William Rowan Hamilton was born in Dublin at midnight between the 3rd and 4th of August 1805. His father, Archibald Hamilton, was a solicitor, and his mother, Sarah, came from a well-known family of coachbuilders in Dublin.

Hamilton's genius first displayed itself in the form of a power of acquiring languages. By the time that he was 13, he had mastered languages such as, Hebrew, French, Italian, Syriac, Persian, Arabic, Hindustani, Sanskirt and Malay.