in a scheme for ministerial education among baptists; and in the following year went into Wiltshire, to aid in dealing with the Socinian tendencies of Thomas Collier [q. v.] In 1683 his house was searched on suspicion of his complicity with the Rye House plot; his son-in-law, Joseph Hayes, a banker, was tried for remitting money to Sir Thomas Armstrong [q. v.], and narrowly escaped with his life, 'a jury of merchants' (Burnet) refusing to convict him. Treasonable letters were forwarded to Kiffin; he at once placed them in the hands of Judge Jeffreys. Two of his grandsons, Benjamin and William Howling, the former being just of age, were executed (Benjamin at Taunton on 30 Sept., William at Lyme Regis on 12 Sept. 1686) for having joined the Monmouth rebellion. Kiffin offered 3,000l. for their acquittal, but 'missed the right door,' not having gone to Jeffreys. The latter is said to have remarked to William Hewling: 'You have a grandfather who deserves to be hanged as richly as you' (cf. Macaulay, cap. v. popular edit. p. 316). Though his near relatives were thus involved, Kiffin himself was neither a plotter nor, in any active sense, a politician.
On the revocation (1685) of the edict of Nantes, Kiffin maintained at his own expense an exiled Huguenot family of rank. Both on constitutional and on anti-popish grounds he refused to avail himself of James II's declaration for liberty of conscience (April 1687), and did all in his power to keep his denomination from countenancing it; not a single baptist congregation admitted the dispensing power, though prominent individual baptists did, e.g. Nehemiah Cox. In August 1687 James sent for Kiffin to court, and told him he had included his name as an alderman for the city of London in his new charter. Kiffin pleaded his age and retirement from business, and reminded the king of the death of his grandsons. 'I shall find,' said James, 'a balsam for that sore.' Kiffin was put into the commission of the peace and the lieutenancy. He delayed four months before qualifying as alderman, and did so at length (27 Oct. 1687) because there was no limit to the fine which might have been imposed on him. He gave 50l. towards the lord mayor's feast, but would not have done so had he known the papal nuncio (Count Ferdinand D'Adda) was invited. For nearly a year he held office as alderman of Cheap ward, being succeeded on 21 Oct. 1688 by Sir Humphrey Edwin [q. v.]
After the death of Patience (1666) he was Assisted in his ministry by Daniel Dyke (1617–1688) [q. v.] and Richard Adams (d. 1716). He resigned his charge in 1692. He died on 29 Dec. 1701 in his eighty-sixth year, and was buried in Bunhill Fields; the inscription on his tomb is given in Stow's 'Survey,' ed. Strype, 1720. His portrait was in 1808 in the possession of the Rev. Richard Frost of Dunmow, Essex, a descendant; an engraving is given in Wilson, and reproduced in Orme and Ivimey. He married late in 1634; his wife, Hanna, died 6 Oct. 1682, aged 66. His eldest son William died 31 Aug. 1669, aged 20; his second son died at Venice, and was supposed to have been poisoned; Harry, another son, died on 8 Dec. 1698, aged 44. His daughter Priscilla (d. 15 March 1679) married Robert Liddel.
Kiffin published: 1. 'A Glimpse of Sion's Glory,' &c., 1641, 4to. 2. 'The Christian Man's Trial,' &c., 1641 (Angus). 3. 'Observations on Hosea ii. 7, 8,' &c., 1642 (ib.) 4. 'A Letter to Mr. Edwards,' &c., 1644, 12mo (dated 15 Nov.) 5. 'A Briefe Remonstrance of the … Grounds of … Anabaptists for their Separation,' &c., 1645, 4to (answered by Ricraft in 'A Looking-glass for the Anabaptists,' &c., 1645, 4to). 6. 'A Declaration concerning the Publicke Dispute,' &c., 1645, 4to (by Kiffin, Hanserd Knollys [q. v.], and Benjamin Cox [q.v.]) 7. 'Walwyn's Wiles,' &c., 1649 (ib.) 8. 'A Letter to the Lord Mayor, by Lieut.-Col. Kiffin,' &c., 1659, fol. 8. 'A Sober Discourse of Right to Church Communion,' &c., 1681, 12mo (against open communion, in reply to Bunyan). He wrote prefaces to an edition of Samuel How's 'The Sufficiency of the Spirit's Teaching,' &c., 1640, 4to, and to 'The Quakers Appeal Answered,' &c., 1674, 8vo; and edited, with a continuation, the 'Life of Hanserd Knollys,'1692, 8vo. He spelt his name Kiffen and (later) Kiffin, which is the form given in the 1677 directory; Featley calls him Cufin.
[Kiffin wrote his autobiography to 1693; the manuscript was nseil by Wilson, Dissenting Churches of London, 1808. i. 400 sq., and edited by Orme as Remarkable Passages in the Life of William Kiffin, 1823; it is also incorporated in Ivimey's Life of Kiffin, 1833. See also Discourse between Captain Kiffin and Dr. Chamberlain, 1654; the Life and Approaching Death of William Kiffin, 1659(an abusive pamphlet); Burnet's Own Time, 1724, i. 599 sq.; English Presbyterian Eloquence, 1720, p. 141; Pike's Ancient Meeting Houses, 1870, p. 689; Crosby's Hist, of English Baptists, 1738–40, i. 215 sq.,ii. 180 sq., iii. 4 sq.; Tracts on Liberty of Conscience, 1846, p. 315; Records of Broadmead, Bristol, 1847, pp. xcii, 123, 149, 359; Confessions of Faith (the last three Hanserd Knollys Soc.), 1854, pp. 17, 23, 26, 310, 326; Macaulay's History; London Directory of 1677, 1878; Angus's Early Baptist Authors, 1886.]
