A new and general biographical dictionary; containing an historical and critical account of the lives and writings of the most eminent persons in every nation; particularly the British and Irish; from the earliest accounts of time to the present period .. (Volume 9) online

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A

NEW AND GENERAL

BIOGRAPHICAL

DICTIONARY;

CONTAINING

AN HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL ACCOUNT

OF THE

LIVES and WRITINGS

! OF THE

Moft Eminent Perfbns

IN EVERY NATION;



PARTICULARLY ^^fe r BRITVSt' ANl IRISH;

': ', : , , 'i' ' I '-' "''
From the earlicft Account?, of Xi/ne to ,the prefent Period.



i a j, " , '.

Their remarkable ACTIONS Afld OFFERINGS,
Their VIRTUES, PARTS, and LEARNING,

ARE ACCURATELY DISPLAYED.
With a CATALOGUE of their LITERARY PRODUCTIONS.

A NEW EDITION, IN FIFTEEN VOLUMES.

GREATLY ENLARGED AND IMPROVED.

VOL. IX.

LONDON:

Printed for G. G. and J. ROBINSON, J. JOHNSON, J. NICHOLS, J. SEWF.LL,

H. L. GARDNER, F. and C. RIVINGTON, \V. OTRIDGE and SON,

G. NICOL, E. NEWBERV, HOOKHAM and CAKPENTKR,

R. FAULDER, W.CHAPMAN and SON, J. DEICHTDN,

D.WALKER,J.ANDERSON,T. PAYNE, J. LOWUDES,

P. MACOJ/EEN, J. WALKER, T. Ect.aToN, T.

CADELL,jun.and W.DAVIES, R. EDWAS DS,

VERNOR and HOOD, J. Nt'NN,MuaR.AY

and HIGHLEV, T. N. LONGMAN, LEE

and HURST, and J. WHITE.

1798.



THE NEW YORK

PUBLIC LIBRARY

*VI

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A8TOR, LENOX AND
TILD&N FOUNDATIONS

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NEW AND GENERAL



BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY,



TONES (fis'ioo), the celebrated Englifli architect, v:zi
Jf born about 1572, in t'pc ntigJibourhiGCKi of.S.tC Paul's, Lon-
don; of which city his fatjbeY, ,Mr.~, Ignatius "Jones, was a
citizen, and by trade a clot^w.orher.j $t a proper age, it is
faid, he put his Ton apprentice: to' 'a/^omer, a bufinefs that re-
cjuires ibme ikill in drawing;, 5}d in .that re/pedl: fuited well
with our architect's inclination^ yhfch .naturally led him to
the art of deiigning. Genius concurred with inclination ; he
diftinguifhed himfelf early by the extraordinary progrets he
made in thofe arts, and was particularly noticed for his fkiJl in
landfcape-painting. Thefe talents recommended him to WiU
Ji^.m earl of Pembroke, at whofe expence he travelled over
Italy, and the politer parts of Europe ; faw whatever was
recommended by its antiquity or value ; and from thele plans
formed his cwn obfervations, which, upon his return home,
he perfected by uudy.

Bur, before that, the improvements he made abroad gave
fuch an eclat to his reputation throughout Europe, that Chrif-
lian IV. king of Denmark lent for him from Venice, whicli
was the chief place of his reiidence, and made him his ar-
chitet-general. He had been fome time poilefTed of this
honourable poll, when that prince,- whofe lifter Anne had
married James 1. made a vilit to England in 1606; and our
architect, being defirous to return to his native country, took
that opportunity of coming home in the train of his Danilh
majefty. The magnificence of James's reign, in drefs, build-
ings, Sec. is the common theme of all the Englifh hiitorians-
which laft furnifhed Jones with an opportunity of exeicifing
his talents, and the dilplay of thofe talents proved an honour

VOL. IX, I> i*



2 JONES.

to his country. The queen appointed him her architect?
prefendy after his arrival; and he was foon taken, in the
fame character, into the fervice of prince Henry, under whom
he di (charged his trufl with fo mucli fidelity and judgement,
that the king gave him the reverfion of the place of furveyor-
general of his majefty's works.

