Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Kinns, Samuel

by Charles Welch

KINNS, SAMUEL (1826–1903), writer on the Bible, born in 1826, was educated at Colchester grammar school and privately. He received the degree of Ph.D. from the University of Jena in 1859. For twenty-five years he was principal and proprietor of a prosperous private school. The College, Highbury New Park. Ordained deacon in 1885 and priest in 1889, he held a curacy at All Souls, Langham Place (1885–9), and was rector of Holy Trinity, Minories, from 29 March 1889 until the closing of the church on 1 Jan. 1899, under the Union of Benefices Act. In 'Moses and Geology,' which he published in 1882 (14th edit 1895), he endeavoured to show that the account of the creation in the first chapter of Genesis harmonises with the latest scientific discoveries. His next work, 'Graven in the Rock,' published in 1891 (4th edit. 1897), deals with the confirmation of Biblical history afforded by the Egyptian and Assyrian monuments. Kinns was a popular lecturer on the subjects of his books at the British Museum and in London churches, but his pious zeal was greater than his scholarship. He died at Haverstock Hill on 14 July 1903.

He also published: 1. 'Holy Trinity, Minories, its Past and Present History,' 1890. 2. 'Six Hundred Years, or Historical Sketches of Eminent Men and Women of Holy Trinity, Minories,' 1898; two editions.

[Pratt's People of the Period; Edw. Murray Tomlinson, IR)ly Trinity Muiories, 1907; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Crockford's Clerical Directory.]

C. W.