Sir William Jones, A Welsh Linguist

Description

William Jones was born in London, 1749. He was the son of William Jones, born in Anglesey in the parish of Llanfihangel-tre’r-beirdd, 1680. His father was present at the capture of Vigo, 1702 and was afterwards a teacher of mathematics in London.

He was the youngest son was to become one of the greatest authorities on Oriental languages. His writings in Persian, Arabic, and Sanskrit are extensive, and he had a considerable knowledge of twenty-five others, including Welsh. Sir William was educated at Harrow and University College, Oxford. He was called to the bar in 1774. One of his poems on the Privy, written whilst on circuit, 1783, is of local interest.
His father died when the boy was only three years old. His education, in the first instance, was undertaken by his mother, who herself was well educated. Entering Harrow at the age of seven, he showed great promise during his school life. On one occasion when the boys wished to play “The Tempest,” young William, then only eleven wrote the play from memory. What do school boys of today, or college students even, think of that? His proficiency in Greek was extraordinary and caused him to known by his school-fellows as “the great scholar.” Before he left school he also studied Latin, Italian, French, Arabic, and Hebrew, the latter sufficiently to enable him to read the Psalms in the original.

Writing poetry, too appealed to him. At Oxford he found the standard of the lectures below that of his own attainments. He continued to add languages to his acquisitions and was elected to a fellowship. The time devoted to the pursuits of the fellowship was shared with demand by the duties of a private tutorship to Lord Althorp, afterwards Earl Spencer.


At the end of his twenty-fourth year, William Jones entered upon the study of law, keeping up, however, all his other studies as well. At the remarkably early age of twenty-six he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (F.R.S.). Even at that age he had standing to his credit a list of productions, mainly linguistic, which would have meant a life’s work for lesser men. When yet but twenty-two he had written “Commentaries on Asiatic Poetry,” which were not published for a few years, but were then received with applause by the Oriental scholars of Europe.

A Dean in Danger.

In his own testimony that in spite of the protests of his friends, he had made up his mind to devote himself “for the next twenty years at least” exclusively to law. Soon began to pour fourth standard legal works, his labours covering such wide range as “The Maritime Jurisprudence of the Athenians,” “The Mahommedan Law of Succession to Property,” and “A Dialogue Between a Farmer and a Country Gentleman on the Principles of Government.” This last work, which expressed very advanced views, has interesting associations, Shipley, Dean of St. Asaph, reprinted and circulated the dialogue in Wales. A bill of indictment was preferred against that dignitary on the false assumption that he was its author. Jones assured the authorities that he, and not Shipley, was the author, and he further maintained that every position taken up in it was strictly conformable to the laws and constitution of England. The Dean was discharged.

In March 1783, William Jones, then a barrister of barely nine years standing, was appointed one of the judges of the Supreme Court of Judicature in Bengal, and the honour of knighthood was bestowed upon him. The appointment was greatly to his liking. In the following month he married Anna Maria, Shipley’s daughter, and they embarked for India – he never to return.

Founder of the Asiatic Society

On arrival in India, his first activities outside the judicial duties were directed to the establishment of a society, on the model of the Royal Society in London, to focus and extend knowledge about Asia. Thus was founded what has become the famous “Asiatic Society.” It met for the time in Calcutta in January 1784. The presidency of it was offered to Warren Hastings, then Governor-General of India, but he, declining it, pointed to the founder of the society as the person most capable of conducting it. Accordingly its founder was elected its first president. In a few years appeared the first volume of “Asiatic Researches.”

Already an accomplished linguist, Sir William now commenced the study of Sanskrit, and became thoroughly proficient in it. With his knowledge of the language he set about compiling a Digest of the Laws of India, Hindu and Mahommedan, on the lines of Justinian’s great work of Roman Law. To this, he says, he devoted his ‘leisure’ time almost entirely. He completed the Digest but did not live to translate it, as he had intended, into English. Sir William may justly be regarded, on the strength of this laborious and valuable work, as the “Justinian of India.”

Knew every language but His Own.

His comparative study of languages gives him a distinction at least as great as his study of law. In a memorandum which he had studied are found divided into three groups:

Eight languages studied critically: English, Latin, French, Italian, Greek, Arabic, Persian and Sanskrit.

Eight studied less perfectly, but all intelligible with a dictionary: Spanish, Portuguese, German, Runic, Hebrew, Bengali, and Turkish.

Twelve studied less perfectly, but all attainable: Tibetan, Pali, Pahlavi, Devi, Russian, Synac, Ethiopic, Coptic, Welsh, Swedish, Dutch and Chinese.
Here is seen the reason for his being once satirically introduced to Royalty as “the person who knows every language but his own.” It is through his influence chiefly, that Sanskrit came to be studied in the Western World. Sir William Jones lives as the pioneer of Sanskrit studies in Europe.

Lady Jones left India in December, 1793, owing to ill-health. Sir William’s first intention had been to remain there until 1800. The ill-health of his wife caused him to decide to return in 1795, the completion of the Digest and the translation of it into English, alone keeping him in India after her return. He lived only a few months, however. He had completed the Digest, but not the translation of it when he died in April 1794, at the early age of 47.

• https://cynonculture.co.uk (link opens in new window)