Mean while, prince Henry dying in 1612, he made a
fecond vifit to Italy; and continued fome years there, impro-
ving himfelf farther in his favourite art, till the furveyor's place
fell to him; on his entrance upon which, he fbevved an un-
common degree of generofity. The office of his majefty's
works having, through extraordinary occafions, in the time
of his predeceiibr, contracted a great debt, the privy council
fent for the furveyor, to give his Opinion what courfe might
be taken to eafe his majefty of it; when Jones, coniidering
well the exigency, not only voluntarily offered to ferve with-
out receiving one penny himfelf, in whatever kind due, until
the debt was fully cliicharged, but ailb perfuadtd his fellow-
officers to do the like, by which means the whole arrears were

abfolutely cleans"; :''. '-,/' \ l t / ';:

The king, iK'His^prcgreft '.iviioi'' calling at Wilton, the
feat of the earl of Perctbrp}^; afiio'ng other fubjecl?, fell into
a difcourfe about th^'f^pri^rjg group of ftones called Stone-
henge, upon Salifbary ,p lain /'near. Wilton. Hereupon our
architect, who wa'.s ^el/'S.n.ow'n,' fo have fearched into antique
buildings and ruins abroad, was fent for by my lord Pem-
broke; and there received his majefty's commands to produce,
out of his own obfervations, what he could difcover concerning
this of Stone-henge. In obedience to this command, he pre-
fently fet about the work; and having, with no little pains
and expence, taken an exadt measurement of the whole, and
diligently fearched the foundation, in order to find out the
original form and afpect, he proceeded to compare it with
other antique buildings which he had any where feen. In
Ihort, after much reafoning and a long feries of authorities,
he concluded, that this antient and ftupendous pile rnuft have
been orioinally a Roman temple, dedicated to Ccelus, the
fenicr of the heathen gods, and built after the Tufcan order;
that it was built when the Romans flocrifhed in peace and
profperity in Britain, and, probably, betwixt the time of
jftgricola's government and the reign of Conflantine the GreaU
This account he prefented to his royal matter in 1620, and
the fame year was appointed one of the commiffioners for re-
pairing St. Paul's cathedral in London.

Upon the death of king James, he was continued in his poft

by Charles I. whofe con fort entertained him likewife in the

r fame ftation. Ke had drawn the defigns for the palace of

Whitehall,



JONES. 3

Whitehall in his former matter's time; and that part of it,
the banquetintf-houf^ was now carried into execution. It
was ftrft defigned for the reception of foreign ambartadors ;
and the cieling was painted, forme years after, r lub: j s,
with the felicities of James's reign. June 1633, an order
was i flu eel out, requiring him to fet about the reparation of St.
Paul's; and the work v/as begun foon after at the eaft end, the
firft ft one being la' id by Laud, then bifhop of London, and the
fourth by Jones. In reality, as he was the fole architect, fo
the conduit, defign, and execution', of the work were trufted
entirely to him; and having reduced the body of it i'nto orier
and uniformity, from the ileeple to the weft end, hs added
there a magnificent portico, which raifed the envy of all
Chriftendom on his country, for a piece of architecture not
to be paralleled in modern times. The whole was built at the
expence of king Charles, who adorned it alfo witH the ftatues
of his royal father and himself. The portico cohfiftcd of folid
walls on each fide,- with rows of Corinthian pillars fet within,
at a diftance from the walls, to fupport the roof; being in-
tended as an ambulatory for fuch as ufuaily before, by walk-
ing in the body of the church, difturbed the choir-fervicc.
While he was railing; thefe noble monuments of his fame

J

as an architect, he gave no lefs proofs of his genius and fancy
for the pompous machinery in mafques and interludes, which
entertainments were the vo;ue in his time. Several of thefe

