of Bristol, his wife took steps to obtain proof of her marriage. This did not, however, prevent her from becoming the mistress of Evelyn Pierrepont, 2nd duke of Kingston, and she was not only a very prominent figure in London society, but in 1765 in Berlin she was honoured by the attentions of Frederick the Great. By this time Hervey wished for a divorce from his wife; but Elizabeth, although equally anxious to be free, was unwilling to face the publicity attendant upon this step. However she began a suit of jactitation against Hervey. This case was doubtless collusive, and after Elizabeth had sworn she was unmarried, the court in February 1769 pronounced her a spinster. Within a month she married Kingston, who died four years later, leaving her all his property on condition that she remained a widow. Visiting Rome the duchess was received with honour by Clement XIV.; after which she hurried back to England to defend herself from a charge of bigamy, which had been preferred against her by Kingston’s nephew, Evelyn Meadows (d. 1826). The house of Lords in 1776 found her guilty, and retaining her fortune she hurriedly left England to avoid further proceedings on the part of the Meadows family, who had a reversionary interest in the Kingston estates. She lived for a time in Calais, and then repaired to St Petersburg, near which city she bought an estate which she named “Chudleigh.” Afterwards she resided in Paris, Rome, and elsewhere, and died in Paris on the 26th of August 1788. The duchess was a coarse and licentious woman, and was ridiculed as Kitty Crocodile by the comedian Samuel Foote in a play A Trip to Calais, which, however, he was not allowed to produce. She is said to have been the original of Thackeray’s characters, Beatrice and Baroness Bernstein.
There is an account of the duchess in J. H. Jesse’s Memoirs of the Court of England 1688–1760, vol. iv. (1901).
KINGSTON, WILLIAM HENRY GILES (1814–1880), English novelist, son of Lucy Henry Kingston, was born in London on
the 28th of February 1814. Much of his youth was spent at
Oporto, where his father was a merchant, but when he entered
the business, he made his headquarters in London. He early
wrote newspaper articles on Portuguese subjects. These were
translated into Portuguese, and the author received a Portuguese
order of knighthood and a pension for his services in the conclusion
of the commercial treaty of 1842. In 1844 his first book,
The Circassian Chief, appeared, and in 1845 The Prime Minister,
a Story of the Days of the Great Marquis of Pombal. The Lusitanian
Sketches describe Kingston’s travels in Portugal. In
1851 Peter the Whaler, his first book for boys, came out. These
books proved so popular that Kingston retired from business,
and devoted himself to the production of tales of adventure for
boys. Within thirty years he wrote upwards of one hundred
and thirty such books. He had a practical knowledge of seamanship,
and his stories of the sea, full of thrilling adventures
and hairbreadth escapes, exactly hit the taste of his boy readers.
Characteristic specimens of his work are The Three Midshipmen;
The Three Lieutenants; The Three Commanders; and The
Three Admirals. He also wrote popular accounts of famous
travellers by land and sea, and translated some of the stories of
Jules Verne.
In all philanthropic schemes Kingston took deep interest; he was the promoter of the mission to seamen; and he acted as secretary of a society for promoting an improved system of emigration. He was editor of the Colonist for a short time in 1844 and of the Colonial Magazine and East Indian Review from 1849 to 1851. He was a supporter of the volunteer movement in England from the first. He died at Willesden on the 5th of August 1880.
KINGSTON, the chief city of Frontenac county, Ontario,
Canada, at the north-eastern extremity of Lake Ontario, and
the mouth of the Cataraqui River. Pop. (1901), 17,961. It is
an important station on the Grand Trunk railway, the terminus
of the Kingston & Pembroke railway, and has steamboat
communication with other ports on Lake Ontario and the Bay
of Quinte, on the St Lawrence and the Rideau canal. It contains
a fine stone graving dock, 280 ft. long, 100 ft. wide, and with a
depth of 16 ft. at low water on the sill. The fortifications, which
at one time made it one of the strongest fortresses in Canada, are
now out of date. The sterility of the surrounding country, and
the growth of railways have lessened its commercial importance,
but it still contains a number of small factories, and important
locomotive works and ship-building yards. As an educational
and residential centre it retains high rank, and is a popular
summer resort. It is the seat of an Anglican and of a Roman
Catholic bishopric, of the Royal Military College (founded by
the Dominion government in 1875), of an artillery school, and
of Queen’s University, an institution founded in 1839 under the
nominal control of the Presbyterian church, now including about
1200 students. In the suburbs are a Dominion penitentiary,
and a provincial lunatic asylum. Founded by the French in
1673, under the name of Kateracoui, soon changed to Fort
Frontenac, it played an important part in the wars between
English and French. Taken and destroyed by the English in
1758, it was refounded in 1782 under its present name, and was
from 1841 to 1844 the capital of Canada.
KINGSTON, a city and the county-seat of Ulster county, New
York, U.S.A., on the Hudson River, at the mouth of Rondout
Creek, about 90 m. N. of New York and about 53 m. S. of Albany.
Pop. (1900), 24,535—3551 being foreign-born; (1910 census)
25,908. It is served by the West Shore (which here crosses
Rondout Creek on a high bridge), the New York Ontario &
Western, the Ulster & Delaware, and the Wallkill Valley railways,
by a ferry across the river to Rhinecliff, where connexion
is made with the New York Central & Hudson River railroad,
and by steamboat lines to New York, Albany and other river
points. The principal part of the city is built on a level plateau
about 150 ft. above the river; other parts of the site vary from
flatlands to rough highlands. To the N.W. is the mountain
scenery of the Catskills, to the S.W. the Shawangunk Mountains
and Lake Mohonk, and in the distance across the river are the
Berkshire Hills. The most prominent public buildings are the
post office and the city hall; in front of the latter is a Soldiers’
and Sailors’ Monument. The city has a Carnegie library. The
“Senate House”—now the property of the state, with a colonial
museum—was erected about 1676; it was the meeting place of
the first State Senate in 1777, and was burned (except the walls)
in October of that year. The court house (1818) stands on the
site of the old court house, in which Governor George Clinton
was inaugurated in July 1777, and in which Chief Justice John
Jay held the first term of the New York Supreme Court in
September 1777. The Elmendorf Tavern (1723) was the
meeting-place of the New York Council of Safety in October
1777. Kingston Academy was organized in 1773, and in 1864
was transferred to the Kingston Board of Education and became
part of the city’s public school system; its present building dates
from 1806. Kingston’s principal manufactures are tobacco,
cigars and cigarettes, street railway cars and boats; other
manufactures are Rosendale cement, bricks, shirts, lace curtains,
brushes, motor wheels, sash and blinds. The city ships large
quantities of building and flag stones quarried in the vicinity.
The total value of the factory product in 1905 was $5,000,922,
an increase of 26.5% since 1900.
In 1614 a small fort was built by the Dutch at the mouth of Rondout Creek, and in 1652 a settlement was established in the vicinity and named Esopus after the Esopus Indians, who were a subdivision of the Munsee branch of the Delawares, and whose name meant “small river,” referring possibly to Rondout Creek. The settlement was deserted in 1655–56 on account of threatened Indian attacks. In 1658 a stockade was built by the order of Governor Peter Stuyvesant, and from this event the actual founding of the city is generally dated. In 1659 the massacre of several drunken Indians by the soldiers caused a general rising of the Indians, who unsuccessfully attacked the stockade, killing some of the soldiers and inhabitants, and capturing and torturing others. Hostilities continued into the following year. In 1661 the governor named the place Wiltwyck and gave it a municipal charter. In 1663 it suffered from another Indian attack, a number of the inhabitants being slain or taken prisoners. The English took possession
