John Duncombe (writer)

John Duncombe (29 September 1729 – 19 January 1786) was an English clergyman and writer, son of William Duncombe.

He studied at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he became a fellow. He married the poet Susanna Highmore. He contributed to the Gentleman's Magazine under the pseudonym Crito, was a well-known poet, and wrote in 1754 a celebration of British women poets, the Feminead.

The only child of William Duncombe, he was born in London. He was first educated at two schools in Essex; he then entered, on 1 July 1745, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he proceeded B.A. 1748, M.A. 1752. He was later chosen fellow of his college, and was in 1753 ordained at Kew Chapel by John Thomas, the bishop of Peterborough. He was appointed, by the recommendation of Archbishop Thomas Herring, to the curacy of Sundridge in Kent.

Subsequently Duncombe became assistant-preacher at St Anne, Soho. He was in succession chaplain to Samuel Squire, bishop of St David's, and to John Boyle, 5th Earl of Cork. In 1757 Archbishop Herring, a friend, presented him to the united livings of St. Andrew and St. Mary Bredman, in Canterbury. He was later made one of the Six Preachers in the cathedral; and in 1773 obtained from Archbishop Frederick Cornwallis the living of Herne, near Canterbury. The archbishop also appointed him master of St. John's Hospital, Canterbury, and gave him a chaplaincy, which enabled him to hold his two livings.

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