Edward Hincks

Who was Edward Hincks?

The Reverend Edward Hincks was an Irish clergyman, best remembered as an Assyriologist and one of the decipherers of Mesopotamian cuneiform.

Edward Hincks was born in Cork on 19 August 1792. He was the eldest son of Thomas Dix Hincks, a distinguished Protestant minister, orientalist and naturalist. He was also the brother of Francis Hincks a Canadian politician. Hincks was educated at home by his father and later at Trinity College, Dublin, graduating in 1811 at the age of 19. In 1825, after taking orders in the Church of Ireland, he was appointed rector of Killyleagh in County Down, an office he was to hold for the remaining forty-one years of his life.