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William Jones (philologist)

Sir William Jones
A steel engraving of Sir William Jones, after a painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds
Puisne judge of the Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William in Bengal
In office
22 October 1783[1] – 27 April 1794[2]
Personal details
Born(1746-10-09)9 October 1746[3]
Westminster, London
Died27 April 1794(1794-04-27) (aged 47)
Calcutta, Bengal Presidency
Resting placeSouth Park Street Cemetery
Spouse
Anna Maria Shipley
(m. 1783)
Parent

Sir William Jones FRS FRAS FRSE (28 September 1746 – 27 April 1794) was a British philologist, orientalist, indologist and judge. Born in Westminster, London to Welsh mathematician William Jones, he moved to the Bengal Presidency where Jones served as a puisne judge on the Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William and also became a scholar of ancient Indian history. As part of his research, he was the first to assert the kinship of the Indo-European languages. Jones also founded the Asiatic Society in Calcutta in 1784.

  1. ^ Curley, Thomas M. (1998). Sir Robert Chambers: Law, Literature, & Empire in the Age of Johnson. University of Wisconsin Press. p. 353. ISBN 0299151506. Retrieved 17 July 2019.
  2. ^ Curley 1998, p. 434.
  3. ^ The Letters of Sir William Jones. 1970.

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