Q

reprefentations are full extant in the works of Chapman,
Davenant, Daniel, and particularly Ben Jonfon. The fub-
ject was chofen by the poet, and the fpeeches and longs were
alfo of his compofmg: lout the invention of the fcenes, or^
naments, and dreffes of the figures, was the contrivance of
Jones [A]. And herein he acted in concert and good har-
mony with father Ben, for a while; but, about 1614, there
happened a quarrel between them, which provoked Jonlori
to ridicule his afibciate, under the character of Lantern
Leather-head, a hobby-horfe feller, in his comedy of Bar-
tholomew-fair. And the rupture feems not to have ended
but with Jonfon's death ; a very few years before which, in
1635, he wrote a mofl: virulent coarle fatire, called, 'An
Ex population with Inigo Jones j" and, afterwards, " An,
Epigram to a Friend;" and alfo a third, infcribed to " Inigo
Marquis Would-be." The quarrel not improbably took its
rile from our architect's rival/hip in the king's favour; and,

[A] In Jonfon's " Mafque -of hint of his hell in " Paradife Loft;"

Queens," the firft fcene reprefenting there being a tradition, thac he con-

an ugly hell, which, flaming beneath, ceived the firft idea of that hell from

fmoked nn'o the top of the roof, pro- fome theatrical reprefsntatioti* invented

bably furnilhed Milton with the firil bylnigo [ones.

B 2, it



4 JONES.

it is certain, the poet was much cenfured at court for this
rough ufageof his rival: of which being acivifcd by Mr* Howell,
though his flomach would not come down for a while, yet at
length he thought proper to comply, and accordingly fuppreiled
the whole fatire [B].

In the mean time, Mr. Tones received fuch encouragement

J O

from the court, that he acquired a handfome fortune; which,
however, was much impaired by what he fuffered from his
loyalty; for, as he had a (hare in his royal matter's profperity,
fo he had a fhare too in his ruin. Upon the meeting of the
long parliament, Nov. 1640, he was called before the houfe
of peers, on a complaint againft him from the parishioners of
St. Gregory's in London, for damage- done to that church,
on repairing the cathedral of St. Paul. The church beingj
old, and ftanding very near the cathedral, was thought to be
a blemifh to it: and therefore was taken down, purfuant to
his majefty's fignification and the orders of the council in 1639,
in the execution of which, our furveyor no doubt was chierly
concerned. But, in anfwer to the complaint, he pleaded the
general iffue; and, when the repairing of the cathedral ceafed,
in 1642, fome part of the materials remaining were, by order
of the houfe of lords, delivered to the parifhioners of St.
Gregory's, towards the rebuilding of their church. This pro-
fecudon muft have put Mr. Jones to a very large expence ; and,
during the u fur pat ion afterwards, lie was conftrained to pay
400!. by way of compoiition for his eftate, as a malignant.
After the death of Charles I. he was continued in his poft by
Charles II. but it was only an empty title at that time, nor
did Mr, Jones live long enough to make it any better. In
reality, the gritf, at his years, occasioned by the fatal cala-
mity of his former munificent mafler, put a period to his
life in 1652: and he was buried in the chancel of St. Ben-
net's church, near St. Paul's Wharf, London, where there
was a monument eredled to his memory ; but it fuffered
greatly by the dreadful fire in 1666.

In refpeft to his character, we are a/lured, by one who
knew him well, that his abilities, in all human fciences, fur-
palled mod of his age. He was a perfel mailer of the ma-
thematics, and had fome infight into the two learned lan-
guages, greek and latin, efpecially the latter; neither was
he without fome turn for poetry [c], A copy of verfes,
compofed by him, is pubiiihed in the " Odcombian Banquet,'*

[B] It is faid, the king forbad it to vvprk?, edit. 1756, in 7 vols. Svo.
be printed at that time; but it is printed [c] Ben Jonfon, by way of ridicule,

fmce from a MS. of the late Vertue, the calls him, in " Bartholomew Fair/' a

ei, graver, and is inferted amo;>g the Parcel- poet,
pigr.:rns in the 6th vol. of Jon fern's

