Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Halcomb, John
HALCOMB, JOHN (1790–1852), serjeant-at-law, born in 1790, studied law in chambers with the future judges John Patteson and John Taylor Coleridge, was called to the bar at the Inner Temple, and went the western circuit. Halcomb, after several failures, was elected conservative member for Dover in 1831. He took some position in the house, but on the dissolution of parliament in 1835 lost his seat. In 1839 he was made serjeant-at-law, but his political ambition seems to have spoiled his career at the bar, for he did not realise the high expectations formed of him. He died at New Radnor on 3 Nov. 1852, leaving a widow and four sons.
Halcomb wrote: 1. ‘A Report of the Trials … in the causes of Rowe versus Grenfell, &c.,’ 1826, as to questions regarding copper mines in Cornwall. 2. ‘A Practical Measure of Relief from the present system of the Poor Law. Submitted to the consideration of Parliament,’ 1826. 3. ‘A practical Treatise on passing Private Bills through both Houses of Parliament,’ 1836.
[Law Times, 13 Nov. 1852, p. 95.]