Matthew Newcomen (c. 1610 – 1 September 1669) was an English nonconformist churchman. His exact date of birth is unknown. He was educated at

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College, formally the College of St John the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge, is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch L ...

(M.A. 1633). In 1636 he became lecturer at Dedham in

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

, and led the church reform party in that county. He assisted

Edmund Calamy the Elder Edmund Calamy (February 160029 October 1666) was an English Presbyterian church leader and Anglicanism#Anglican divines, divine. Known as "the elder", he was the first of four generations of nonconformist ministers bearing the same name. Early ...

in writing '' Smectymnuus'' (1641), and preached before parliament in 1643. He was multi-talented, excelling in preaching and debate, and was offered several lucrative positions. He protested against the extreme democratic proposals called '' The Agreement of the People'' (1647), and was one of the commissioners at the Savoy Synod of 1658. When the Act of Uniformity was passed in 1662, Newcomen lost his living, but was soon invited to the pastorate at

Leiden Leiden ( ; ; in English language, English and Archaism, archaic Dutch language, Dutch also Leyden) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Nethe ...

, where he was held in high esteem not only by his own people but by the university professors. He died of plague in 1669.

Sources

* People educated at Colchester Royal Grammar School Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge 17th-century deaths from plague (disease) Participants in the Savoy Conference Ejected English ministers of 1662 Westminster Divines 1610s births 1669 deaths Infectious disease deaths in the Netherlands People from Dedham, Essex {{England-reli-bio-stub