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William Jones
Sign in to saveAlso known as Orientalist Jones
Anglo-Welsh philologist and scholar of ancient India (1746-1794)
William Jones was an 18th-century scholar and philologist from Wales and England who became famous for his study of ancient India and its languages. His work helped establish the academic field of comparative linguistics and influenced how Europeans understood Sanskrit and Indian civilization.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Given name
- William
- Family name
- Jones
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- England
- Place of birth
- London
- Place of death
- Kolkata
- Father
- William Jones
- Mother
- Mary Jones
- Occupation
- orientalist
- Position held
- judge
- Educated at
- Harrow School
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Native language
- English language
- Award
- Knight Bachelor
- Field of work
- oriental studies
- Image
- Sir William Jones.jpg
- Work location
- Kolkata
Show 18 more facts
- member of
- Royal Society
- date of birth
- 1746-09-28
- date of death
- 1794-04-27
- Commons category
- William Jones (philologist)
- different from
- William Jones
- Commons gallery
- William Jones
- name in native language
- Sir William Jones
- archives at
- National Library of Wales
- contributed to creative work
- Popular Science
- cause of death
- inflammation
- manner of death
- natural causes
- practiced by
- Benjamin Franklin
- writing language
- English language
- Commons Creator page
- William Jones
- place of burial
- South Park Street Cemetery
- P8168
- Jorge Manrique
- P12749
- Guaimar IV of Salerno
- pseudonym
- Orientalist Jones
Sources (4)
via Wikidata · CC0
Works in European collections
1 object attributed to William Jones, held across European museums, libraries & archives · via Europeana
~23 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Sir William Jones (28 September 1746 – 27 April 1794) was a Welsh philologist, scholar 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. He is known for being one of the earliest scholars to assert the kinship of the Indo-European languages, albeit not the first. Jones also founded the Asiatic Society in Calcutta in 1784.
Early life
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “William Jones” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.