Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Simcoe, Henry Addington
SIMCOE, HENRY ADDINGTON (1800–1868), theologian, son of Lieutenant-general John Graves Simcoe [q. v.], born at Plymouth in 1800, matriculated from Wadham College, Oxford, on 13 April 1818, when aged 18, and graduated B.A. on 17 Dec. 1821, and M.A. on 3 Nov. 1825 (Gardiner, Registers of Wadham College, ii. 279–80). He was ordained in the English church, and from about 1826 served the curacy of Egloskerry with Tremaine in Cornwall.
The property of his father consisted of the estate of Wolford at Dunkeswell in Devonshire. Another estate came to Simcoe on the death of William Walcot of Oundle, Northamptonshire, in 1826 (Bell, Life of Dryden, i. 98), and in 1830 he purchased the picturesque Jacobean manor-house of Penheale in Egloskerry, with its gardens, fishponds, and avenue of lime-trees (Parochial Hist. of Cornwall, i. 323–8). At a later date he acquired the advowson of Egloskerry with Tremaine, and from 4 July 1846 he was the vicar of the parish. He was also rural dean of Trigg Major. Simcoe possessed a knowledge of medicine and chemistry, and throughout his life was a model clergyman. He died at Penheale House on 15 Nov. 1868, and was buried in Egloskerry churchyard on 24 Nov. He married, first, Anne, second daughter of the Rev. Edward Palmer, vicar of Moseley in Worcestershire, and Stogumber in Somerset; and, secondly, Emily, second daughter of Rev. Horatio Mann, rector of Mawgan with St. Martin-in-Meneage, Cornwall. She died at 2 Hillylands, Weston Park, Bath, on 24 May 1877. By his first wife he had issue five sons and four daughters; his second wife bore him two daughters.
For many years Simcoe maintained a private printing press at Penheale, and struck off many theological works, both original and reprints. The chief of his own works were:
- ‘A Selection of Psalms and Hymns for Public Worship,’ 1831; 2nd edit. 1837.
- ‘Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Ephesians,’ with texts, parallel, expository, and illustrative, 1832; and a magazine called
- ‘Light from the West,’ No. 1, January 1832, which was edited by him during numerous volumes.
Particulars of his publications are given in the ‘Penheale Press: a Catalogue of Works published by the Rev. H. A. Simcoe, 1854.’
[Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Burke's Landed Gentry; Boase and Courtney's Bibl. Cornub. ii. 650–2, iii. 1336, 1457; Escott's Platform, Press, Politics, p. 23; Boase's Collectanea Cornub. pp. 529, 899.]