JONES, Sir WILLIAM (1746-94). A famous English Orientalist, Indian jurist, and littilrateur. lie was born in London, September 28, 1746, and was sent to Harrow in 1753. In 1764 he was en tered at University College, Oxford, where he was enabled to gratify his desire for a knowledge of the Oriental languages. In 1765 he left Oxford, to become tutor to Earl Spencer's eldest son, with whom he remained five years. In 1770 he published, at the request of the King of Den mark, a Life of Nadir Shah, translated into French from the Persian; in the following year, a Persian Grammar (1772; several times re published) ; and in 1774 his Poescos Asiatic' Commentariorum Libri Sex, republished by Eich horn at Leipzig in 1776. In 1780 he completed a translation of the seven Arabic poems known as the Moallakiit, which obtain their collective name from being suspended in the temple at Mecca; wrote an essay On the Legal ]lode of Suppressing Riots; and another, entitled Essay on the Law of Bailments, and two or three odes. In March, 1783, Jones was knighted. and obtained a judge ship in the Supreme Court of Judicature in Ben gal, and landed at Calcutta in September. He at once set about the acquisition and promulgation of the knowledge of Oriental literature, and customs. He established the Royal Asiatic
Society, of which he \N;as the first president. To the volumes of the Asiatic Researches Sir Wil liam contributed largely. Besides these. he wrote and published a story in verse, called The En chanted Fruit, or the Hindu Wife; and a transla tion of an ancient Indian drama. called Sa kuntala, or the Fatal Ring (1789). which aroused widespread interest in the literary circles of Europe. A translation by him of the Ordinances of Mann (q.v.) appeared in 1794. Ile was busily employed on a digest of the Hindu and Moham medan laws at the time of his death, April 27, 1794. Jones was one of the greatest linguists and Oriental scholars that England has produced, and his enthusiasm and literary ability did much to arouse general intersat in th3 auoject. The East India Company erected a monument to his memory in Saint Paul's Cathedral, and a statue in Bengal. A complete edition of his works in six volumes was published by Lady 'Jones in 1799; and another appeared in 13 volumes (Lon don. 1804-07), with a life of the author by Lord Teigmuouth.