Newcome Cappe

Newcome Cappe (1733–1800), was an English unitarian divine.

Life

Cappe was the eldest son of the Rev. Joseph Cappe, minister of the nonconformist congregation at Millhill Chapel, Leeds, who married the daughter and coheiress of Mr. Newcome of Waddington, Lincolnshire, and was born at Leeds 21 February 1733. He was educated for the dissenting ministry. For a year (1748–9) he was with John Aikin at Kibworth, Leicestershire; then for three years he studied with Philip Doddridge at Northampton, and for another space of three years (1752–5) he lived in Glasgow, profiting by the instruction of William Leechman.

He was chosen in November 1755 co-pastor with the Rev. John Hotham of the dissenting chapel at St. Saviourgate, York, and after Hotham's death the following May became sole pastor to the congregation, as he remained until his death. In 1788, when he was a widower with six grown-up children, he married Catherine Harrison (b.1744) - see ref. below.

The large old mansion in which he lived is described by Robert Davies, in his ‘Walks through York,’ as situated in Upper Ousegate, and in it he gathered together men of letters. A literary club which he founded in 1771 existed for nearly twenty years.

Cappe was frequently ill, and in 1791 he was seized by a paralytic stroke. This was followed by several other attacks of the same kind until his strength failed, and he died at York on 24 December 1800.

Works

The writings of Cappe which appeared during his lifetime were minor. Among them were sermons preached on the days ‘of national humiliation’ in 1776, 1780, 1781, 1782, and 1784. An earlier sermon delivered 27 November 1757, after the victory of Frederick the Great at the battle of Rossbach on 5 November 1757, was of a very rhetorical character and passed through numerous editions. In 1770 he published a sermon in memory of the Rev. Edward Sandercock, and in 1785 he edited that minister's sermons in two volumes.

In 1783 he printed a pamphlet of ‘Remarks in Vindication of Dr. Priestley’ in answer to the ‘Monthly Reviewers.’ ‘A Selection of Psalms for Social Worship’ and ‘An Alphabetical Explication of some Terms and Phrases in Scripture,’ the first an anonymous publication, and the second ‘by a warm well-wisher to the interests of genuine christianity,’ were printed at York in 1786, and are known to have been compiled by Cappe. The second of them, it may be added, was reissued at Boston, U.S., in 1818. A work of a more elaborate character, entitled ‘Discourses on the Providence and Government of God,’ was published by him in 1795; a second edition appeared in 1811, and a third in 1818.

After his death his widow Catherine (d. 1821) collected and edited many volumes of his discourses, consisting of:

• ‘Critical Remarks on many important Passages of Scripture,’ 1802, 2 vols.;
• ‘Discourses chiefly on Devotional Subjects,’ 1805;
• ‘Connected History of the Life and Divine Mission of Jesus Christ,’ 1809;
• ‘Discourses chiefly on Practical Subjects,’ 1815.

To the first and second of these publications she prefixed memoirs of his life by herself, and the second contained an appendix of a sermon on his interment by the Rev. William Wood, and a memoir from the ‘Monthly Review,’ February 1801, pp. 81–4, by Charles Wellbeloved.

Family

In October 1759 he married Sarah, the eldest daughter of William Turner, a merchant of Hull. She died of consumption in the spring of 1773, leaving six children behind her. His second wife, an ardent promoter of education and of unitarian principles, was Catharine, daughter of the Rev. Jeremiah Harrison, vicar of Catterick, and they were married at Barwick-in-Elmet on 19 Feb. 1788. She died suddenly 27 July 1821, aged 78. She was the author of several tracts on charity schools .

His eldest son, Joseph Cappe, M.D., died in February 1791; his youngest son, Robert Cappe, M.D., died on 16 November 1802 while on a voyage to Livorno.

References

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Cappe, Newcome". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900. 

For Newcome's widow, see Unitarianism, philantrhopy and feminism in York, 1782-1821: the career of Catherine Cappe by Helen Plant. York: University of York, Borthwick Paper 103, 2003.

Persondata
Name	Cappe, Newcome
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Date of birth	1733
Place of birth
Date of death	1800
Place of death