Author: HINDLEY, John Haddon
Biography:
HINDLEY, John Haddon (1765-1827: ODNB)
The Oriental scholar John Haddon Hindley was born in Manchester and baptised on 18 Oct. 1765 at Manchester Cathedral, the son of Ellen (Haddon) and Charles Hindley. Educated at Manchester Grammar School and Brasenose College, Oxford (matric. 1784, BA 1788, MA 1790), he was ordained deacon in 1791 and priest in 1792. From a curacy in Gloucestershire he returned to Manchester as Chaplain of the Collegiate Church and Librarian of Chetham’s Library—founded in 1653 and said to be the oldest public library in the English-speaking world. He resigned the latter position in 1804. Although ODNB states that the Oriental mss at Chetham’s inspired him to study Persian, a Sotheby’s catalogue of 1793 that offered his library for sale, including “oriental printed books” and “a great number of mss in the Arabic-ancient and modern Persian-Turkish and other Asiatic languages . . . in the best preservation” suggests an earlier interest. But perhaps, growing up in Manchester, he did encounter Persian first there. He never married. He died “after a short but painful illness” at Clapham, London, on 17 June 1827 and was buried on June 23 at St. Mary, Stratford Bow. Other publications include the first volume (all published) of Extracts, Epitomes, and Translations from Asiatick Authors (1807), an edition of The Counsels of Attar (1809), and a history of Antient Indian Literature (1809). (ODNB 11 Jul. 2022; ancestry.com 11 Jul. 2022; findmypast.com 11 Jul. 2022; CCEd 11 Jul. 2022; Alumni Oxonienses; Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser 23 Jun. 1827; ESTC)