pre-



JONES. 5

prefixed to Ton) Coryate's " Crudities, " in 1611, 4-to. But
liis proper character \vas that of an architect, the moft eminent
in his time: on which account he is ilill generally flyled the
J'ritifh Vitruvius; the art of defigning being little known in
England, till Mr. Jones, under the patronage of Charles J.
and the earl of Arunde), brought it into ufe and efteem among
is*. The ium of the whole is, that he was generally learre<%
eminent for architecture, a great geometrician, and, in de-
figning with his pen, as Sir Anthony Vandyck ufed to fay,
not to be equalled by mafters in his time for the boldnefs,
foftnefs, fweetnefs, and furenefs, of his touches. This is the
character given him by Mr. Webb, who was his heir; and
who, being born in London, and bred in Merchant-Tailors
fchool, afterwards refided in Mr. Jones's family, married his
kinfwbman, was iniiru<fted by him in mathematics and
architecture^ and defigned by him f ,r his fucceilbr in the
office of furveyor-sreneral of his tnajeity's works, but was
prevented by Sir John Denham. Mr. Webb publifhed fome
other pieces, befijes his ' k Vindication of Stone-henge re-
ftored fD]i" and dying at Butleigh, his feat in Somerfetfhire,
Oc~h 24, 1672, was buried in that church.

We muft not conclude this article without giving an ac-

O D

count of our architect's defians and buildings, which are

.

properly his works. The defign for the palace of Whitehall,
and the edifice of the Banqueting-houfe, have been already
mentioned; he alfo projected the plan of the furgeons' theatre
in London, repaired fince by the late lord Burlington. To
him we owe queen Catharine's chapel at St. James's palace,
and her majefty's new buildings fronting the gardens at
Somerfet-houfe in the Strand ; the church and piazza of
Covent-garden. He alfo laid out the ground-plot of Lincoln's-
inn-fields, and defigned the duke of Ancafter's houfe on the

[D] Inigo Jones's difcourfe upon have had their advocates in claiming
Stone-henge being left imperfe6l at Ins the honour 1 of this antiquity. Mr.
death, Mr. Webb, at the dciire of Dr. Sammes, in his " Britannia," will
Harvey, Mr. Selden, and other?, per- have the ftrudhire to be Phoenician ;
fedled and publifhed it at London in Jones and Webb believed it Roman j
1655, fol. under the title of '' Stone- Aubrey thinks it Britifh ; Charlton de-
range Reftored ;" and prefi>u;d to it rives it from tiie Danes; and bp. Ni-
a print of our author etched by Hollar, colfon is of opinion, tint the Saxons
from a painting of Vandyck. Dr. have as juft a title to it as any. Ac
Stukelejr, in his " Stone-henge a Tern- laft, Dr. Siukeley begins the round z-
ple of the Druide," gives feveral gain, and maintains it, with Sammes,
realons foraforibinj vhegreateft part of to be of a Phoenician original. But to
this treatife to Webb. 2. "The Vin- return to Webb, who alfo pubhfhed, 3.
dication of Stone-henge Reftcred, Sic." " An Hiilcrical Eilay, endeavjuring to
was publifhed in 1665, fol. and again, prove that the Language of China is
together with Jones's and Dr. Charl- the primitive Language." 4. He alfo
ton's, upon the fame fubjedV, in 1725, traoflated, from the Italian into EnglUh,
H Itjs remarkable, that almoft nil " The Hifloiy of t!ie WorU A vvnt:ea
;hi di^ereut "uihabi^anK f our ifiand by George Tar^gnota."

3 weft



6 JONES.

weft fide of that noble fquare; the royal chapel at Denmark-
houfe, the king's houfe at Newmarket, and the queen's
buildings at Greenwich, were alfo of his defigriing. Several
others of his buildings may be feen in Campbell's * Vitruvius
Bridtfinicus.' 1 The principal of his deiigns were publifhed
by Mr. Kent in 1727, fol. as alfo feme of his lefs defigns
in 1744? fol. Others were . publifhed by Mr. Ifaac Ware.
Our artiit left in MS. forne curious notes upon Palladia's
" Architecture," which are inferred in an edition of Palladio,
pubiiflied at London, 1714, fo! t by Mr. Leoni; which notes,
he fays, raife the value of the edition above ail the preceding
ones,

