COMER, John, clergyman, born in Boston, in August, 1704; died at Old Rehoboth, Massachusetts, 23 May, 1734. He was apprenticed to a glover, but at the age of seventeen, through the influence of Increase Mather, was released by his master, and soon afterward entered Harvard, studied there for two years, and removed to Yale. In 1721 he united with the Congregational church at Cambridge, but four years afterward became a Baptist and connected himself with Mr. Callender's church in Boston. In the same year he began to preach, and in 1726 was ordained co-pastor at Newport. He was dismissed from this charge in 1729, in consequence of his attempt to introduce the practice of the laying on of hands in presenting newly baptized members to full fellowship in the church. In 1732 he became pastor of Old Rehoboth, ten miles from Providence. He left a diary in manu script, which contains interesting information of the early history of the Baptists in America.