[Spenser's Works, ed. Grosart, vol. i. passim, iii. cviii–xiv (where Kirke's will is printed); Spenser's Shepheardes Calender, ed. by H. Oskar Sommer, Ph.D. (London, 1890), where are collected the arguments against the theory of ‘E. K.'s’ identification with Kirke, and the impossible solution is proposed that ‘E. K.’ was Spenser himself; Gabriel Harvey's Letters, 1580, reprinted in Harvey's and Spenser's Works in Dr. Grosart's editions; Cooper's Athenæ Cantabr. ii. 244.]
KIRKE, JOHN (fl. 1638), dramatist, may be the John Kirke who is described in the will of Edward Kirke [q. v.], Spenser's friend, as the testator's godson. He was author of a popular tragi-comedy, entitled ‘The Seven Champions of Christendome,’ which was licensed for the press on 13 July 1638 (Arber, Stationers' Reg. iv. 424). License was given at the same time for the publication of ‘The Life and Death of Jack Straw and Watt Tyler by John Kirke’ (ib.), but of this piece nothing is known. The play was published under the title ‘The Seven Champions of Christendome. Acted at the Cockpit and at the Red Bull in St. John's Streete, with a generall liking, and never printed till the yeare 1638. Written by J. K.,’ London, 1638, 8vo. The dedication is addressed to the author's ‘much respected friend, Master John Waite.’ It is written in both prose and verse, with a few songs interspersed, but it has few literary merits. It was reprinted in ‘Old English Drama,’ 1830. An unnamed play by Kirke was burned by Sir Henry Herbert, licenser of stage plays, in May 1642, for ‘the offence that was in it,’ but on 8 June following Herbert allowed Kirke's ‘Irish Rebellion,’ a play that is not now known to be extant. The dramatist was author of the dedication to Sir Kenelm Digby prefixed to Shirley's ‘Martyred Soldier,’ 1638.
[Hunter's Chorus Vatum (Addit. MS. 24492, f. 91); Fleay's Biog. Chron. of English Drama, ii. 256.]
KIRKE, PERCY (1646?–1691), lieutenant-general, colonel of ‘Kirke's Lambs,’ is usually described as belonging to the ancient family of Kyrke or Kirke of Whitehaigh, Chapel-le-Frith, Derbyshire, now represented by Kirke of ‘The Eaves’ (see Burke, Landed Gentry, 1886 edit. vol. i.; also the Reliquary, vi. 213 et seq.). The relationship is not established (Chester, Westminster Register, p. 295). His father, George Kirke (d. 1675?), was gentleman of the robes to Charles I, and under Charles II groom of the bedchamber and keeper of Whitehall Palace. His first wife was Mistress Anne Killigrew, eldest daughter of Sir Robert Killigrew [q. v.], and sister of William [q. v.], Thomas [q. v.], and Henry Killigrew D.D. [q. v.] (ib. p. 135 n. 6). A memorandum of the arms displayed by George Kirke on the occasion of her funeral in 1641, preserved at Heralds' College, shows that they are not the arms of Kirke of Chapel-le-Frith (ib. p. 295 n. 1). Chester supposes Lucy Hamilton Sands, an associate of Nell Gwyn, to have been one of Anne Killigrew's children (ib. p. 218 n. 6). George Kirke married, secondly, Mary, daughter of Aurelian Townshend, the successor to Ben Jonson as writer of masques for the court. She was ‘an admired beauty of the tyme,’ and given away by Charles I at Oxford on 26 Feb. 1646. This lady and her daughters—Mary, afterwards wife of Sir Thomas Vernor, and Diana, second wife of Aubrey de Vere, last earl of Oxford—were no better than other ladies at the court (cf. Notes and Queries, 1st ser. viii. 461–3). George Kirke probably died in 1675, when his wife was drawing a pension as a widow (Chester, p. 295 n. 1.).
Percy or Piercy Kirke, though generally described as a son of Anne Killigrew, was more probably one of the children by a second marriage. The earliest official notice of him is a petition (circa 1665?) praying that an annuity of 365l., for which his father paid 2,000l. to Sir Charles Howard before the revolution, although he never benefited by it, might be renewed in his favour (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1665–6, p. 153). On 10 July 1666 (ib.) the Duke of York obtained his appointment as ensign in Captain Bromley's company of the lord admiral's regiment (the yellow-coated ‘maritime’ regiment, with which the marine forces originated). Afterwards he appears to have been a subaltern in the Earl of Oxford's (his brother-in-law) regiment of horse, the Oxford Blues. Warrants to the commissary of musters direct that Kirke, at the time captain-lieutenant of the colonel's troop of the regiment, should be passed (as on duty) in 1673, when serving under the Duke of Monmouth in France, and again in 1680, when commanded to Tangier (Hist. Rec. Royal Horse Guards or Blues, note at p. 30). Cannon states (Hist. Rec. 4th King's Own Foot, p. 143) that Kirke was present, with the Duke of Monmouth's regiment in the pay of France, at the siege of Maestricht in 1673, and afterwards in two campaigns under Turenne on the Rhine, also under Marshal Luxembourg in 1676 and Marshal de Creci in 1677. On 13 July 1680 he was appointed lieutenant-colonel, and on 27 Nov. following colonel of the 2nd Tangier regiment, then raised, and afterwards the 4th King's Own, and now the King's Own Royal Lancaster regiment. Kirke raised the eight companies formed about London, and took
