wards chosen fellow of his college, ‘was in 1753 ordained at Kew Chapel by Dr. Thomas, bishop of Peterborough, and appointed, by the recommendation of Archbishop Herring, to the curacy of Sundridge in Kent; after which he became assistant-preacher at St. Anne's, Soho’ (Gent. Mag. March 1786, p. 188). Duncombe was in succession chaplain to Squire, bishop of St. David's, and to Lord Cork. In 1757 Archbishop Herring, his constant friend, presented him to the united livings of St. Andrew and St. Mary Bredman, Canterbury. He was afterwards made one of the six preachers in the cathedral, and in 1773 obtained from Archbishop Cornwallis the living of Herne, near Canterbury, ‘which afforded him a pleasant recess in the summer months.’ The archbishop also appointed him master of St. John's Hospital, Canterbury, and, as no emolument was annexed, gave him a chaplaincy, which enabled him to hold his two livings. Duncombe died at Canterbury 19 Jan. 1786. He married in 1761 Susanna [see Duncombe, Susanna], daughter of Joseph Highmore. She and an only daughter survived him.
Duncombe seems to have had some fame as a preacher, and to have been a man of varied if not high attainments. Of his many poems the best known were, ‘An Evening Contemplation in a College, being a Parody on the “Elegy in a Country Churchyard”’ (1753), ‘The Feminead’ (1754), ‘Translations from Horace’ (1766–7). His numerous occasional pieces, as ‘On a Lady sending the Author a Ribbon for his Watch,’ do not require notice (for full list see Gent. Mag. June 1786, pp. 451–2, and Biog. Brit. ed. Kippis, iv. 511). Of works connected with archæology, Duncombe wrote:
- ‘Historical Description of Canterbury Cathedral,’ 1772.
- A translation and abridgment of Battely's ‘Antiquities of Richborough and Reculver’ 1774.
- ‘History and Antiquities of Reculver and Herne,’ and of the ‘Three Archiepiscopal Hospitals at and near Canterbury’ (contributed to Nichols's ‘Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica,’ vols. i. and iv. 1780).
Duncombe edited:
- ‘Letters from Italy’ of John Boyle, first earl of Cork and Orrery, 1773.
- ‘Letters by several Eminent Persons deceased, including the Correspondence of J. Hughes, Esq.,’ 1773.
- ‘Letters from the late Archbishop Herring to William Duncombe, Esq., deceased,’ 1777.
- ‘Select Works of the Emperor Julian,’ 1784. He also published several sermons.
[Gent. Mag. 1786, pt. i., Biog. Brit. ed. Kippis, v. 509 et seq.; European Mag. ix. 66; Cantabr. Grad. (1659–1787), p. 124; Notes and Queries, 4th ser. viii. 243; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
DUNCOMBE, SUSANNA (1730?–1812), poetess and artist, only daughter of Joseph Highmore, the painter, and illustrator of ‘Pamela,’ was born about 1730, probably in London, either in the city or Lincoln's Inn Fields. She was one of a party to whom Richardson read his ‘Sir Charles Grandison;’ and she made a sketch of the scene, which forms the frontispiece to vol. ii. of Mrs. Barbauld's ‘Correspondence of Samuel Richardson.’ She contributed the story of ‘Fidelio and Honoria’ to ‘The Adventurer;’ was eulogised by John Duncombe [q. v.] as Eugenia in his ‘Feminead,’ 1754; and, after a protracted courtship, they were married on 20 April 1763, and went to his living in Kent, taking her father with them. In 1773 she furnished a frontispiece to vol. i. of her husband's ‘Letters by John Hughes;’ she also wrote a few poems in the ‘Poetical Calendar,’ and in 1782 some of her poems appeared in Nichols's ‘Select Collection.’ In January 1786 she was left a widow, with one child, a daughter, and took up her residence in the Precincts, Canterbury. In 1808 her portrait of Mrs. Chapone was transferred from her ‘Grandison’ frontispiece to the second edition of ‘Mrs. Chapone's Posthumous Works.’ She died on 28 Oct. 1812, aged about eighty-two, and was buried with her husband at St. Mary Bredman, Canterbury.
[Bryan's Dict. of Painters; Chalmers's Biog. Dict.; Gent. Mag. lxxxii. ii. 497.]
DUNCOMBE, THOMAS SLINGSBY (1796–1861), M.P. for Finsbury, was the eldest son of Thomas Duncombe of Copgrove, near Boroughbridge, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, by his wife Emma, eldest daughter of John Hinchliffe, bishop of Peterborough, and nephew of Charles, first Baron Feversham. He was born in 1796, and was sent to Harrow School in 1808, where he remained until Christmas 1811. Shortly before leaving school he was gazetted an ensign in the Coldstream guards, and in November 1813 he embarked with part of his regiment for Holland, and during the latter portion of the campaign acted as aide-de-camp to General Ferguson. Returning to England he took no part in the battle of Waterloo, and being raised to the rank of lieutenant on 23 Nov. 1815 retired from the army on 17 Nov. 1819. Duncombe unsuccessfully contested Pontefract in 1820. and Hertford in 1823, as a whig candidate. At the general election in June 1826, however, he was returned for the latter borough, defeating Henry Lytton Bulwer by a majority of ninety-two. Duncombe's first speech which attracted the attention of the house was made in the debate on the ministerial
