He matriculated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford 15 April 1698, aged 16, when he was described as son of William Newcomb of Westbury, Shropshire.
[3] On 8 May 1764 he wrote to the Duke of Newcastle, stating that his salary for supplying the chapel at Hackney had been taken from him, while his living in Sussex was very small.
He asked the duke to contribute to a collection which friends were raising for him, and he enclosed a Latin character of John Wilkes, and verses on him.
The poem's form is related to a Battle of the Books; unusually for the period Newcomb included some female writers.
[4] The image of the goddess Oblivion may have influenced "Dulness" in Alexander Pope's Dunciad;[5] the resemblance was pointed out by John Nichols.