Author: McComb, William
Biography:
MCCOMB, William (1793-1873: ODNB)
He was the son of Thomas McComb, a draper in Coleraine, Londonderry; his mother’s surname was Foster. He moved from Coleraine to Belfast when he was apprenticed to a draper there. He founded a Sunday school with another apprentice and began publishing verse in newspapers. McComb trained as a teacher in Dublin with the Kildare Place Society and taught at one of the society’s schools in Shankhill, Belfast, until 1827 when he set up as a bookseller specialising in religious books. In 1840 he commenced publishing McComb’s Presbyterian Almanac, a popular annual which printed some of his poems. Closely involved with various charitable works, he was one of the founders and the first treasurer of the Ulster Institution for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind. He was twice married: in 1816 to Sarah Johnson (d 1827) and, in 1830, to Eliza Barclay (a widow with whom he had several children). He died at Belfast. Other publications include The Repealer Repulsed (1841) and The Voice of a Year (1848); his Poetical Works were issued in 1864. (ODNB 13 Nov 2019) SR