Newcome to Priestley (19 April 1782). While he held his ground against Priestley, on another point Newcome subsequently revised his ‘Harmony’ in ‘A Review of the Chief Difficulties … relating to our Lord's Resurrection,’ &c., 1792, 4to; in this he recurs to the hypothesis of George Benson, D.D. [q. v.]. An English ‘Harmony,’ on the basis of Newcome's Greek one, was published in 1802, 8vo; reprinted 1827, 8vo.
As an interpreter of the prophets, Newcome followed Robert Lowth [q. v.], the discoverer of the parallelisms of Hebrew poetry. His ‘Attempt towards an Improved Version, a Metrical Arrangement, and an Explanation of the Twelve Minor Prophets,’ &c., 1785, 4to (reissued, with additions from Horsley and Blayney, Pontefract, 1809, 8vo, ill-printed), is his best work. In his version he claims to give ‘the critical sense … and not the opinions of any denomination.’ In his notes he makes frequent use of the manuscripts of Secker. It was followed by ‘An Attempt towards an Improved Version … of … Ezekiel,’ &c., Dublin, 1788, 4to (reprinted 1836, 8vo). These were parts of a larger plan, set forth in ‘An Historical View of the English Biblical Translations,’ &c., 1792, 8vo, with suggestions for a revision by authority. Newcome himself worked at a revision of the whole English bible. The New Testament portion was printed as ‘An Attempt towards Revising our English Translation of the Greek Scriptures,’ &c., Dublin, 1796, 8vo, 2 vols.; the text adopted was the first edition (1775–7) of Griesbach, and there were numerous notes. The work was withheld from publication till (1800) after Newcome's death; as the impression was damaged in crossing from Dublin, the number of copies for sale was small. In 1808 the unitarians issued anonymously an ‘Improved Version upon the basis of Archbishop Newcome's New Translation.’ The adaptations for a sectarian purpose were mainly the work of Thomas Belsham [q. v.], to whom an indignant expostulation was addressed (7 Aug. 1809) by Newcome's connection, Joseph Stock, D.D., bishop of Killala and Achonry.
Newcome died at his residence, St. Stephen's Green, Dublin, on 11 Jan. 1800, and was buried in the chapel of Trinity College. He was twice married, and had by his first wife one daughter, by his second wife a numerous family. A bust portrait of Newcome in episcopal habit by an unknown hand was in 1867 in the possession of the Archbishop of Armagh. In addition to the above he published three single sermons (1767–72) and a charge (1795); also ‘Observations on our Lord's Conduct as a Divine Instructor,’ &c. 1782, 4to; 2nd ed. revised, 1795, 8vo; 3rd ed. 1820, 8vo; also Oxford, 1852, 8vo. His interleaved bible, in four folio volumes, containing his collections for a revised version of the Old Testament, was deposited in the Lambeth Library. A few of his letters to Joshua Toulmin, D.D., are in the ‘Monthly Repository,’ 1806, pp. 458 sq., 518 sq.
[General Biography, 1799–1815, vii. 367 sq. (article by T. Morgan, based on an autobiographical memoir by Newcome, and information from Robert Newcome, his brother); Gent. Mag. 1800, i. 90 sq., 219; Belsham's Life of Lindsey, 1812, pp. 459 sq.; Chalmers's Biographical Dictionary, 1815, xxiii. 113 sq.; Rutt's Memoirs of Priestley, 1831, i. 204; Priestley's Works, xx. 224; Mant's Hist. of the Church of Ireland, 1840, ii. 635 sq.]
NEWCOMEN, ELIAS (1550?–1614), schoolmaster, descended from the Newcomens of Saltfleetby, Lincolnshire, was younger son of Charles Newcomen of Bourne, Lincolnshire. Matthew Newcomen [q. v.] was his second cousin. He matriculated as a pensioner of Clare Hall, Cambridge, on 12 May 1565, but migrated to Magdalene College in that university, where he graduated B.A. in 1568–9, and commenced M.A. in 1572 (Cooper, Athenæ Cantabr. iii. 17). He was elected to a fellowship in his college; but Dr. Kelke, the master, ejected him from it, on the ground of his not having been duly admitted. Soon afterwards Newcomen set up a grammar school in his own house near London, having usually twenty or thirty scholars, the children of well-to-do parents. In 1586 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the head-mastership of Merchant Taylors' School. He was warmly recommended by Lord Chancellor Bromley and Sir Edward Osborne, alderman of London. Lord Cheyne was another liberal patron. He was still engaged in tuition on 2 July 1592, when he wrote a letter to Mrs. Maynard, assuring her that he would take great care of the education of her son (Lansdowne MS. 72, f. 180). In 1600 he was presented to the living of Stoke-Fleming, Devonshire. He died and was buried there in 1614. A brass to his memory is in the church (Worthy, Devonshire Parishes, 1887, i. 371). He married in 1579 Prothesa Shobridge of Shoreditch. His great-grandson, Thomas Newcomen the inventor, is separately noticed.
He published ‘A Defence and true Declaration of the Thinges lately done in the Lowe Countrey, whereby may easily be seen to whom all the Beginning and Cause of the late Troubles and Calamities is to be im-
