LEE, Samuel, an English scholar, born at Longnor, May 14, 1783, died at Barley, Dec. 16, 1852. He was educated at a charity school, and at the age of 12 was apprenticed to a carpenter. While laboring at his craft he mastered the Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Chaldaic, and Syriac languages. He subsequently acquired a knowledge of Arabic, Persian, French, German, and Italian, with the assistance of Archdeacon Corbett, who in 1810 procured his appointment to the mastership of a foundation school at Shrewsbury. He entered Queen's college, Cambridge, in 1813, graduated in due course,
took orders, and in 1819 became professor of
Arabic at his university. In 1831 he was
elected regius professor of Hebrew in the
university of Cambridge, which in 1833 conferred
on him the degree of D. D., an honor received
by him more than ten years before from the
German university of Halle. His chief
publications were: “Hebrew Grammar” (1830); “The Travels of Ibn Batuta,” translated from the Arabic (1833); a translation of Job (1837); a “Hebrew, Chaldaic, and English Lexicon” (1840); and “An Inquiry into the Nature, Progress, and End of Prophecy” (1849).