John Shakespear (August 1774 – 1858) was an orientalist and professor of Hindustani. John Shakespear was born in Lount, Leicestershire, in August 1774, the son of a poor farmer. He was educated at the parish school at Staunton Harold and then at a school kept by a clergyman, who brought him to the notice of

Francis Rawdon-Hastings Francis Edward Rawdon-Hastings, 1st Marquess of Hastings (9 December 175428 November 1826), styled The Honourable Francis Rawdon from birth until 1762, Lord Rawdon between 1762 and 1783, The Lord Rawdon from 1783 to 1793 and The Earl of Moira bet ...

. Lord Rawdon sent young Shakespeare to London to study Arabic under John Richardson. From 1805 to 1809 Shakespear held an orientalist professorship at the Royal Military College, Marlow. In 1809 he was appointed professor of Hindustani at

Addiscombe Military Seminary The East India Company Military Seminary was a British military academy at Addiscombe, Surrey, in what is now the London Borough of Croydon. It opened in 1809 and closed in 1861. Its purpose was to train young officers to serve in the East India ...

and held the professorship until his retirement in 1829 with a pension of £300 per annum. Shakespear's ''A Hindustani Grammar'' (1813) was published as a condensed grammar to replace John B. Gilchrist's ''A Grammar of Hindoostanee Language'' (1796), which had gone out of print. In retirement he bought Langley Priory in Leicestershire. Believing that he might be descended from a branch of

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

's family, John Shakespear in 1856 gave £2,500 to the trustees of the fund for preserving

Shakespeare's Birthplace Shakespeare's Birthplace is a restored 16th-century half-timbered house situated on Henley Street, Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England, where it is believed that William Shakespeare was born in 1564 and spent his childhood years.

Stratford-upon-Avon Stratford-upon-Avon ( ), commonly known as Stratford, is a market town and civil parish in the Stratford-on-Avon (district), Stratford-on-Avon district, in the county of Warwickshire, in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands region of Engl ...

. He died unmarried in 1858 and his estate was inherited by his nephew, Charles Bowles, who took the surname Shakespear. His memorial is on the north wall of the chancel at St Michael and All Angels' Church, Diseworth. In 1835 H. P. Briggs painted Shakespear's portrait, which was at Langley Priory for many years.

Selected publications

* ''Hindustani Grammar'', 1813
4th edition, 1843
6th edition, 1855. * ''Dictionary of Hindustani and English'', 1817
3rd edition, 1834
to the fourth edition of 1849 was added an English-Hindustani Dictionary. * ''Muntakhabat-i-Hindi, Selections in Hindustani'', 1817–18. * ''Introduction to the Hindustani Language'', 1845.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shakespeare 1774 births 1858 deaths Linguists from England Historical linguists English philologists English orientalists British East India Company people English male non-fiction writers People from North West Leicestershire District