Josiah Willard Gibbs, Sr.

Josiah Willard Gibbs, Sr.
Prof. Josiah Willard Gibbs, Sr., from a portrait by F. B. Carpenter
Born	(1790-04-30)April 30, 1790 Salem, Massachusetts
Died	March 25, 1861(1861-03-25) (aged 70) New Haven, Connecticut
Occupation	Theologian, linguist, librarian

Josiah Willard Gibbs, Sr. (30 April 1790 – 25 March 1861) was an American linguist and theologian, who served as professor of sacred literature at Yale University. He is chiefly remembered today for his involvement in the Amistad case and as the father of theoretical physicist Willard Gibbs.

Gibbs was born in Salem, Massachusetts into an old Yankee family with a rich scholarly tradition. His parents were Henry and Mercy (Prescott) Gibbs. One of his ancestors, Samuel Willard, had served as acting President of Harvard College from 1701 to 1707. Gibbs graduated from Yale College in 1809 and was a tutor there from 1811 to 1815. He then moved to Andover, Massachusetts, and pursued private studies in Hebrew and the Bible, guided by Moses Stuart. He returned to Yale in 1824 as lecturer in the Theological Institution of Yale College, later becoming a professor in the department of sacred literature (within the Yale Divinity School), a post he retained until his death.

Gibbs was an ordained minister of the Congregational church and a licensed preacher, though he rarely appeared at the pulpit. His work increasingly focused on linguistics and was strongly influenced by the grammar of James Harris and by German scholars such as Wilhelm Gesenius and Karl Becker. He twice attempted to translate into English a new lexicon of Hebrew published in Germany, only to discover that another scholar had completed the task while he was still working at it. These experiences motivated him to learn other languages and to broaden his horizons as a linguist.