Reverend Edward Hincks
Taken from: "A tourist Guide to Killyleagh and District"
The Reverend Edward Hincks was born in Cork on 18th August 1792, the son of a Presbyterian minister and professor of Hebrew and Oriental Languages. Edward inherited his father's gift for languages and became one of the foremost Egyptology and Assyriology scholars of his day. It is believed that even before he could speak, Hincks could piece together a jigsaw map of Europe and point to every town, city and mountain of importance on the globe.
After an illustrious undergraduate period at Trinity College, Dublin he became a minister in Ardtrea in the diocese of Armagh and then from 1825 until his death in 1866 Dr Hincks was rector at Killyleagh Parish Church. During this time he lived at the rectory on Church Hill (Church Hill House) and it was here that he carried out much of his important work translating Egyptian hieroglyphics and Mesopotamian cuneiform writing. He made many more important discoveries about both languages and was described by the scholar Sayce, as the 'founder of Assyrian grammar'.
Stories are told of Hincks preaching at church on a Sunday and then disappearing from the pulpit in the middle of a sermon. As he preached he sometimes managed to complete something he had been deciphering earlier and had to retire to the adjoining rectory to write it down before he forgot it. Afterwards he would return to his awaiting congregation to complete the sermon.
Hincks was also an active member of the Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society. On January 25th 1835 he was present at the unrolling of the mummy Takabuti and interpreted the hieroglyphics on her coffin to the assembled meeting. Takabuti and her coffin have since been on almost constant display at the Ulster Museum in Belfast.
Although Hincks is recognised now as a world genius in deciphering the ancient languages of the Far East, he did not receive the acclaim he deserved for his genius in his lifetime. This is probably due to the fact that he did not travel abroad. The furthest he ever travelled was to mainland Britain never mind Egypt or the Far East. However, following his death on December 3rd 1866 aged 74, Professor Maspero, Director of the Museum in Cairo, commissioned a marble bust as a lasting tribute to the contribution Dr Hincks had made to the knowledge about Ancient Egypt. A portrait of him hangs in the Manuscript reading Room, Trinity College as a memorial of the institution's brilliant scholar.
In Killyleagh, visitors can see the former rectory at Church Hill (now a private residence) where Hincks spent the last 41 years of his life and visit the adjoining church graveyard where he is buried. In 1966 a brass commemorative plaque was erected and inside the Parish Church a stained glass memorial window to his work can be found.
