, M. A. son of a worthy clergy, man in Herefordshire, and great grandson,
, M. A. son of a worthy clergy,
man in Herefordshire, and great grandson, by his mother’s
side, to the famous Spenser, was born in 1675, and was,
for some time, educated at Corpus Christi college, Oxford; but we do not find his name among the Graduates.
He was afterwards chaplain to the second duke of Richmond, and rector of Stopham in Sussex, in 1734, when
he published a translation of “Velleius Paterculus.
” For
some time before this he lived at Hackney, in rather distressed circumstances. So early as 1718, he was author
of an excellent poem, under the title of “Bibliotheca,
”
which is preserved in the third volume of Nichols’s “Select Collection of Miscellany Poems,
” and on which Dr.
Warton thinks Pope must have formed his goddess
Dulness, in the “Dunciad.
” Besides the many productions of
Dr. Newcomb reprinted in that collection, he was author of
several poems of merit; particularly of “The last Judgment
of Men and AngeU, in twelve books, after the manner of
Milton,
” To her late majesty queen Anne, upon
the Peace of Utrecht;
” “An Ode to the memory of Mr.
Rowe;
” and another, “To the memory of the countess of
Berkeley.
” He also translated several of Addison’s Latin
poems, and Philips’s “Ode to Mr. St. John.
”