James Pearson Newcomb (August 31, 1837 – October 16, 1907) was a journalist and Secretary of State of Texas.

Newcomb was born in Amherst, Nova Scotia and with his parents and a brother, in 1839 he emigrated to Victoria, Texas.

[4] Following that campaign, in 1863 he returned to San Francisco where he published Sketch of Secession Times in Texas and Journal of Travel from Texas through Mexico to California in which he provided his theory of the secession movement that led to the American Civil War, blaming it on conspirators.

[5] After editing a handful of newspapers in California and starting one, the San Jose Times, which failed, he returned to Texas.

Newcomb's papers are held at the Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin.