Chalkhill, was one of the Fellows of Winchester College, and this probably determined the choice of school for the youth. He was entered as a scholar January 30, 1651, and soon became remarkable for his "towardly disposition, his parts, application, and behaviour."
After six years study, he was elected, in 1657, to a Fellowship in New College, Oxford, where he secured the esteem and regard of his seniors. He had also, at school, attached himself to Francis Turner, who afterwards became Bishop of Ely. They both became Bishops, and both attended the unfortunate Duke of Monmouth on the scaffold. It is remarkable that the Head Warden of Winchester School and of New College, when Ken entered, was a Presbyterian, yet Ken was a firm and consistent Churchman. Thomas Hearn, the learned antiquary, and librarian of Oxford, mentions that Ken "was even then, when young, and a B.A. of New College, very pious and charitable, and used always to have small money to give away constantly, as he walked in the streets, in pence or twopences, or more at a time as he saw proper objects."
His relative, the famous Izaak Walton, says of him, he was a gentleman and a scholar, very innocent and prudent." The celebrated historian, Anthony A'Wood, mentions that "he indulged his taste for music at the University, and frequented the weekly meetings for the cultivation of that most delightful faculty, where he took his part as a vocal performer."
He was so true a Churchman, that as Nonconformists were the Wardens of the University at the time, he declined taking his degrees till a change took place. He took his B.A. degree in 1661, M.A. in 1664, B.D. in 1678, and D.D. in 1679. On taking ordere, he was made Chaplain to William Lord Маynard, who was comptroller of the household of Charles II. As a parochial clergyman he was one of the best and brightest examples, first as Rector of Little Easton, in Essex, in 1663; then at St. John's, Winchester, in 1665; at Brightetone, in the Isle of Wight, in 1667; and finally he took the living at East Woodhay in 1669. In none of these, however, does his influence seem to have been so entirely pervading as it became in Winchester College itself, în which he became a Fellow in 1666. Here his devout mind found ample scope, and
