Wednesday Evening, December 5, 1923
A Family History
Mr. B. M. Newcomb, of Berkeley, California, has recently published a book, the subject of which, as appears on the title page is
ANDREW NEWCOMB
1618 – 1685
AND HIS DESCENDANTS
This book is one of personal interest to a large number of persons in all parts of America. It contains the names and a sketch of the family history of some thousands of persons bearing the surname of Newcomb, all descendants of the above named Andrew Newcomb. The records of some thousands more, who bear other surnames, but whose mothers or grandmothers, husbands or wives, were descendants of the said Andrew, are also found on its pages.
In 1874, forty-nine years ago, Mr. John B. Newcomb, of Elgin, Illinois, published a "Genealogical Memoir of the Newcomb Family in America." The book now under review is a revision, extension and continuation of that work. It contains much information regarding the family in pioneer days which Mr. John B. Newcomb was unable to secure and, besides, brings the family record down to the present year. The labor and the expense involved in the collection of the statistics of the family and of putting them in shape for publication, must have been very great. It has been a "labor of love" both on the part of the original author and of the present compiler. The work published in 1874 did not – and the one just off the press will not – bring to the publisher any financial return beyond the cost of printing and of placing the book before the public.
Captain Andrew Newcomb was born in England in 1618. He came to America about 1640, it is thought, in his own vessel. He resided for some years in Boston City and died there in 1686. In 1711, his grandson, Simon Newcomb, bought a farm in Lebanon, Connecticut, which town appears to have been from that time the headquarters of the Newcomb family in New England until 1760, when six heads of families bearing that name left for Nova Scotia where they settled on lands vacated by the Acadians expelled in 1755.
Besides the six families bearing the surname of Newcomb, who came to Nova Scotia in 1760 – 61, the name of a widow, Mrs. Abigail Newcomb English, appears in the list of grantees of Cornwallis. She was a granddaughter of the aforesaid Simon Newcomb. Her father, Deacon John Newcomb, is said to have visited Nova Scotia on the quiet about 1758 or 59 and carried back such a report of the land as led to the coming of the planters. These planters, by the way, would seem to have been all of them inter-related, either by blood or by marriage.
Members and relatives of the Newcomb family may now be found in every part of Nova Scotia. They are all descended from the early settlers in Kings County and the story of their "dispersions" is an interesting one.
The book described is "privately printed for the author by the Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor Co., New Haven, Conn."
The author’s address is B. M. Newcomb, 2300 Vine St., Berkeley, California.