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Philip Luckombe (baptised 1730 – died 1803) was an English printer and author.

He was born at Exeter, the son of John Luckombe, a tailor. He worked as a printer there, and then moved to London, where he was employed as a writer.^[1][2]

The editor of dictionaries and encyclopædias, Luckombe also wrote books on printing, and made a study of conchology. His collection of shells was considerable, and his learning brought him the acquaintance of Thomas Percy.^[1]

Luckombe died in September 1803.^[1]

Luckombe's main works are:^[1]

• A Tour through Ireland in Several Entertaining Letters, 1748, with William Rufus Chetwood^[2]
• A Concise History of the Origin and Progress of Printing, 1770.
• The History and Art of Printing, 2 parts, 1771.
• A Tour through Ireland, 1780. This work depended on plagiarism, for instance from Richard Twiss.^[2] Other works it draws on were the early Tour with Chetwood, the Hibernia Curiosa (1769) of John Bush of Tunbridge Wells, and Thomas Campbell's Philosophical Survey (1777).^[3]
• The Traveller's Companion, or a New Itinerary of England and Wales, 1789.
• England's Gazetteer, 3 vols. 1790.
• The Tablet of Memory, 8th edit. 1792.

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1893). "Luckombe, Philip". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 34. London: Smith, Elder & Co.