Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Alcock, Thomas (1709-1798)
ALCOCK, THOMAS (1709–1798), miscellaneous writer, a younger brother of Dr. Nathan Alcock [q.v.], was educated at Brasenose College, Oxford, where he graduated M.A. in 1741. He entered the church, and was presented to the vicarage of Runcorn, in Cheshire; but during his later years he resided chiefly at St. Budrock's, near Plymouth. Besides some sermons, one of which, entitled ‘An Apology for Esau,' preached 21 May 1790, took an hour and a half in the delivery, he published ‘Observations on the Defects of the Poor Laws,' 1752, and ‘Remarks on two Bills for the better Maintenance of the Poor,' 1752; ‘Observations on that part of the late Act of Parliament which lays an additional Duty on Cider,' 1763; ‘The Endemical Colic of Devonshire,’ 1769. He wrote a memoir of his brother, Dr. Nathan Alcock, in 1780, and published his work, ‘The Rise of Mahomet accounted for on Natural and Civil Principles,’ in 1796.
[European Magazine, xxxiv. 214; Memoirs of Dr. Nathan Alcock, 1780.]