the rails (State Papers, Dom. 1641–3, p. 520). He was no doubt sequestered, but was apparently allowed to return to his living. He was instituted to the rectory of Clothall, Hertfordshire, on 12 June 1653 (Cussans, Hertfordshire). At the Restoration he petitioned the king, as a ‘great sufferer for his loyalty, and a true sonne of the church,’ for a mandamus to take his D.D. (State Papers, Dom. 1660–1, 163). This was issued in October 1660. He was also given a prebend at Lincoln in 1660 (Le Neve, Fasti, ii. 103). He died before 31 May 1665, when his successor at Clothall was appointed (Cussans). His eldest son, Stephen, born 26 May 1647, was admitted to Merchant Taylors' School 1655.
[For both Matthew Newcomen and his brother see Davids's Evangelical Nonconformity in Essex, pp. 203, 227–8, 380–3; Newcourt's Eccles. Rep. i. 620, ii. 182, 265; and the registers of St. John's Coll. Cambridge, per the bursar, R. F. Scott, esq.
For Matthew alone see Calamy and Palmer's Nonconf. Memorial, ii. 195–8, Continuation, ii. 294, Abridgement, p. 212; Neal's Hist. of Puritans, iv. 389, 390 n.; Baxter's Reliquiæ pp. 229, 232, 281, 303–7; Mitchell's Westminster Assembly, pp. xviii, 138, 296, and his Minutes of the Session, pp. 304, 409, 419, 420, 423; Kennett's Register, pp. 162, 188, 295, 398, 431, 546, 900; Stevens's Hist. of the Scottish Church in Rotterdam, p. 315; Drysdale's History of the Presbyterians in England; Trans. Essex Archæol. Soc. New Ser. vol. iv. pt. ii. p. 11; Baker's MSS. Harl. 7046, ff. 272 d, 292 d; Hunter's Chorus Vatum, Addit. MS. 24489, fol. 283, and 24492, fol. 19; Davey's Athenæ Suffolcienses, Addit. MS. 19165, fol. 520; information from the registers of Dedham per the Rev. C. A. Jones; and from the Leyden Stadtarchiv, per C. M. Dory. For Thomas Newcomen see Walker's Sufferings of the Clergy, pt. ii. p. 318; Mercurius Rusticus, pp. 1–6; Laud's Hist. of the Troubles and Tryals, pp. 260–1; Sanderson's Complete Hist. of the Life and Raigne of King Charles, 1658, p. 563; Addit. MS. 15669, fol. 259; Baker MS. Harl. 7046, fol. 272 d.; Cole MSS. xxviii. ff. 70, 71, Addit. MS. 5829.]
NEWCOMEN, THOMAS (1663–1729), inventor of the atmospheric steam-engine, son of Elias Newcomen, was born at Dartmouth, and baptised at St. Saviour's Church on 28 Feb. 1663. His great-grandfather, Elias Newcomen [q. v.], is separately noticed. Thomas is believed to have been an ironmonger or a blacksmith, and he resided in a house in Lower Street, Dartmouth. He married in 1705 Hannah, daughter of Peter Waymouth of Marlborough, Devonshire, the marriage license, dated 13 July of that year, being recorded in the principal registry of the diocese of Exeter. He died, probably in London, in 1729, his death being thus announced in the ‘Monthly Chronicle’ for August of that year, p. 169: ‘About the same time [7 Aug.] died Mr. Thomas Newcomen, sole inventor of that surprising machine for raising water by fire.’ Letters of administration to his estate were granted to his widow by the prerogative court of Canterbury on 29 Nov. 1729. Newcomen left two sons, Thomas and Elias, and the will of the latter was proved 22 Nov. 1765 (P. C. C., Rushworth, p. 461).
Thomas Lidstone of Dartmouth, who devoted much time to the investigation of Newcomen's early life with very indifferent success, bought, on the demolition of Newcomen's house in Lower Street, Dartmouth, a quantity of the woodwork, and used it in building a house for himself on Ridge Hill, which he called ‘Newcomen Cottage.’ There is a street in the town named in commemoration of the inventor (cf. Lidstone, Notes and Queries concerning Newcomen, 1868, &c.) A view of the old house is in Smiles's ‘Lives of Boulton and Watt.’
It is not known how Newcomen's attention came to be directed to the steam-engine, but he seems to have been in communication with Dr. Hooke towards the end of the seventeenth century upon the subject of Papin's proposals to obtain motive power by exhausting the air from a cylinder furnished with a piston. In the course of some notes prepared for the use of Newcomen, Hooke says: ‘Could he [i.e. Papin] make a speedy vacuum under your second piston, your work is done.’ This is a very significant passage. It is asserted by Robison in his article, ‘Steam Engine,’ in the fourth edition of the ‘Encyclopædia Britannica,’ 1810, p. 652, and also in his ‘Mechanical Philosophy,’ 1822, ii. 57, that the document above referred to was among Hooke's papers at the Royal Society, but it cannot now be found there.
Newcomen was associated in his inventions with John Calley or Cawley, who is said to have been a glazier; but the writer of this notice was informed by a Mr. Samuel Calley, who believed himself to be a descendant, that Calley was a grazier, and that he found the money for Newcomen. He is supposed to have been a native of Brixham, Devonshire. Calley died in December 1717 at Whitkirk, in the parish of Austhorpe, near Leeds, where he was engaged in erecting an engine (cf. Whitkirk parish register; Farey, Steam Engine, p. 155 n.) As regards the period at which Newcomen commenced his experiments the testimony of Stephen Switzer is important. He says: ‘I am well informed
