NORTHCOTE, SPENCER JAMES. - Archaeologist, b. at Feninton Court (Devonshire) on 26 May 1821, d.
at Stoke-upon-Trent (Staffordshire) on 3 March 1907.
He studied at Corpus-Christi College, Oxford; under Newman’s influence he converted, together with his wife, in 1846. Having been widowed, he was ordained priest in 1855 and in 1862 elected canon at Birmingham.
He published several accounts of visits to the catacombs during his stays in Rome in the periodical Rambler (1848-49); also A visit to the Roman Catacombs (London 1877). Together with his fellow countryman William Robert Brownlow, canon of Plymouth, he published: « Roma sotterranea » or an account of the Roman Catacombs especially of the Cemetery of St. Callixtus, printed in two parts: I: History (ibid. 1869), II: The testimony of the Catacombs and the monuments of Christian Art (ibid. 1879). A French translation of the work was made by P. Allard (v.), with additions and notes, and went through four editions, Paris 1872, 1874, 1877, 1896.