Famous People Born In 1788

Widely considered one of the greatest British poets of all time, Lord Byron remains influential as his works are widely read even today. He was also one of the most important personalities of the Romantic Movement. He is also known for his role in the Greek War of Independence, for which the Greeks consider him a national hero.

Arthur Schopenhauer was a German philosopher. He was among the first Western philosophers to affirm important tenets of Indian philosophy, such as denial of the self and asceticism. Schopenhauer's work has had a tremendous posthumous impact on disciplines like science, literature, and philosophy. His work influenced personalities like Albert Einstein, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Sigmund Freud, George Bernard Shaw, and Leo Tolstoy. 

Statesman Robert Peel had been the prime minister of the U.K twice. He was also a two-time home secretary. He established the Metropolitan Police Service and also introduced the Tamworth Manifesto, thus co-founding the modern Conservative Party. He died of injuries after a horse he was riding fell on him.

Baptist missionary Adoniram Judson is remembered for his long stint in Burma, where he established a church, founded schools, and baptised many people. He also translated the Bible into Burmese and worked on a Burmese-English dictionary. He was also one of the first from America to travel abroad for missionary activities.

Augustin-Jean Fresne, best remembered for his pioneering research on the wave theory of light, was a sickly child and was mostly homeschooled in his early days. The French physicist was a civil engineer, too. Unfortunately, most of his scientific work failed to receive public attention during his lifetime.

Catherine Pavlovna of Russia was the daughter of Duchess Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg and Tsar Paul I of Russia. Through her marriage with her first cousin Crown Prince William, she became Queen Catharina Pavlovna of Württemberg in 1816 when Prince William became King William I of Württemberg. Catherine died of erysipelas complicated by pneumonia, at the age of 30.

Christian Jürgensen Thomsen was a Danish antiquarian best remembered for developing early archaeological methods and techniques. In 1816, he was selected as the head of an organization, which later became the National Museum of Denmark. Christian Jürgensen Thomsen is credited with mentoring future archaeologists like Bror Emil Hildebrand and J. J. A. Worsaae.  

Known for his pioneering written work on railroad construction, engineer and architect William Strickland was also one of the leaders of the 19th-century Greek Revival style of architecture. He designed structures such as the US Mint, contributed to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and was also one of the first American lecturers of architecture.

Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet, was a Scottish metaphysician and educator best remembered for his work in the field of logic. Hamilton, who made attempts to combine the views held by German philosopher Immanuel Kant with the Scottish philosophy of common sense, is credited with popularizing the works of Kant in the United Kingdom.

The son of a weaver, Samuel Bamford quit school and worked as a weaver and a warehouseman. He later penned many poems, expressing his support for the working class. Charged with inciting violence at the Peterloo massacre, he was also jailed for a while. He later became a journalist in London.

Initially a carpenter, Thomas Tredgold later began working with his architect uncle in London. There, he learned architecture, engineering, and French. The self-made man is best known for his book Elementary Principles of Carpentry, which later became a classic. He is also known to have laid down the standard definition of civil engineering.

Known as the founder of the chemistry of alkaloids, Pierre-Joseph Pelletier studied and taught at Ecole de Pharmacie. Working with Joseph Bienaimé Caventou, he first isolated chlorophyll. Working further they established that alkaloids contain oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen and isolated brucine, cinchonine, colchicine, quinine, strychnine, and veratrine. Their discoveries were later used by chemists to develop many useful medicines.

Alexander Campbell was a Scots-Irish immigrant who went on to become an ordained minister in America. He then joined forces with his father and led a reform effort, which came to be known as the Restoration Movement. Also referred to as the Stone-Campbell Movement, it helped develop non-denominational Christian churches. 

Mikhail Shchepkin was an actor who is regarded as the most popular actor of the Russian Empire during the 19th century. Referred to as the father of realist acting in Russia, Shchepkin was instrumental in the development of the Stanislavski's system of acting through his student Glikeriya Nikolaevna Fedotova, who would later have a major influence on Konstantin Sergeyevich Stanislavski.

German Romantic lyricist Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff is best remembered for his epic poem Robert und Guiscard, which highlights the French Revolution. His prose works such as Memoirs of a Good-for-Nothing, revolving around themes such as love, too, gained him fame. He also worked in the civil services