In this retreat, he became acquainted with Mifs Mary Nix, the youngest daughter of George Nix, a cabinet-maker in London, who, although of low extraction, had raised himself to eminence in his profeffion, and, from the honeft and pleasant frankness of

his converfation, was admitted to the tables of the great, and to the intimacy of Lord Macclesfield. The acquaintance of Mr. Jones with Mifs Nix, terminated in marriage; and, from this union, sprang three children, the laft of whom, the late Sir William Jones, was born in London, on the eve of the festival of Saint Michael, in the year 1746; and a few days after his birth was baptized by the christian name of his father. The first fon, George, died in his infancy; and the fecond child, a daughter, Mary, who was born in 1736, married Mr. Rainsford, a merchant retired from business in opulent circumftances. This lady perished miserably, during the year 1802, in confequence of an accident from her clothes catching fire.

Mr. Jones furvived the birth of his fon William but three years; he was attacked with a disorder, which the fagacity of Dr. Mead, who attended him with the anxiety of an affectionate friend, immediately discovered to be a polypus in the heart, and wholly