Members of the Southcomb family served as rectors of the parish of Rose Ash in Devon, England almost uninterruptedly from 1675 until 1948. Members represented in the Southcomb Family Papers include Lewis Southcomb (1655-1733), the first Southcomb to hold Rose Ash, who was deprived of the rectorship as a Nonjuror, but was restored after the death of James II in 1701. He was a noted preacher, and at least two of his sermons were printed in London during his lifetime. John Southcomb (1758-1822), received his B.A. from Exeter College, Oxford in 1780 and married Susannah Granger in the same year. He succeeded his father John as rector of Rose Ash in 1788, also serving as patron of King's Nympton, and died in 1822. John Southcomb (1784-1840) was never rector of Rose Ash, to which his younger brother Edmund Hamilton (1792-1854) was preferred in 1822; John served as curate of Minehead and of St. Wenn in Cornwall until his death in 1840. John's son, John Ladaveze Hamilton Southcomb (1817-1886), received his B.A. from All Souls' College, Oxford in 1840 and succeeded to the rectorship of Rose Ash on the death of his childless uncle Edmund in 1854.
From the description of Southcomb family papers, 1696-1877 (bulk 1818-1852). (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 702134097
