https://indianpedia.org/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=George_Hadley_orientalistGeorge Hadley orientalist - Revision history2026-08-02T21:50:29ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.45.4https://indianpedia.org/index.php?title=George_Hadley_orientalist&diff=119992&oldid=prev>Rich Farmbrough at 20:23, 30 September 20192019-09-30T20:23:41Z<p></p>
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'''George Hadley''' (died 1798) was an English army officer of the [[East India Company]], now known as an orientalist for his early work on [[Hindustani language|Hindustani]].<br />
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==Life==<br />
Hadley was appointed a cadet in the East India Company's service in 1763, and gained his first commission in the [[Bengal Presidency]] on 19 June of that year. He became lieutenant on 5 February 1764, and captain on 26 July 1760.<ref name="DNB">{{cite DNB|wstitle=Hadley, George (d.1798)|volume=23}}</ref><br />
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Hadley retired from the service on 4 December 1771.<ref name="DNB"/> He returned to England, though it is not known exactly when.<ref name="ODNB">{{cite ODNB|id=11859|title=Hadley, George|first=Katherine|last=Prior}}</ref> He was of assistance to the self-taught orientalist [[William Price (orientalist)|William Price]], whom he introduced to [[William Ouseley]].<ref>{{cite ODNB|id=22774|title=Price, William|first=Parvin|last=Loloi}}</ref><br />
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Hadley died on 10 September 1798 in Gloucester Street, [[Queen Square, London|Queen Square]], London.<ref name="DNB"/><br />
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==Works==<br />
As an army commander, Hadley was in charge of a company of [[sepoy]]s, but initially had no knowledge of their language, Hindustani, which was then colloquially known in English as "Moors". For his own use, Hadley wrote a grammar of it, in 1765. A copy of his manuscript was published in London in 1770. Hadley then worked on a corrected edition, which appeared as ''Grammatical Remarks'' (1772).<ref>''Grammatical Remarks on the practical and vulgar Dialect of the Indostan Language commonly called Moors. With a Vocabulary, English and Moors'', London, 1772; 4th edit., enlarged, 1796.</ref> He published also ''Introductory Grammatical Remarks on the Persian Language. With a Vocabulary, English and Persian'', Bath, 1776.<ref name="DNB"/><br />
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Hadley's grammar was aimed at the current British needs in Bengal, to get Indians to work for them, without the mediation of a ''[[munshi]]''. Its content, as a phrase book, reflected the economy and social climate of the time, and ignored the [[Urdu language]].<ref name="Bayly2000">{{cite book|first=Christopher Alan |last=Bayly|authorlink=Christopher Bayly|title=Empire and Information: Intelligence Gathering and Social Communication in India, 1780-1870|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8bqEzPPp8xIC&pg=PA288|date=9 March 2000|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-66360-1|page=288}}</ref> Hadley correctly identified Hindustani as a language in its own right, rather than a dialect of Persian. His theory of a [[Tatar language|Tartar]] origin was rejected, and his work came in for criticism from [[John Borthwick Gilchrist]], who objected to the version of Hindustani it reported.<ref name="ODNB"/><br />
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In 1788 Thomas Briggs, a printer in [[Kingston-upon-Hull|Hull]], persuaded Hadley to put his name to a compilation, ''A New and Complete History of the Town and County of the Town of Kingston-upon-Hull''.<ref name="DNB"/><br />
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==Notes==<br />
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;Attribution<br />
{{DNB|wstitle=Hadley, George (d.1798)|volume=23}}<br />
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[[Category:Year of birth missing]]<br />
[[Category:1798 deaths]]<br />
[[Category:English orientalists]]<br />
[[Category:British East India Company Army officers]]</div>>Rich Farmbrough