Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Tattam, Henry

by Thompson Cooper

TATTAM, HENRY, D.D. (1789–1868), Coptic scholar, was born in 1789. On 13 Aug. 1822 he was presented to the rectory of St. Cuthbert's, Bedford, and on 12 Aug. 1831 to the rectory of Great Woolstone, near Newport Pagnell; he held both these benefices till 1849, when he was presented by the crown to the living of Stanford Rivers, Essex. On 5 Feb. 1835 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society, and on 12 March 1845 he was collated by Joseph Allen, bishop of Ely, to the archdeaconry of Bedford, which he resigned in 1866. He was also a chaplain in ordinary to the queen. On 25 March 1845 he received the honorary degree of LL.D. from Trinity College, Dublin. He also received the degree of D.D. from Göttingen, and that of doctor of philosophy from Leyden. He died at Stanford Rivers on 8 Jan. 1868.

His principal works are:

1. ‘Helps to Devotion,’ London, 1825, 12mo; 1862, 16mo.
2. ‘An Edition of the Gospels in Arabic and Coptic’ [1829], 4to.
3. ‘A Compendious Grammar of the Egyptian Language, as contained in the Coptic and Sahidic Dialects, with observations on the Bashmuric, together with alphabets and numerals in the hieroglyphic and enchorial characters,’ 3 parts, London, 1830, 8vo; 2nd edit. improved, London, 1863, 8vo.
4. ‘Lexicon Ægyptiaco-Latinum ex veteribus Linguæ Ægyptiacæ Monumentis, et ex operibus La Crozii, Woidii, et aliorum … congestum,’ Oxford, 1835, 8vo.
5. ‘Duodecim Prophetarum Minorum Libros in lingua … Coptica … Latine edidit H. T.’ 1836, 8vo.
6. ‘A Defence of the Church of England against the attacks of a Roman Catholic priest,’ London, 1843, 8vo.
7. ‘The Ancient Coptic version of the Book of Job the Just, translated,’ 1846, 8vo.
8. ‘The New Testament in Coptic and Arabic,’ the former version being edited by Tattam, 1847.
9. ‘The Apostolical Constitutions in Coptic, with an English translation,’ 1848, 8vo.
10. ‘Prophetæ majores, in dialecto linguæ Ægyptiacæ Memphitica seu Coptica. Edidit cum versione Latina H. T.’ 1852, 8vo.
11. ‘Memoir of the late John Camden Neild of Chelsea,’ privately printed, London [1852], 8vo.

[Crockford's Clerical Directory, 1868; Essex County Chronicle, 14 Jan. 1868, p. 5; Gent. Mag. February 1868, p. 263; Guardian, 15 Jan. 1868, p. 63; Memoir of Samuel Lee, LL.D. (1896), p. 103.]

T. C.