Background
The eldest son of Thomas Northmore of Cleve House, Devon, by Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Richard Osgood of Fulham, he was born at Cleveland
The eldest son of Thomas Northmore of Cleve House, Devon, by Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Richard Osgood of Fulham, he was born at Cleveland
He was educated at Tiverton School, and Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he graduated Bachelor of Arts in 1789, and Master of Arts
In 1792. On 19 May 1791 he was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. He retired to cultivate his paternal estate, where he lived for the rest of his life, spending time on mechanics, literature, and politics. He contested Exeter in June 1818 as a Radical, when he only polled 293 votes.
He also unsuccessfully contested Barnstaple.
He discovered about 1824 the bones in Kents Cavern at Torquay. He found beneath the bed of mud which lies under the stalagmitic flooring of the cavern the tusk of a hyæna, and then a metatarsal bone of the cavern bear.
These finds proved important to later work on the antiquity of the human race. A much more thorough dig was undertaken by William Pengelly and the British Association.
Northmore died at Furzebrook House, near Axminster, on 20 May 1851.