James Hatley Frere

James Hatley Frere (1779–1866) was an English writer on prophecy and developer of a tactile alphabet system for teaching the blind to read. Life Frere was the sixth son of John Frere, of Roydon, South Norfolk, and Beddington, Surrey, by Jane, daughter and heiress of John Hookham of London. On 15 June 1809 he married Merian, second daughter of Matthew Martin, F.R.S., of Poets' Corner, Westminster, by whom he had six sons: Hatley Frere (1811–1868), Judge of the High Court, Madras (great-grandfather of Mary Leakey) Chales Frere (1813–1884), Taxing Master of the House of Commons, Barrister-at-law John Alexander Frere (1814–1877), Vicar of Shillington, Bedfordshire Edward Daniel Frere (1816–1881) Constantine Frere (1817–1905), Rector of Finningham William Theodore Frere (1820–?), died as an infant. Frere met Edward Irving in 1825, and influenced him in the direction of the study of biblical prophecy. He died at the residence of his third son, the Rev. John Alexander Frere, Shillington vicarage, Bedfordshire, on 8 December 1866. Inventor About 1838 Frere introduced a tactile alphabet, a phonetic system for teaching the blind to read. He had the advantage of having his plan carried out by a blind man, who suggested several changes. His characters consist of straight lines, half circles, hooked lines, and angles of forty-five degrees, together with a hollow and solid circle. He also invented the 'return' lines: the lines in his book are read from left to right and from right to left alternately (boustrophedon), the letters themselves being reversed in the return lines. Although useful in enabling uneducated persons to read in a short space of time, Frere's system was found to vitiate pronunciation. In 1871 it was in use at only three home institutions.