RA Collection: People and Organisations
Writer and literary imitator. Chiefly remembered as the author of The Three Tours of Doctor Syntax, a comic poem, illustrated by Thomas Rowlandson’s colour plates. Combe also wrote a series of imaginary letters, supposed to have been written by the second, or “wicked” Lord Lyttelton. Of a similar kind were his letters between Swift and “Stella”.
Son of Robert Combes (d. 1756), a prosperous wholesale ironmonger, and his wife, Susanna Hill (d. 1748), daughter of a wealthy Quaker merchant. Rejecting his mercantile origins later in life, he changed the spelling of his last name to Combe and signed himself ‘esquire’, affecting the status of a gentleman.
Born: 25 March 1742 in London
Died: 19 June 1823
Gender: Male
William Combe
The tour of Doctor Syntax in search of the picturesque, a poem - London: 1812
06/4306
William Combe
The History Of The Abbey Church Of St. Peter's Westminster, Its Antiquities And Monuments. In Two Volumes. Vol. I.(II.) - London
13/1579
William Combe
A History Of The University Of Oxford, Its Colleges, Halls, And Public Buildings. In Two Volumes. Vol. I.(II.) - London: 1814
13/1578
William Combe
A History Of The University of Cambridge, Its Colleges, Halls, And Public Buildings. In Two Volumes. Vol. I.(II.) - London: 1815.
13/1577