Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Killigrew, Henry (1613-1700)
KILLIGREW, HENRY, D.D. (1613–1700), divine, the fifth son of Sir Robert Killigrew [q. v.], by Mary, daughter of Sir Henry Woodhouse of Kimberley, Norfolk, was born at the manor of Hanworth, near Hampton Court, on 11 Feb. 1612–13. He was educated under Thomas Farnaby [q. v.], entered Christ Church, Oxford, as a commoner in 1628, and soon afterwards became a student. Two years later he contributed Latin verses to a volume, ‘Britanniæ Natalis,’ published at the university. He graduated B.A. on 5 July 1632, and became one of the quadragesimal collectors. On 4 July 1638 he was created M.A. On 13 March 1638 a play called ‘The Conspiracy’ was entered at Stationers' Hall (Arber, Transcript of the Registers, iv. 385). It was surreptitiously published in quarto form from an imperfect transcript from the original copy, which, with its author, was then in Italy. It was to be performed before the king on occasion of the marriage of the eldest son of the fourth Earl Pembroke to the daughter of the first Duke of Buckingham, and it was afterwards acted at the Blackfriars Theatre. In 1653 Killigrew published a corrected version of the play, in folio, with a fresh title, ‘Pallantus and Eudora.’ The preface states that Ben Jonson had praised it; while, according to Langbaine, Lord Falkland defended it against some critics by saying that the author was only seventeen (really twenty-one) when he put language suited for a man of thirty into the mouth of a lad of seventeen. The play shows some skill for a youthful author. Sir Charles Sedley's ‘Tyrant King of Crete’ was an adaptation from Killigrew's play.
Upon the outbreak of the civil war in 1642 Killigrew became chaplain to the king's army, and in November he was created D.D. at Oxford. Immediately afterwards he was appointed chaplain to James, duke of York, and at the Restoration in 1660 was made almoner to the Duke of York, superintendent of the affairs of his chapel, prebendary of the twelfth stall at Westminster, and rector of Wheathamsted in Hertfordshire. Killigrew resigned the rectory in 1673 in favour of Dr. John Lambe, husband of his daughter Elizabeth, who died on 28 Oct. 1701, in her fifty-first year. Killigrew had a salary of 100l. a year as chaplain and almoner to the Duke of York (Hist. MSS. Comm. 8th Rep. pt. i. p. 278), and in 1663 he was appointed master of the Savoy, in succession to Sheldon. Killigrew's sister, Lady Shannon, was one of Charles II's mistresses.
According to some writers the final ruin of the Savoy Hospital was the result of Killigrew's improvidence and greed. A bill was passed in 1697 abolishing its privileges of sanctuary. The hospital was leased out in tenements, and the master appropriated the profits; among the leases granted was one (1699) to Henry Killigrew, the patentee of Drury Lane Theatre, for his lodgings in the Savoy, at a rent of 1l. a year for forty years. Killigrew and other masters granted licenses of marriage. Each of the four chaplains had 26l. a year, and when Killigrew died all of them were holding pluralities. Among them was his son-in-law, Dr. Lambe (appointed in 1677). In 1702 the chaplains were deprived of office, and the hospital dissolved. The chaplains pointed out that about 1674 Charles II had taken for other uses parts of the hospital allotted to the master and poorer persons in the hospital. Killigrew, after vainly trying to get them back, compensated some of the sufferers by pensions and doles. He had also spent money on the chapel of the hospital and Henry VII's Chapel at Westminster. Killigrew gave 50l. towards the completion of the building of Christ Church, Oxford, finished in 1665 (Wood, Antiquities, &c., 1786, iii. 448). He died on 14 March 1699–1700 (Luttrell, Brief Relation of State Affairs, 1857). Killigrew's wife, Judith, was buried at the Savoy on 2 Feb. 1682–3. His daughter Anne and sons Henry and James are noticed separately.
Killigrew published:
- ‘Sermons [22] preached … at Whitehall … and … at the Chappell at St. James,’ London, 1685.
- ‘Twenty-five Sermons preached before the King,’ London, 1695; published by Bishop Patrick (Lowndes, Bibl. Manual), and some separate sermons.
He contributed Latin verses to the Oxford collections: ‘Britanniæ Natalis,’ 1630; ‘Musarum Oxoniensium pro Rege suo Soteria,’ 1633; ‘Musarum Oxoniensium Charisteria pro Serenissima Regina Maria,’ 1638; ‘Proteleia Anglo-Batava,’ 1641. A poem by Killigrew is among the Malone MSS., Bodleian Library, No. 13, p. 71.
[Boase and Courtney's Bibliotheca Cornubiensis, 1874, i. 290–1, iii. 1256; Genest's History of the English Stage, 1832, x. 109, 150; Wood's Fasti Oxonienses, 1815, i. 465, 506; Wood's Athenæ Oxonienses, 1820, iv. 621–3; Walker's Numbers and Sufferings of the Clergy of the Church of England, 1714, pt. ii. p. 290; Malcolm's Londinium Redivivum, 1803, iii. 400, 408, 412–413, 420; Rev. W. J. Loftie's Memorials of the Savoy, 1878, pp. 152–3, 156–8, 209; Langbaine's Dramatick Poets, 1698, p. 82; Clutterbuck's Hertfordshire, 1815, i. 517–19; Pepys's Diary, 22 Nov. 1663; Le Neve's Knights, Harl. Soc. Publ. viii. 39.]