Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Newcome, Peter

892249Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 40 — Newcome, Peter1894Gordon Goodwin

NEWCOME, PETER (1727–1797), antiquary, born at Wellow in Hampshire in 1727, was son of Peter Newcome (1684–1744), rector of Shenley, Hertfordshire, and grandson of Peter Newcome (1656–1738) [see under Newcome, Henry]. He was educated at Hackney School, entered Queens' College, Cambridge, on 7 Nov. 1743, and graduated LL.B. in 1750 (College Register). He was instituted rector of Shenley, on his own petition, on 23 Dec. 1752, was collated to a prebend at Llandaff on 15 March 1757 (Le Neve, Fasti, ed. Hardy, ii. 268), and to a prebend at St. Asaph on 4 May 1764 (ib. i. 90). The last preferment he handed over to his brother, Henry, in 1766, on being presented to the sinecure rectory of Dârowen, Montgomeryshire. By the appointment of his friend, J. Heathcote, he twice preached Lady Moyer's lectures in St. Paul's, and was the last preacher on that endowment. In 1786 Sir Gilbert Heathcote gave him the rectory of Pitsea, Essex. He died unmarried in his sister's house at Hadley, near Barnet, Middlesex, on 2 April 1797 (Cussans, Hertfordshire, ‘Hundred of Dacorum,’ pp. 320, 323).

Newcome was author of: 1. ‘Maccabeis,’ a Latin poem, 4to, 1787. 2. ‘The History of the … Abbey of St. Alban,’ 4to, 1793–1795, in two volumes, a creditable compilation.

[Nichols's Lit. Anecd. ix. 134; Gent. Mag. 1797 pt. i. p. 437.]

G. G.