Tattam, Henry

Tattam, Henry a learned English divine, was born in Ireland, Dec. 28, 1788; and was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and at the universities of Göttingen and Leyden, where he received his doctorate in laws, theology, and philosophy. He took orders in the Church of England; was rector of St. Cuthbert's, Bedford, 1818-45; and for a portion of that time was rector also of Great Woolstone, Bucks. In 1845 he became archdeacon of Bedford, and in 1849 rector of Stamford Rivers, Essex. He was afterwards chaplain in ordinary to the queen. He died at Stamford Rivers, Jan. 8,1868. Traveling in the East, he laid the foundation of an intimate knowledge of Oriental languages, and became the chief modern authority concerning the Coptic. He discovered at the Convent of Nitria, in the N.W. desert of Egypt, a splendid collection of ancient Syriac MSS. which he secured for the British Museum. He is the author of Helps to Devotion (2d ed. Lond. 1862, 12mo), Compendious Grammar of the Egyptian Language (1828, 8vo): — Lexicon Egyptiaco-Latinum ex Veteribus Linguae Egyptiaca Monunmentis, etc. (Oxon. 1835, 8o): Duodecim Prophetarum Minoruam Libros, in Lingua Eagyptiaca, vulgo Coptica sen Menphitica, etc. (Latine edidit; Lat. et Copt. 1836, 8vo): — Defense of the Church of England against the Attacks of a Roman Catholic (Lond. 1843, 12mo): — The Ancient Coptic Version of the Book of Job the Just (transl. into English and edited, 1847, 8vo): — Apostolical Constitutions in Coptic (English transl. 1849, 8vo): — Prophete Majores in Dialecto Lingue Egyptiace (Oxon. 1852, 2 vols. 8vo). See Allis bone, Dict. of Brit. and Amer. Authors, s.v.