Thomas Jones (mathematician)

Infobox_Scientist
name = Thomas Jones
box_width = 300px

|300px
image_width = 300px
caption = Portrait of Thomas Jones (1756-1807) by D. Gardner.
birth_date = birth date|1756|6|23|mf=y
birth_place = Berriew, Montgomeryshire, Wales
death_date = death date and age|1807|7|18|1756|6|23|mf=y
death_place = Edgware Road, London, England
residence = flag|England
nationality = flag|Wales|name=Welsh
field = Mathematician
work_institution = University of Cambridge
alma_mater = University of Cambridge
doctoral_advisor = John Cranke
doctoral_students = Adam Sedgwick
known_for =
prizes =
religion = Anglican
footnotes =

Thomas Jones (June 23, 1756 - July 18, 1807) was Head Tutor at Trinity College, Cambridge for twenty years and an outstanding teacher of mathematics. He is notable as a mentor of Adam Sedgwick.

On graduating from Shrewsbury School, Jones was admitted to St John's College, Cambridge on May 28, 1774, as a 'pensioner' (ie. a fee paying student, as opposed to a scholar or sizar). He was believed to be an illegitimate son of Mr Owen Owen, of Tyncoed, and his housekeeper, who afterwards married a Mr Jones, of Traffin, County Kerry, Thomas being brought up as his son.

On June 27, 1776, Jones migrated from St John's College to Trinity College. He became a scholar in 1777 and obtained his BA in 1779, winning the First Smith's Prize and becoming Senior Wrangler. In 1782, he obtained his MA and became a Fellow of Trinity College in 1781. He became a Junior Dean, 1787-1789 and a Tutor, 1787-1807. He was ordained a deacon at the Peterborough parish June 18, 1780. Then he was ordained priest, at the Ely parish, June 6, 1784, canon of Fen Ditton, Cambridgeshire, in 1784, and then cannon of Swaffham Prior, 1784. On December 11, 1791, he preached before the University, at Great St Mary's, a sermon against duelling (from Exodus XX. 13), which was prompted by a duel that had lately taken place near Newmarket, between Henry Applewhaite and Richard Ryecroft, undergraduates of Pembroke, in which the latter was fatally wounded. He died July 18, 1807, in lodgings in Edgware Road, London. He is buried in the cemetery of Dulwich College. A bust and a memorial tablet are in the ante-chapel of Trinity College.

His academic mentor was John Cranke (1746-1816).

References

* "Dictionary of National Biography," Smith, Elder & Co., 1908-1986, vol. 10, pp. 1055-1056.
* J. Wilkes, "Encyclopedia Londinensis," Eds. J. Jones and J. Adlard, 1810-1829, vol. 11, pp. 256-258.
* J.W. Clark and T.M. Hughes, "The Life and Letters of the Reverend Adam Sedgwick," Cambridge University Press: 1890; vol. 1, pp. 73-75.
* J. Venn and J.A. Venn, "Alumni Cantabrigienses", Cambridge University Press, 1922-1954.
* J. Gascoigne, "Cambridge in the Age of Enlightenment", 1989, pp. 226-227, p. 232, p. 234, p.243.
* P. Searby, "A History of the University of Cambridge", vol. 3 (1750-1870), ed. C.N.L. Brooke et al, 1997. pp. 309-310.
* "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography", vol. 30, eds. H. C. G. Matthew and B. Harrison, 2004, p. 645.