and Sarah, his wife, who died 18 June 1850, aged 71.
Jones was an exceptionally worthy, temperate, and respected man. He was something of a valetudinarian, lived a comparatively secluded life, but was friendly with his associates, and was sought after in literary society. On the stage he was admirable as an eccentric gentleman, a dashing beau, and as the hero of a madcap farce stood alone. Recklessness on the stage marred his representation of fine gentlemen. His laugh was loud, but somewhat forced, and his acting generally wanted repose. He was the best dressed actor on the stage, and was a gentleman in his manner. His namesake and manager in Dublin, Frederick Edward Jones [q. v.], in some well-known verses, noted, at the outset of his career, faults in his style, which were never quite overcome.
A portrait of Jones by Burnell, a second by De Wilde, showing him as Young Contrast in Burgoyne's ‘Lord of the Manor,’ and a third, also by De Wilde, exhibiting him as Jeremy Diddler in ‘Raising the Wind,’ are in the Mathews collection in the Garrick Club. Likenesses of him have been published as Puff, Alfred Highflyer, Archer, Flutter in ‘Belle's Stratagem,’ and other characters.
[To the Monthly Mirror for August 1809 Jones supplied a memoir which, unlike such things in general, may be accepted as trustworthy, and is the basis of most subsequent biographies. An account, with a selection from letters addressed to Jones by various actors, was contributed by Mr. T. F. Dillon Croker, whose father was one of Jones's executors, to the Era Almanack for 1876. Lives appear in Oxberry's Dramatic Biography, the Biography of the British Stage, 1824, and in the Georgian Era. See Genest's Account of the Stage, Macready's Reminiscences, ed. Pollock, the Drama and the Monthly Mirror, and Dibdin's Reminiscences.]
JONES, RICHARD (1790–1855), political economist, born in 1790 at Tunbridge Wells, where his father was a solicitor, was intended for the legal profession, but owing to weak health he was sent to Cambridge to prepare for the church. He entered Caius College in 1812, and graduated B.A. in 1816 and M.A. 1819. He was at first appointed to a curacy in Sussex. In 1822 he became curate of Brasted, Kent, and the next year (1823) married Charlotte Altree of Brighton. In 1833 he was appointed professor of political economy at King's College, London, a post which he resigned in 1835 on succeeding Malthus in the chair of political economy and history at the East India College at Haileybury. He was associated with the passage of the Tithe Commutation Act in 1836, and was nominated commissioner under its provisions by the Archbishop of Canterbury. This office he held till the commission was remodelled in 1851. He afterwards became secretary to the capitular commission, and one of the charity commissioners. He resigned his professorship shortly before his death at Haileybury on 26 Jan. 1855.
As an economist Jones was strongly opposed to the deductive method of Ricardo and others. In his chief work, ‘An Essay on the Distribution of Wealth and on the Sources of Taxation, Part I., Rent,’ London, 1831, 8vo, he devotes himself to a hostile criticism of their method and an attempt to supersede their investigations by one more thoroughly inductive. His work is valuable in itself, but condemnation of Ricardo is often based on misinterpretation, while proofs advanced by Jones to show that Ricardo's principles solely apply to England, and do not hold good in other countries, fail to seriously impair the utility of Ricardo's treatise. Jones stands midway between Adam Smith and the modern school of historical economists. He is more historical than the former, less historical than the latter. He did not resort to original authorities. It cannot be said that his works established any new principle; they introduced modifications into others previously formulated. But his greatest claim to economic fame rests on his recognition of the necessity of the inductive method. His other works are:
- ‘A few Remarks on the Proposed Commutation of Tithes,’ London, 1833, 8vo.
- ‘An Introductory Lecture on Political Economy, delivered at King's College, with a Syllabus of a Course of Lectures on the Wages of Labour,’ London, 1833, 8vo.
- ‘Remarks on the Government Bill for the Commutation of Tithes,’ London, 1836, 8vo.
- ‘Remarks on the manner in which the Tithe should be Assessed to the Poor's Rate,’ &c., London, 1838, 8vo.
- ‘A Letter to Sir R. Peel … to exempt all Persons from being Assessed as Inhabitants to the Parochial Rates,’ London, 1840.
- ‘Text Book of Lectures on the Political Economy of Nations,’ Hertford, 1852, 8vo.
A collected edition of Jones's works, with preface by Whewell, appeared at Cambridge in 1850.
[Preface to collected works by W. Whewell; Ann. Reg. 1855; Gent. Mag. 1855; works as in text.]
JONES, RICHARD ROBERTS (1780–1843), self-educated linguist, commonly known as ‘Dick of Aberdaron,’ born at Aberdaron, Carnarvonshire, in 1780, was the second son of Robert Jones and Margaret, whose maiden name was Richards. His father, a