JONES (WILLIAM), one of the laft of thofe genuine
mathematicians, admirers, and contemporaries of Newton,
who cultivated and improved the fciences in the prtf^nt cen-
tury, was a teacher of the mathematics in London under the
patronage of Sir Ifaac, and had the honour of inftructing the
late earl of Hardwicke in that Icience ; who gratefully enabled
him to lay afide his profeflion, by bellowing on him a ftnecure
place cf about 200!. a year; and afterwards obtaining for
him a more beneficial office in his majefty's exchequer, which
he enjoyed for the laft 20 years of his life. The lord-chan-
cellor Macclesfield and hi> fon (who was afterwards prefident
of the Royal Society) were alfb among the number of re-
fpedlable perfonages who received from him the rudiments of
the mathematics. He obtained the friendship of Sir Ifaac
Newton by publifhing, when only 26 years old, the " Synop-
iis Palmariorum Mathefeos," a mafterly and perfpicuous
abdract of every thing ufeful in the fcience of number and
magnitude. Some papers of Collins falling afterwards into
his hanJsj he there found a tract of Newton's, which had
been communicated by Barrow to Collins, who had kept up
an extenlive correspondence with the beft philofophers of his
age. With the author's 'confent and affiftance, Mr. Jones
nfhered this tra& into the world, with three other traces on
analytical fubjecis; and thus fecured to his iliuftrious friend
the honour of having applied the method of infinite feries to
ail forts of curves, iome time before Mercator publifhed his
quadrature of the hyperbola by a fimilar method. Thefe
admirable works, containing the fublimeft fpecuJations in
geometry, were very' feafonably brought to light in 1711,
\vhen the difpute run high between Leibnitz and the friends
of Newton, concerning the invention of fluxions; a difpute
\vhich this v.-.l-.ible publication helped to decide. Mr. Jones
\vas the authot of ' A new Epitome of the Art of practical

viga ion;" and of feveral papers which appeared in the
* Philokphical f ranfadticms,,' 5 The plan of another work

was



JONES. 7

was formed by this eminent mathematician, intended to be
of the lame nature with the " Synopiis," but far more copious
and difTuiive, and to ferve as a general introduction to the
fciences, or, which is the fame thing, to the mathematical
and philofophical works of Newton, whofe name by the
confent of all Europe, is " not fo much that of a man, as of
philoibphy itfelf." A work of this kind had long been a de-
fideratum in literature, and it required a geometrician of the
firft clafs to fuftain the weight of Ib important an undertaking ;
for which, as M. d'Alembert juilly obferves, " the combined
force of the orreateil mathematicians would not have been mere

/

than fufficient." The ingenious author was conlcious how
arduous a talk he had b-gun; but his very numerous and
refpectable acquaintance, and particularly his intimate friend
the late earl of Mace ies field, to whom he left by will his
invaluable library, never ceafed importuning and urging him
to perfift, till he had finimed the whole work, the refult of all
his knowledge and experience through a life of near 70 years,
&nd a {landing monument, as he had reafon to hope, of his
talents and induftry. He had icarcely fent the firft fheet to
the prefs, when a fatal illnefs 'Obliged him to difcontinue the
impreffion; and a few days before his death, he intruded the
MS. fairly tranicribed by an amanueniis, to the ca^e of lord
Macclesfield, who promifed to publifh it, as weil for the
honour of the author as for the benefit of his family, to whom
the property of the book belonged. The earl furvived his
friend many years: but the "Introduction to the Mathema-
tics" was forgotten or neglected; and, after his death, the MS.
was not to be found \ whether it was accidentally dcilroyed,
which is hardly credible, or whether, as hath been fuacefted,

f * DO'

it had been lent to forne geometrician, unworthy to bear the
name either of- a philofopher or a man, who has iince con-
cealed it, or poHibly burRed the original for fear of detection.
This was a considerable lofs not only to men of letters, but
to the public in general; fince the improvement of fcience
is a fubjedt, in which their fecurity and their pleafures, their
commerce, and, confequently, their wealth, are deeply con-
cerned: and, k may be added, the glory of the nation has
fuffered not a little by the acciden:; for, if the work of Mr.
Jones had been preferved, the authors of the French " En-
cyclopedia" would not have ventured to reproach us, that,
fince the death of Newton, " our advancement in the ma-
thematics has not fatisfled the expeclations of Europe."

