him and Le Clerc on the meaning of Genesis xxxvi. 31. Both Le Clerc and Du Pin had a high opinion of Kidder's powers.
[Autobiography of Bishop Kidder, first published in Cassan's Lives of the Bishops of Bath and Wells; Dean Plumptre's and other biographies of Bishop Ken; Hunt's Religious Thought in England; Kidder's own writings.]
KIDDERMINSTER, RICHARD, D.D. (d. 1531), abbot of Winchcombe. [See Kedermyster.]
KIDGELL, JOHN (fl. 1766), divine, baptised on 28 April 1722 at St. Mary Woolnoth, London, was son of John Kidgell of St. Mary Woolchurch (Registers, ed. Brooke and Hallen, p. 100). He was admitted to Winchester in 1733 (Kirby, Winchester Scholars, p. 238), matriculated at Oxford from Hertford College on 21 March 1740–1, graduated B.A. in 1744, and M.A. in 1747 (Foster, Alumni Oxon. 1715–1886, ii. 792), and was elected fellow. He was a man of some talent, but dissolute and dishonest. James Douglas, earl of March and Ruglen (afterwards the well-known Duke of Queensberry), appropriately appointed him his chaplain. In 1756 he was assistant-preacher to the Bishop of Bangor, in December 1758 became rector of Woolverston, Suffolk (Addit. MS. 19105, f. 250), and by 1761 was morning preacher at Berkeley Chapel, London. On 14 May 1762 he was instituted to the rectory of Godstone, Surrey (Manning and Bray, Surrey, ii. 337), and on 24 June following to that of Horne in the same county (ib. ii. 320–1). He habitually neglected his duty, and lived as a man about town, under the auspices of Lord March. Walpole describes him as a ‘dainty, priggish parson, much in vogue among the old ladies for his gossiping and quaint sermons’ (Reign of George III, i. 311). When in 1763 the government wanted a second copy of the famous ‘Essay on Woman’ (which was printed by Wilkes and probably written by Thomas Potter [q. v.]), Kidgell corruptly obtained it from one of Wilkes's printers. This he handed to Lord March, who was in secret consultation with Lord Bute and Lord Sandwich. He then attempted to defend his conduct and replenish his purse by publishing ‘A genuine and succinct Narrative of a scandalous, obscene, and exceedingly profane Libel, entitled “An Essay on Woman,”’ &c., 4to, London, 1763, which completely blasted his reputation. An attempt on the part of Lord Sandwich to obtain for him the wealthy rectory of St. James, Westminster, failed (Nichols, Literary Anecdotes, ix. 659), and Kidgell, who was deeply in debt, had to fly the country, and is said to have died in Flanders (Brayley and Britton, Surrey, iv. 148). In June 1766 the churchwarden of Horne instituted proceedings against him in the court of arches for non-residence, but the cause, as being ‘improperly begun,’ was dismissed ‘for the present’ (Ann. Reg. ix. 105).
Kidgell was author of:
- ‘The Card’ [anon.], 2 vols. 12mo, London, 1755, a series of tales partly in the epistolary form.
- ‘Original Fables,’ in English and French, 2 vols. 12mo, London, 1763.
Both were printed for private circulation only. In the ‘Oxford Sausage’ (ed. 1764, pp. 119–24) are some amusing lines by him, entitled ‘Table Talk,’ which were written in 1745.
[Kidgell's Works; pamphlets in answer to his Narrative, 1763; Forster's Charles Churchill, 1855, p. 93; Gent. Mag. 1768, p. 613.]
KIDLEY, WILLIAM (fl. 1624), poet, was son of John Kidley of Dartmouth, Devonshire, where he was born in 1606. In matriculating at Oxford he gave his name as Kidley, alias Pointer. He entered at Exeter College on 16 July 1625, and graduated B.A. 12 Nov. 1627. He speaks, in a marginal note interpolated in the work noticed below, of returning to the college after a twelve years' absence, apparently in 1639. In 1624 he composed in his leisure ‘A Poetical Relation of the Voyage of Sr Richard Hawkins [q. v.], Knight, unto Mare del Zur,’ and ‘History of the year 1588, wth other Historical Passages of these Tymes (during the Raigne of the B. Q. Elizabeth).’ Hawkins's account of his voyage to the South Sea had been published in 1622. Kidley's poem, which is now among the manuscripts at the British Museum (Sloane Coll. 2024), and has not been printed, is entitled ‘Kidley's Hawkins.’ It was designed to be in eight books, but six only were completed. Kidley refers to other attempts made by him in verse, both at Oxford and at Dartmouth.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, ii. 367–74; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714.]
KIFFIN or KIFFEN, WILLIAM (1616–1701), merchant and baptist minister, was born in London early in 1616. His family appears to have been of Welsh descent. Both his parents died of the plague which broke out in June 1625. His father left property which was invested by some relatives in their business; on their failure little was saved. Kiffin was apprenticed in 1629 to John Lilburne (1618–1657) [q. v.], then a brewer; he left Lilburne in 1631, and seems to have been apprenticed to a glover. In that year he attended the sermons of many puritan divines, including John Davenport
