James Hadley (scholar)

James Hadley
Daguerrotype of Hadley, c. 1850
Born	(1821-03-10)March 10, 1821 Fairfield, New York
Died	November 14, 1872(1872-11-14) (aged 51) New Haven, Connecticut
Alma mater	Yale College
Occupation	Philologist, professor
Employer	Yale College
Spouse(s)	Anne Loring Twining
Children	Arthur Twining Hadley

James Hadley (March 10, 1821 – November 14, 1872) was a United States philologist who taught Greek and Hebrew languages at Yale College.

He was born in Fairfield, New York, where his father was professor of chemistry at Fairfield Medical College. At the age of nine, a knee injury left him lame for life. He received his early instruction at the Fairfield Academy, and also acquired some scientific knowledge from his father. He became assistant at the Academy, and later graduated from Yale College in 1842, having entered the junior class in 1840. He was then a resident graduate at Yale for a year, after which he entered Yale's theological seminary, where he spent two years.

From April to September 1845, he was a tutor at Middlebury College. He was a tutor at Yale in 1845–1848, an assistant professor of Greek in 1848–1851, and a professor of Greek, succeeding President Woolsey, from 1851 until his death in New Haven, Connecticut.

As an undergraduate, he had proven an able mathematician, but the influence of Edward Elbridge Salisbury, under whom Hadley and William Dwight Whitney studied Sanskrit together, turned his attention toward the study of language. He knew Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, Hebrew, Arabic, Armenian, several Celtic languages, and the languages of modern Europe; but he published little, and his scholarship found scant outlet in the college classroom.