Author: Combe, William
Biography:
COMBE, William (1741-1823: ODNB)
The son of Robert and Susanna (Hill) Combes, a prosperous London ironmonger and the daughter of a wealthy Quaker merchant, William was educated at Eton College and Temple Inn. By the death of both parents and his guardian before he was 21, he inherited enough money to live as a gentleman. He was never called to the bar; he changed his name to Combe and travelled as a man of fashion. The pattern of his life, however, was that his expenses always outstripped his income. He was in and out of debtor's prison and adopted various strategies to keep afloat, including journalism and hack work for publishers such as translations, ghost-writing, and anonymous fiction. He made a sort of specialty of "supposed" (fabricated) correspondence. His greatest successes were as a satirist on the side of the government and, towards the end of his life, as the creator of the amiable Dr. Syntax. His first wife was confined to a madhouse. He may or may not have married his second companion, Charlotte Hadfield, with whom he eloped in 1795. (ODNB 6 May 2018) HJ
Other Names:
- W. Combe
- Dr. Syntax