HACKET, JOHN (1592-1670), bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, was born in London and educated at Westminster and Trinity College, Cambridge. On taking his degree he was elected a fellow of his college, and soon afterwards wrote the comedy of Loiola (London, 1648), which was twice performed before James I. He was ordained in 1618, and through the influence of John Williams (1582-1650) became rector in 1621 of Stoke Hammond, Bucks, and Kirkby Underwood, Lincolnshire. In 1623 he was chaplain to James, and in 1624 Williams presented him to the livings of St Andrew’s, Holborn, and Cheam, Surrey. When the so-called “root-and-branch bill” was before parliament in 1641, Hacket was selected to plead in the House of Commons for the continuance of cathedral establishments. In 1645 his living of St Andrew’s was sequestered, but he was allowed to retain the rectory of Cheam. On the accession of Charles II. his fortunes improved; he frequently preached before the king, and in 1661 was consecrated bishop of Lichfield and Coventry. His best-known book is the excellent biography of his patron, Archbishop Williams, entitled Scrinia reserata: a Memorial offered to the great Deservings of John Williams, D.D. (London, 1693).
HACKETT, HORATIO BALCH (1808-1875), American biblical scholar, was born in Salisbury, Massachusetts, on the 27th of December 1808. He was educated at Phillips-Andover Academy, at Amherst College, where he graduated as valedictorian in 1830, and at Andover Theological Seminary, where he graduated in 1834. He was adjunct professor of Latin and Greek Languages and Literature at Brown University in 1835-1838 and professor of Hebrew Literature there in 1838-1839, was ordained to the Baptist ministry in 1839—he had become a Baptist at Andover as the result of preparing a paper on baptism in the New Testament and the Fathers—and in 1839-1868 he was professor of Biblical literature and interpretation in Newton Theological Institution where his most important work was the introduction of the modern German methods of Biblical criticism, which he had learned from Moses Stuart at Andover and with which he made himself more familiar in Germany (especially under Tholuck at Halle) in 1841. He travelled in Egypt and Palestine in 1852, and in 1858-1859 in Greece, becoming proficient in modern Greek. From 1870 until his death in Rochester, New York, on the 2nd of November 1875, he was professor of Biblical literature and New Testament exegesis in the Rochester Theological Seminary. He was a great teacher but a greater critical and exegetical scholar.
He wrote Christian Memorials of the War (1864); an English version of Winer’s Grammar of the Chaldee Language (1844); Exercises in Hebrew Grammar (1847); and various articles on the Semitic language and literature in periodicals; but his best-known work was in general commentary on the Bible and translation, and in the special text study of the New Testament. Under these two headings fall: Illustrations of Scripture; suggested by a Tour through the Holy Land (1855); the American revision, with Ezra Abbot, of Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible, to the British edition of which he had contributed about thirty articles; Commentary on the Original Text of the Acts of the Apostles (1852; 2nd edition, 1858), for many years the best English commentary; Notes on the Greek Text of the Epistle of Paul to Philemon, and a Revised Version of Philemon, both published in 1860; the English versions, in Schaff’s edition of Lange’s Commentaries, of Van Oosterzee’s Philemon and Braune’s Philippians; and for the American Bible Union Version of the Bible he translated the books of Ruth and Judges, and aided T. J. Conant in editorial revision; and he was one of the American translators for the English Bible revision.
See Memorials of Horatio Batch Hackett (Rochester, N.Y., 1876), edited by G. H. Whittemore.
HACKETT, JAMES HENRY (1800-1871), American actor, was born in New York. After an unsuccessful entry into business, in 1826 he went on the stage, where he soon established a reputation as a player of eccentric character parts. As Falstaff he was no less successful in England than in America. At various times he went into management, and he was the author of Notes and Comments on Shakespeare (1863).
His son, James Keteltas Hackett (1869- ), born at Wolfe Island, Ontario, and educated at the College of the City of New York, also became an actor. He came into prominence at the Lyceum in Daniel Frohman’s company, and afterwards had considerable success in romantic parts. As a manager he stood outside the American syndicate of theatres, and organized several companies to play throughout the United States. In 1897 he married Mary Mannering, the Anglo-American actress.