John Shakespear

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. 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 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.