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, fprang three children, the last 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 circumstances. This lady perished miferably, 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 incurable. This alarming fecret was communicated to Mrs. Jones, who, from an affectionate but mistaken motive, could never be induced to discover it to her husband; and, on one occafion, difplayed a remarkable inftance of felf-command and addrefs in the concealment of it. A well-meaning friend, who knew his dangerous fituation, had written to him a long letter of condolence, replete with philofophic axioms on the brevity of life; Mrs. Jones, who opened the letter, discovered the purport of it at a glance, and, being defired by her husband to read it, compofed in the moment another lecture fo clearly and rapidly, that he had no fufpicion of the deception; and this she did in a ftyle fo cheerful and entertaining, that it greatly exhilarated him. He died foon after, in July 1749, leaving behind him a great reputation and moderate property. The history of men of letters is too often a melancholy detail of human mifery, exhibiting the unavailing ftruggles of genius and learning against penury, and life confumed in fruitless expectation of patronage and reward. We contemplate with fatisfaction the reverse of this picture in the history of Mr. Jones, as we trace him in his progress from obscurity to distinction, and in his participation of the friendship 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 service to her; amongst others to whom she was particularly obliged, I mention with respect, Mr. Baker, author of a Treatife on the Improved Microscope, who afforded her important affiftance, in arranging the collection of shells, foffils, and other curiofities, left by her deceased husband, and in difpofing of them to the beft advantage. The library of Mr. Jones, by a bequest in his will, became the property of Lord Macclesfield. The compilers of the Biographical Dictionary, in their account of Mr. Jones, have afferted, that he had completed a mathematical work of the first importance, and had fent the first sheet of it to the prefs, when the indifpofition, which terminated in his death, obliged him to difcontinue the impreffion; that, a few days before his demife, he entrusted the manufcript, fairly transcribed by an amanuenfis, to the care of Lord Macclesfield, who promised to publish it, as well for the honour of the author, as for the benefit of the family, to whom the property of the work belonged. The Earl survived his friend many years; but The Introduction to the Mathematics (the alleged title of the work) was forgotten, and, after his death, the manuscript was not to be found. There is no evidence in the memoranda left by Sir William Jones, to confirm or disprove these affertions. Such of the mathematical works of Mr. Jones as have been published, are much admired for neatnefs, brevity, and accuracy*. In Hutton's Philosophical Dictionary, we have the following enumeration of the works of Mr. Jones: A New The care of the education of William now devolved upon his mother, who, in many A New Compendium of the whole Art of Navigation, small 8vo. 1702. Synopsis palmariorum Matheseos; or a new Introduction to the Mathematics, containing the principles of arithmetic and geometry, demonstrated in a short and easy method; 8vo. 1706. In the Philosophical Transactions: A Compendious Disposition of Equations for exhibiting the Relations of Geometrical Lines. A Tract of Logarithms. Account of a Person killed by Lightning in Tottenham-court Chapel, and its Effects on the Building. Properties of Conic Sections, deduced by a compendious method. He was also the editor of some mathematical works of Sir Isaac Newton, under the title of "Analysis, per quantitatum series, fluxiones, ac differentias: cum enumeratione linearum tertii ordinis." In the library of Trinity-college, Cambridge, some letters from Mr. Jones to Mr. Cotes, who was at that time engaged in giving lectures at the college, are preserved. They do not contain any material information: but having, with the permission of the college, obtained copies of them, by the polite assistance of Mr. Brown, I annex them to this note, together with one from Mr. Cotes to Mr. Jones. Letter from Mr. JONES to Mr. COTES. London, September 17th, 1711. method of interpolation, which you have been pleased to |