SECCOMB, Joseph, clergyman, born in Medford Mass., in 1706; died in 1760. He was descended from Richard Seccomb, who, coming from England, settled in Lynn, Massachusetts, in 1660. He was graduated at Harvard in 1731, and became minister of Kingston, New Hampshire, in 1737. He published "Plain and Brief Rehearsal of the Operations of Christ as God" (Boston, 1740) ; " Business and Diversion Inoffensive to God," a discourse (1743); and "The Ways of Pleasure and the Paths of Peace," a discourse.--His brother, John, clergyman, born in Medford, Massachusetts, 25 April, 1708; died in Chester, Nova Scotia, in January, 1793, was graduated at Harvard in 1728, and was minister of the Congregational church at Harvard, Massachusetts, from 10 October, 1733, till September, 1757. In 1763 he became minister of a dissenting congregation in Chester, Nova Scotia, where he remained till his death He gained great notoriety as a humorous poet by "Father Abbey's Will," which was published in both the " Gentleman's" and " European" magazines in May, 1732. It was reprinted in the "Massachusetts Magazine" in November, 1794, and in 1854 by John Langdon Sibley, with historical and biographical notes. The subject of the poem, Matthew Abdy, held a menial position in connection with Harvard college. He also published an ordination sermon (Halifax, 1770), and a "Sermon on the Death of Abigail Belcher, with an Epistle by Mather Bayles, D. D." (Boston, 1772).