Life

The eldest son of Thomas Northmore of Cleve House, Devon

Devon

Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...

, by Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Richard Osgood of Fulham

Fulham

Fulham is an area of southwest London in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, SW6 located south west of Charing Cross. It lies on the left bank of the Thames, between Putney and Chelsea. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London...

, he was born at Cleve. He was educated at Tiverton School, and 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...

, where he graduated B.A. in 1789, and M.A. in 1792.

On 19 May 1791 he was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. He retired to cultivate his paternal estate, where he lived for the rest of his life, spending time on mechanics, literature, and politics. He contested Exeter

Exeter (UK Parliament constituency)

Exeter is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election....

 in June 1818 as a Radical, when he only polled 293 votes. He also unsuccessfully contested Barnstaple

Barnstaple (UK Parliament constituency)

Barnstaple was a parliamentary constituency centred on the town of Barnstaple in Devon, in the South West of England. It returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom until 1885, when its representation was reduced to one member.The constituency...

.

He discovered about 1824 the bones in Kents Cavern at Torquay

Torquay

Torquay is a town in the unitary authority area of Torbay and ceremonial county of Devon, England. It lies south of Exeter along the A380 on the north of Torbay, north-east of Plymouth and adjoins the neighbouring town of Paignton on the west of the bay. Torquay’s population of 63,998 during the...

. He found beneath the bed of mud which lies under the stalagmitic flooring of the cavern the tusk of a hyæna, and then a metatarsal bone of the cavern bear. These finds proved important to later work on the antiquity of the human race. A much more thorough dig was undertaken by William Pengelly

William Pengelly

William Pengelly, FRS FGS was a British geologist and early archaeologist who was one of the first to contribute proof that the Biblical chronology of the earth calculated by Archbishop James Ussher was incorrect....

 and the British Association.

Northmore died at Furzebrook House, near Axminster

Axminster

Axminster is a market town and civil parish on the eastern border of Devon in England. The town is built on a hill overlooking the River Axe which heads towards the English Channel at Axmouth, and is in the East Devon local government district. It has a population of 5,626. The market is still...

, on 20 May 1851.

Works

His works are:

• ‘Tryphiodōrou Iliou Alōsis. De plurimis mendis purgata, et notis illustrata a T. Northmore’ (Greek), London, 1791; reissued with a Latin version in 1804.
• ‘Plutarch's Treatise upon the Distinction between a Friend and Flatterer, with Remarks,’ London, 1793.
• ‘Memoirs of Planetes, or a Sketch of the Laws and Manners of Makar. By Phileleutherus Devoniensis,’ London, 1795. In this work a utopian form of government is described.
• ‘A Triplet of Inventions, consisting of a Description of a Nocturnal or Diurnal Telegraph, a Proposal for an Universal Character, and a Scheme for facilitating the Progress of Science; exemplified in the Osteological part of Anatomy,’ Exeter, 1796.
• ‘A Quadruplet of Invention,’ Exeter, 1796; an augmented edition of the ‘Triplet.’
• An edition of Thomas Gray
  Thomas Gray
  Thomas Gray was a poet, letter-writer, classical scholar and professor at Cambridge University.-Early life and education:...
  
  's ‘Tour through England and Wales’ [1799].
• ‘Of Education founded upon Principles. Part the First. Time: previous to the Age of puberty,’ London, 1800.
• ‘Washington; or Liberty restored: a Poem in ten Books,’ London, 1809; Baltimore, 1809; notice in ‘Quarterly Review,’ ii. 365–75.

In Nicholson's Journal he wrote on ‘Effects on Gases by change in their Habitudes, or Elective Attractions, when mechanically compressed,’ 1805 (xii. 368), and on ‘Condensed Gases,’ 1806 (xiii. 233).

Family

He married, first, Penelope, eldest daughter of Sir William Earle Welby, bart., of Denton Hall, Lincolnshire, and, secondly Emmeline, fifth daughter of Sir John Eden, bart., of Windlestone Park and Beamish Park, Durham

Durham

Durham is a city in north east England. It is within the County Durham local government district, and is the county town of the larger ceremonial county...

. By his first wife he had one son, and by his second wife one son and nine daughters. The eldest son, Thomas Welby Northmore, married his cousin Katherine, third daughter of Sir William Earle Welby, bart., and died before his father, leaving two sons—Thomas Welby, who succeeded his grandfather in the paternal estates, and John, who joined the civil service in Ceylon.