Thomas Combe (1796 – 30 June 1872) was a British printer, publisher and patron of the arts. He was 'Printer to the

University A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

' at

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, and was also a founder and benefactor of St Barnabas Church, near the Press in

Jericho Jericho ( ; ar, أريحا ; he, יְרִיחוֹ ) is a Palestinian city in the West Bank. It is located in the Jordan Valley, with the Jordan River to the east and Jerusalem to the west. It is the administrative seat of the Jericho Gover ...

and close to

Oxford Canal The Oxford Canal is a narrowboat canal in central England linking the City of Oxford with the Coventry Canal at Hawkesbury (just north of Coventry and south of Bedworth) via Banbury and Rugby. Completed in 1790, it connects to the River Th ...

Life

Combe was the son of Thomas Combe senior (died 1836?), a printer, stationer, bookseller and newspaper proprietor in

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...

. After working with his father and, between around 1824 and 1826 with Joseph Parker in Oxford, he was freed by the

Stationers' Company The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers (until 1937 the Worshipful Company of Stationers), usually known as the Stationers' Company, is one of the livery companies of the City of London. The Stationers' Company was formed i ...

and went into business in his own right. Jericho StBarnabas campanile

In 1826, he was briefly in partnership with Michael Angelo Nattali in London, but before the end of the year he had returned to Leicester to join the family business (which was styled T. Combe and Son between 1826 and 1835). After his father's death he moved to Oxford, and joined the University Press (or Clarendon Press) in 1837 at its then new (1830) building in Walton Street. By 1838, he was superintendent of the 'learned side' of the press, and soon acquired shares in the business. By 1851, he was senior partner in the Press. As a result, he amassed a considerable fortune. He and his wife

Martha Martha (Hebrew: מָרְתָא‎) is a biblical figure described in the Gospels of Luke and John. Together with her siblings Lazarus and Mary of Bethany, she is described as living in the village of Bethany near Jerusalem. She was witness to ...

(1806–1893) were keen patrons of the arts and particularly of the

Pre-Raphaelites The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, James ...

. In 1849, he met

John Everett Millais Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet, ( , ; 8 June 1829 – 13 August 1896) was an English painter and illustrator who was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He was a child prodigy who, aged eleven, became the youngest s ...

in Oxford, who painted portraits of Combe's family.Tate
John Everett Millais 1829–1896
They were also devotees of the Tractarian or

Oxford Movement The Oxford Movement was a movement of high church members of the Church of England which began in the 1830s and eventually developed into Anglo-Catholicism. The movement, whose original devotees were mostly associated with the University of O ...

. He died on 30 June 1872. Combe is buried in St Sepulchre's Cemetery, off Walton Street, near the University Press. His widow retained and expanded his collection of Pre-Raphaelite art. On her death in 1893, the bulk of the collection was bequeathed to the university and is now in the

Ashmolean Museum The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology () on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is Britain's first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University o ...

blue plaque A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom and elsewhere to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving as a historical marker. The term i ...

on the outside wall of St Barnabas Church installed by the

Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Board The Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Board established in 1999 was the brainchild of Sir Hugo Brunner, then Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire, and Edwin Townsend-Coles, Chairman of the Oxford Civic Society. The Board is an autonomous voluntary body whose ...

now commemorates Thomas Combe and his wife Martha as founders of the church.

References

External links

* *
Blue plaque to Thomas & Martha Combe on St Barnabas' Church, Oxford

* ttps://www.flickr.com/photos/oxfordshire_church_photos/2450389852/in/photostream/ Photo of Thomas Combe {{DEFAULTSORT:Combe, Thomas 1796 births 1872 deaths People from Leicester English printers Oxford University Press people English philanthropists People associated with the Ashmolean Museum 19th-century British philanthropists 19th-century English businesspeople Burials at St Sepulchre's Cemetery