Family History, A Sixteenth Century Collector

DACKOMBE FAMILY
Thomas Dackombe 1496- c1572
A Sixteenth Century Collector

Thomas Dackombe, second son of Thomas of Stepleton, was a priest - the Rector of Tarrant Gunville, Dorset. He was born on 17 January, 1496. Only the bare outlines of his career as a priest can be established and very little about him as a person. He held the priesthood of St. Peter (st. Mary, Colebrook) in the City of Winchester from 1519 and in 1519 and in 1531 is recorded as vicar of Nutley, also in the diocese of Winchester. By 1542 he was one of the newly appointed petty canons of Winchester Cathedral at a salary of 50 shillings a quarter. Twelve petty canons were appointed to the new foundation to make provision for the serving of the many Chantries in the Cathedral; not being a graduate he was barred from high office in the church and presumably called from Nutley to this post because of his musical abilities. He was re-appointed to his old living of St. Peter, Colebrook shortly after this and held this office for the rest of his life. In 1549 he was presented to the living of Tarrant Gunville and, presumably, held both offices by dispensation; several inscriptions in books and manuscripts suggest that this was his permanent residence. The village and church of Tarrant Gunville lie just across from Stepleton - his birthplace.

A memorial inscription on a stone in the outer wall of Tarrant Gunville church shows:

The Stepleton Heraldic insignia (separate stone)
"hereliethe S(ir) T(homas) D(ackomb) Parson
All fowre be but one EARTHE FLESCH WORME AND BONE X
MCCCCCLXVII2"(LXXII?)

It is not, however, as a humble priest that Thomas is to be remembered but as a collector of books and manuscripts. It was recently established that some 23 works had been discovered as having been in his collection between 1540 and 1572. Most of these volumes arte ancient illuminated manuscripts of theology, primers and cartularies. It is probable that, as a minor canon of Winchester Cathedral, he had access to these volumes which, by their very nature, were endangered by the Dissolution. He was sympathetic to the old order, and perhaps his motives were not entirely altruism. Whatever his reason, these works have survived and are now in the great libraries; most are in the British Museum, some in the Bodleian; one each in the Guildhall Library, Lambeth Palace, Glasgow, University College Oxford, with one in Philadelphia, USA; the latter was used as a family Bible and carries inscriptions of later members of the Stepleton Dackombe. How it was acquired by Philadelphia has not been established.

The printed books are with Westminster Abbey, Bristol, Christchurch and New Colleges, Oxford.

Some time ago the Guildhall Library allowed me to see and examine their manuscript - a 14th century missal which is believed to have belonged to St. Botolph with Aldgate, London. It was very exiting to see in Thomas's hand 'liber dompni Thome Dakcomb'. The price paid by him for this beautifully illuminated volume was 2/6d (22 1/2p); today, in the unlikely event that such a treasure would come on the market, the price would be closer to a million pounds.

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