New Light on Sir William Jones

Abstract

In a footnote to page 1083 of K. C. Balderston's Thraliana (Oxford, 1942) we read Mrs. Thrale's opinion of our only full-length biography of Sir William Jones (1746–1794), that written by his friend Sir John Shore (later Lord Teign-mouth) and prefixed to the definitive edition of the great scholar's published works: “This Fashion of publishing Lives & Remains is a very amusing Fashion—& Sir William JOne's is the least entertaining among them all.” This judgement on Teignmouth's Memoirs is 'pretty generally shared by all who have read them with an eye to truth and proportion; the book is marred by the author's too patent anxiety to make of his hero a prophet of Clapham evangelicalism, and to mitigate the harshness of his uncompromising politics. For the bare facts of Jone's life and career Teignmouth may, nevertheless, be consulted with due caution: the purpose of this paper is to attempt to put into a proper perspective certain aspects of Jones's activities and character which have not been hitherto sufficiently delineated. Almost all the material used in this essay consists of unpublished letters from Jones to his one-time pupil and life-long friend; Lord Althorp, the 2nd Earl Spencer: I here record my gratitude to the present Earl Spencer, who most kindly lent me copies of a considerable range of this interesting correspondence.