Lady Anna Maria Jones was born on 5th December, 1748, the second child of Anna Maria Mordaunt and Jonathan Shipley, Dean of Winchester and later bishop of St. Asaph. Her father taught Anna both classical and modern languages. She married William, aged 35, and sailed with him to Calcutta. Alongside her husband, she became interested in botany and also wrote poetry. After much illness she sailed for England in 1793.
In England, she lived in Worting House, near Basingstoke, and in 1806 adopted her sister's children. She edited her husband's works which were published in 1799 by G. G. & J. Robinson as The Works of Sir William Jones. She also gathered together the material for a memoir of Jones written by the family friend, John Shore, Lord Teignmouth. Anna Maria Jones died on 7th July 1829.