Background
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.
Read more about this topic: Whitley Stokes
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