466 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



Topography. Hearne's preface to Browne. Willis* 

 view of the mitred abbeys, published in his edition 

 of Leland's collect, vi. 78. 



DEAN COMBER. 



The Rev. Thomas Comber, D. D., Dean of 

 Durham, was bom at Westerham, in Kent, on the 

 19th March, 1644. He was descended from an an- 

 cient family of that name, at Bark ham in Sussex, 

 an ancestor of whom, de C ombre obtained from 

 William the Conqueror, the manor of Barkham, as 

 a reward for his valour, in slaying its Saxon or 

 Danish lord, at the famous battle of Hastings. 



The subject of the present Biographical sketch 

 was the son of Mr. James Comber, by Mary, 

 widow of Mr. Edward Hampden, of Westerham, 

 and daughter of Mr. Bryan Burton, of the same 

 place. During the first years of his life, he laboured 

 under such bodily weakness that he was not able 

 to walk alone, until he was four years of age ; but 

 by the extraordinary care of his mother his health 

 was restored. To this exemplary parent he was 

 further indebted, as he himself observes, for all the 

 religious education which seasoned his youth, and 

 all the first steps to his future preferment : so tender 

 indeed was she of him that her whole life was de- 

 dicated to his improvement in learning and virtue. 

 After this auspicious beginning under the maternal 

 roof (from which, like himself, so many other great 

 men have dated their future eminence,) he received 

 his classical education in his native village, from 

 whence he was sent to the university of Cambridge, 

 at the early age of fourteen. He was admitted a 

 student of Sydney Sussex college, in 1659, and 

 under the care of the Rev. Edward Matthews, the 

 senior fellow, and president of that society, made 

 that rapid progress in his literary and theological 

 studies of which his previous diligence had given 

 so fair a promise. He took his degree of B. A. 

 1662, and of M. A. 1666. Two years previous to 

 tis obtaining this last honour, he was ordained 