Mr. Jones was father to that luminary of fcience Sir Wil-
liam Jones, who lately died in the Eait-Indies ; a gentleman not
lefs diftinguifhed by his zeal for fcience in general than bv
ins own great pre-eminence in manv important branches.

B 4 JONIS



S JONES.

JONES (HENRY), a native of Drogheda in Ireland, was
bred a bricklayer; but, having a natural inclination for the
mufes, purfued his devotions to them even during the labours
of his mere mechanical avocations, and, competing a line of
brick and a line of verfe alternately, his walls and poems
rofe in growth together; but, which of his labours will be
irtofr. durable, time alone miift determine. His turn, as is
moft generally the cafe with mean poets, or bards of humble
origin, was panegyric. This procured him fome friends,
and, in 1745, when the earl of Cheil.ern'eld went- over to
Ireland as lord-lieutenant, Mr. Jones was recommended to
the notice of that nobleman, who was not more remarkable
for his own fhining talents and brilliancy of parts than for
his zealous and generous patronage of genius in whatever
perfon or of 'whatever rank he might chance to meet with
jr. His excellency, delighted with the difcovery of this me-
chanic mufe, not only favoured him with his own notice and
generous munificence, but alfo thought proper to tranfplant
this opening flower into a warmer and more thriving climate.
He brought him with him to England, recommended him to
many of the nobility there, and not only by his influence and
intereft procured him a large fubfcription for the publishing
a collection of his " Poems," but it is faid, even took on
himfelf the alteration* and corre6Hon of his tragedy, and alfo
the care of prevailing on the manage: s of Covent-garden
theatre to bring it on the ftage. This nobleman alfo recom-
mended him in the warmeft manner to the late Colley Gibber,
xvhofe friendly and humane difpolition induced him to fhew
him a thoufand acls of friendfhip, and even made flrong
efforts by his intereft at court to have fecured to him the
iucceflion of the laurel after his death, With thefe favour-
able proipecrs, it might have been expected that Jones would
have paffed through life with fo much decency as to have en-
fured his own happiriefs. and done credit to the partiality of his
friends ; but this was not the cafe. " His temper,'* favs one,
who ferms to have known him, " was, in confequence of tha
dominion of his pafnons, uncertain and capricious ; eafily en-
gaged, and eaiily difgufced ; and, as ceconomy was a virtue
ivhich could never be taken into his catalogue, he appeared to
think himfelf born rather to be fupponed by others than under
a duty to fecure to himfelf the profits which his writings and
the munificence of his patrons from time to time afforded. ' ?
After experiencing many reverfes of fortune, which an over-
bearing fpirit, and an imprudence in regard to pecuniary con-
cerns, confequently drew on him, he died in great want, in
April, 1770, in a garret belonging to the matter of the Bedford
coffee-bpule, by v/ho.'e chanty he had been fome \\rne fup-

ported^



JONES. 9

ported, leaving an example to thofe of fuptrior capacities aiy!
attainments, who, defpifing the common maxims of life, often
feel the want of not purfuing them when it is too late. His
principal performance, " The Earl of Eff;X, 5> appeared in
1753. His poetical worth, though not contemptible, was far
from being of the firft-rate kind. In fhorr. it was nearly on
a par with that of another ruftic-bred bard of this century,
to whom the royal favour having given a fanction, it became a
fafhion to admire his writings, though the grea'ett value that
either that gentleman's poems or thofe of our author p: ilcfled,
to call them into notice above hundreds of the humbler in-
habitants of ParnafTus, was their being produced by geniufes
entirely uncultivated.

JONES (GRIFFITH), deferves a refpe&able place in the
citalorue of EnsHifn. v/riters for having firfl introduced the

O O C-*

numerous and popular little books for the amufement and
inftruciion of children, which have been received into uni-
veria! approbation. He was alfo affociated with Dr. Johnfon
in " The Literary Magazine," and with Smollett and Gold-