Whitley Stokes
| Whitley Stokes | |
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Whitley Stokes.
— Dá Derga's Hostel (Émile Bouillon 1902)
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| Born |
28 February 1830 Dublin, Ireland |
| Died | 13 April 1909 (aged 79) London, England |
| Occupation | Lawyer, Civil Servant |
| Nationality | Irish |
Whitley Stokes, CSI, CIE (28 February 1830 – 13 April 1909) was an Irish lawyer and Celtic scholar.
He was a son of William Stokes (1804–1878), and a grandson of Whitley Stokes (1763–1845), each of whom was Regius Professor of Physic at the University of Dublin. His sister Margaret Stokes was a writer and archaeologist.
He was born at 5 Merrion Square, Dublin and educated at St Columba's College where he was taught Irish by Denis Coffey, author of a Primer of the Irish Language. Through his father he came to know the Irish antiquaries Samuel Ferguson, Eugene O'Curry, John O'Donovan and George Petrie. He entered Trinity College, Dublin in 1846 and graduated with a BA in 1851. His friend and contemporary Rudolf Thomas Siegfried (1830–1863) became assistant librarian in Trinity College in 1855, and the college's first professor of Sanskrit in 1858. It is likely that Stokes learnt both Sanskrit and comparative philology from Siegfried, thus acquiring a skill-set rare among Celtic scholars in Ireland at the time.
Stokes became an English barrister on 17 November 1855, practicing in London before going to India in 1862, where he filled several official positions. In 1865 he married Mary Bazely by whom he had four sons and two daughters. One of his daughters, Maïve, compiled a book of Indian Fairy Tales in 1879 (she was 12 years old) based on stories told to her by her Indian ayahs and a man-servant. It also included some notes by Mrs. Mary Stokes. Mary died while the family was still living in India. In 1877, Stokes was appointed legal member of the viceroy's council, and he drafted the codes of civil and criminal procedure and did much other valuable work of the same nature. In 1879 he became president of the commission on Indian law. Nine books by Stokes on Celtic studies were published in India. He returned to settle permanently in London in 1881 and married Elizabeth Temple in 1884. In 1887 he was made a CSI, and two years later a CIE He was an original fellow of the British Academy, an honorary fellow of Jesus College, Oxford and foreign associate of the Institut de France.
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