HALL, Fitzedward. Troy, N.Y. 21.3.1825 — Marlesford, Suffolk 1.2.1901 (or 11.2.?). U.S. Indologist, in India 1846-62 and then in the U.K. Born in an old New England family, son of Daniel Hall, a lawyer, and Anginetta Fitch. Educated in Troy, Walpole and Poughkeepsie, graduated 1842 from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute as…
GOLDINGHAM, John (born Johannes Guldenheim). London 1767 — Worcester ?.7.1849. British Mathematician and Astronomer in India, also an Architect and Surveyor. Son of Benjamin Guldenheim, of Denmark, and Elizabeth Williams. From 1788 assistant to sailor-astronomer Michael Topping (1747–1796) and thus came to Madras. Succeeded Topping as the astronomer of Madras…
GINZEL, Friedrich Karl. Reichenberg (Liberec in Czechia) 23.2.1850 — Berlin 29.6.1926. Austrian (Bohemian) Astronomer in Berlin. Son of Friedrich Ginzel and his wife Helene. From 1877 Assistant at Th. von Oppolzer’s observatory in Vienna, in 1886 moved to Berlin, worked there at Astronomisches Rechen-Institut. Professor’s title 1899. Married, widower 1919.…
DAVIS, Samuel. West Indies 1760 — Croydon, Surrey 16.6.1819. British Engineer and Civil Servant in India, interested in Indian Astronomy. Son of an officer, John Davis and his wife, née Phillips. Lost early his father and came to England with his mother. He “went to Bengal as an officer of…
COLEBROOKE, Henry Thomas. London 15.6.1765 — London 10.12.(or 10.3. or 18.3. or 10.4.)1837. British Pioneer of Indology, Lawyer and Mathematician. 1782-1814 in India. Third son of Sir George Colebrooke (1729–1809), 2nd Bart., a banker and later the chairman of the E.I.C.’s directors (in 1769), and Mary Gaynor. Privately educated at…
CLARK, Walter Eugene. Digby, Nova Scotia 8.9.1881 — Vista, Calif. 30.9.1960. U.S. Indologist. Professor at Harvard. Born in Canada, but the family moved to the U.S.A. in 1883. Son of Hallet Sylvester Clark (1863–1928), a ship’s cabinetmaker, and Hannah Eliza Thomas. Studies at Harvard (A.B. 1903, A.M. 1904, Ph.D. 1906),…
BURROW, Reuben. Hoberley, near Shadwell, Leeds 30.12.1747 — Baxar, Bihar 7.6.1792. British Mathematician in India. “Son of a farmer, educated at Leeds. Became a clerk, usher, schoolmaster, assistant astronomer and schoolmaster at Greenwich, arithmetical teacher at the Tower, edited the Royal Almanack. Went to India in 1782, learnt Sanskrit.” In…
BURGESS, Ebenezer. Grafton, Vermont 26.6.1805 — Newton Centre, Mass. 1.1.1870. Rev. U.S. Missionary in India, a Scholar of Marathi, Sanskrit and Indian Astronomy. Son of the elder Ebenezer Burgess (1768–1834) and Mercy Hall (1771–1815). Educated at Amherst College and Andover Theological Seminary, ordained priest in 1839. Missionary in Western India…
BRENNAND, William. Clitheroe, Lancastershire 1818? — Wellington, Somerset ?.2.1897. British Teacher in India, Principal of Dacca College (1856). In 1896 had already been 23 years in retirement, living in Somerset. Married 1846 Iris Twisden (1827–1893), two daughters and one son. Apparently he claims a common Central Asian origin for the…
BIOT, Jean Baptiste. Paris 21.4.1774 — Paris 3.2.1862. French Historian of Science, especially Astronomy. Son of a treasury official, Joseph Biot, joined the army in 1792, but sent to home because of failing health in 1794. Graduated as an engineer and taught Mathematics from 1797 in Beauvais, from 1799 at…