Life

He was born on 23 September 1743, in Southampton Street

Southampton Street

Southampton Street is a street in central London , England, running north from the Strand to Covent Garden Market.There are restaurants in the street such as Bistro 1and Wagamama. There are also shopssuch as The North Face outdoor clothing shop...

, Bloomsbury

Bloomsbury

-Places:* Bloomsbury is an area in central London.* Bloomsbury , related local government unit* Bloomsbury, New Jersey, New Jersey, USA* Bloomsbury , listed on the NRHP in Maryland...

, London where his father, John Combe, carried on business as an apothecary

Apothecary

Apothecary is a historical name for a medical professional who formulates and dispenses materia medica to physicians, surgeons and patients — a role now served by a pharmacist and some caregivers....

. He was educated at Harrow School

Harrow School

Harrow School, commonly known simply as "Harrow", is an English independent school for boys situated in the town of Harrow, in north-west London.. The school is of worldwide renown. There is some evidence that there has been a school on the site since 1243 but the Harrow School we know today was...

, and among his schoolfellows were Sir William Jones and Samuel Parr

Samuel Parr

Samuel Parr , was an English schoolmaster, writer, minister and Doctor of Law. He was known in his time for political writing, and as "the Whig Johnson", though his reputation has lasted less well that Samuel Johnson's, and the resemblances were at a superficial level, Parr being no prose stylist,...

. He rose to the sixth form, but did not proceed to university.

Coming to London, he studied medicine, and on his father's death in 1768 succeeded to his business. In 1783 the degree of doctor of medicine was conferred on him by the University of Glasgow

University of Glasgow

The University of Glasgow is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ancient universities. Located in Glasgow, the university was founded in 1451 and is presently one of seventeen British higher education institutions ranked amongst the top 100 of the...

, and he began to practise as an obstetric physician. On 5 April 1784 he was admitted by the Royal College of Physicians

Royal College of Physicians

The Royal College of Physicians of London was founded in 1518 as the College of Physicians by royal charter of King Henry VIII in 1518 - the first medical institution in England to receive a royal charter...

 a licentiate in midwifery

Midwifery

Midwifery is a health care profession in which providers offer care to childbearing women during pregnancy, labour and birth, and during the postpartum period. They also help care for the newborn and assist the mother with breastfeeding....

; on 30 June he was nominated a governor of St. Bartholomew's Hospital. In 1789 he was chosen physician to the British Lying-in-Hospital in Brownlow Street, and on resigning the post in 1810 was appointed consulting physician to the institution. He had also a substantial private practice, and made a collection in materia medica

Materia medica

Materia medica is a Latin medical term for the body of collected knowledge about the therapeutic properties of any substance used for healing . The term 'materia medica' derived from the title of a work by the Ancient Greek physician Pedanius Dioscorides in the 1st century AD, De materia medica libre...

, which was purchased by the College of Physicians shortly after his death.

Combe was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London on 10 January 1771, and a Fellow of the Royal Society on 11 January 1776. He died, after a short illness, at his house in Vernon Place, Bloomsbury Square

Bloomsbury Square

Bloomsbury Square is a garden square in Bloomsbury, Camden, London.- Geography :To the north of the square is Great Russell Street and Bedford Place, leading to Russell Square. To the south is Bloomsbury Way. To the west is the British Museum and Holborn tube station is the nearest underground...

, on 18 March 1817, in the seventy-fourth year of his age, and was buried in Bloomsbury cemetery, Brunswick Square

Brunswick Square

Brunswick Square is a public garden in Bloomsbury, in the London Borough of Camden. It is overlooked by the School of Pharmacy and the Foundling Museum to the north and the Brunswick Centre to the west...

. A portrait of Combe was painted by Medley, and engraved by N. Branwhite.

Works

By 1773 he had made the acquaintance of William Hunter

William Hunter (anatomist)

William Hunter FRS was a Scottish anatomist and physician. He was a leading teacher of anatomy, and the outstanding obstetrician of his day...

 the anatomist; Combe became a friend and helped Hunter in getting together his collection of coins. Combe contemplated a complete catalogue of the Hunter coin collection, but only published one instalment—his Nummorum veterum Populorum et Urbium qui in Museo Gulielmi Hunter asservantur Descriptio, figuris illustrata, London, 1782. A Latin preface gives the history of the Hunter collection. Combe was appointed one of the three trustees to whom Hunter (who died in 1783) left the use of his museum for thirty years, after which the collection passed to the Glasgow University. Combe also published a work on ‘large brass’ coins, entitled Index nummorum omnium imperatorum, Augustorum et Cæsarum …, London, 1773. It extends to the reign of Domitian

Domitian

Domitian was Roman Emperor from 81 to 96. Domitian was the third and last emperor of the Flavian dynasty.Domitian's youth and early career were largely spent in the shadow of his brother Titus, who gained military renown during the First Jewish-Roman War...

.

In 1788 Combe began to work with Henry Homer

Henry Homer

-Life:The eldest of the seventeen children of Henry Homer the elder, he was born at Warwick in 1753. In 1758 he entered Rugby School, of which, at the age of fourteen, he was the head boy. He then studied for three years at Birmingham...

 of Emmanuel College, Cambridge

Emmanuel College, Cambridge

Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge.The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay on the site of a Dominican friary...

, on an edition of Horace

Horace

Quintus Horatius Flaccus , known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus.-Life:...

, with variorum

Variorum

A variorum is a work that collates all known variants of a text. It is a work of textual criticism, whereby all variations and emendations are set side by side so that a reader can track how textual decisions have been made in the preparation of a text for publication...

 notes; Samuel Parr was also originally to have taken part in the work. Homer died before the first volume was completed, and Combe finished the work alone, which was published as ‘Q. Horatii Flacci Opera cum variis lectionibus, notis variorum et indice completissimo,’ 2 vols. 1792–3. Errors, especially in the Greek quotations in the notes, were severely commented on by Parr in the British Critic

British Critic

The British Critic: A New Review was a quarterly publication, established in 1793 as a conservative and high church review journal riding the tide of British reaction against the French Revolution.-High church review:...

. Combe replied with ‘A Statement of Facts,’ &c., and was answered by Parr in ‘Remarks on the Statement of Dr. Charles Combe,’ 1795.

He wrote the memoirs prefixed to the sale catalogue of Richard Southgate

Richard Southgate (clergyman)

-Life:Born at Alwalton, Huntingdonshire, a few miles from Peterborough, on 16 March 1729, he was the eldest of ten children of William Southgate , a farmer of the parish, who married Hannah , daughter of Robert Wright of Castor, Northamptonshire, a surveyor and civil engineer...

's library, and contributed to the appendix to George Vertue

George Vertue

George Vertue was an English engraver and antiquary, whose notebooks on British art of the first half of the 18th century are a valuable source for the period.-Life:...

's Medals of Thomas Simon, 2nd edit. 1780. Besides coins he collected rare books, especially editions of the Bible, some of which were purchased by the British Museum

British Museum

The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...

.

Family

He married, in 1769, Arthey, only daughter of Henry Taylor, by whom he had four children. His eldest son was Taylor Combe

Taylor Combe

-Life:He was the eldest son of Dr. Charles Combe, the physician and numismatist. He was educated at Harrow School and at Oriel College, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. on 5 June 1795, M.A. 10 July 1798....

.