Thomas Hincks. 39 



REV. THOMAS IIINCKS. 1818-1899. 



The Rev. THOMAS HINCKS was born at Exeter, July 15, 1818, the 

 son of the Rev. W. Hincks, Professor of Natural Philosophy at Man- 

 chester New College, York, afterwards Professor of Natural History in 

 Queen's College, Cork, and in the University of Toronto, where he died 

 in 1871. Thomas Hincks was nephew to the Rev. Edward Hincks, 

 the well-known Egyptologist. He was educated at Belfast, and in the 

 Manchester New College, from which he entered the Unitarian 

 ministry. He was minister at Cork (1839), Dublin (1842), Warring- 

 ton (1844), Exeter (1846), Sheffield (1852), and Leeds (1855). He 

 married Elizabeth, daughter of Mr. John Allan, of Warrington, who, 

 with two daughters, survives him. While minister at Cork, in 1840, 

 he graduated B.A. in the London University. He was elected a 

 Fellow of the Royal Society in 1872. 



In Leeds Hincks succeeded, after a long interval, to the post once 

 held by Dr. Priestley, and rendered memorable in the history of 

 science by experiments preliminary to the discovery of oxygen. In 

 his profession Hincks was active and highly respected. The old 

 meeting house, in which Priestley taught, had been replaced by a 

 modern chapel, to which Hincks had the satisfaction of adding schools 

 and a congregational hall. He was prominent in educational and 

 philanthropic work in Leeds until his breakdown in 1868. A year's 

 leave of absence was tried in vain. In March, 1869, he was com- 

 pelled to lay down his ministry, and though he lived for thirty years 

 longer in activity and usefulness, he was unable to address any but the 

 smallest gatherings, and these only at long intervals. "The tragedy 

 of his life," says his widow, "was the loss of voice and the consequent 

 enforced withdrawal from all public work." Mr. Hincks died at 

 Clifton, where he had spent most of the years of his retirement, on 

 January 25, 1899. 



Mrs. Hincks gives the following particulars concerning her hus- 

 band's work in natural history: "I think my husband's love of 

 natural history was hereditary. His father was a botanist, whose 

 enthusiasm seemed to inspire all his children with a love of the study 

 of nature. What caused Mr. Hincks to take up zoophytes as his special 

 study I do not know. It might be that in youth he was closely asso- 

 ciated with his life-long friend, Professor Allman. He was a persistent 

 dredger during his holidays by the sea. Familiar as he was with very 

 much of the British coast, his chief work was done on that of Devon- 

 shire, both north and south, and in the beautiful estuary of Salcombe. 



