Author: Halhed, Nathaniel Brassey
Biography:
HALHED, Nathaniel Brassey (1751-1830: ODNB)
He was born in London on 25 May 1751, the eldest of five children of William Halhed, a merchant who became a director of the Bank of England in 1767, and his first wife Frances Caswell. He was educated at Harrow and matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, but did not graduate. He did however acquire Persian to add to his superior knowledge of classical languages, and with his school friend R. B. Sheridan (q.v.), he published some bawdy prose anonymously as The Love Letters of Aristenaeus (1771). His father withdrew him from Oxford and sent him to Bengal with the East India Company. There the Governor-General, Warren Hastings, who remained a lifelong friend, recognised his talent and assigned him the translation of a digest of a legal code published in 1776 as A Code of Gentoo Laws. Halhed also wrote the first English grammar of Bengali (1778). In India he married Helena Louisa Ribaut (1757-1831); there were no children. Halhed put his experience to use after his return to England in various anonymous pamphlets in defence of Hastings, and joined him in Benares for a few months in 1784. As MP for Lymington 1791-6, he did what he could on Hastings' behalf but also disastrously stood up for the sham prophet Richard Brothers (q.v.) in the House of Commons and ended his political career in disgrace. He did not accept another public position until 1809, when he was appointed a civil secretary with the EIC in London. He retired on grounds of ill health in 1819 and died at his home in Southwark on 18 Feb. 1830, leaving an estate of £18,000. He was buried in the family tomb at St. Peter's, Petersham. (ODNB 23 Dec. 2021; Alumni Oxonienses; ancestry.com 23 Dec. 2021)
Other Names:
- N. B. Halhed