William Kiffin
Encyclopedia
William Kiffin sometimes spelled William Kiffen, was a seventeenth-century English
Baptist minister. He was also a successful merchant in the woolen trade.
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
, then a brewer (note: this probably is inaccurate; Liliburne was the same age as Kiffin; he was also not a brewer until 1641ish); 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
and Lewis du Moulin
, but attached himself next year to John Goodwin
the independent. He joined a religious
society of apprentices, and became (1638) a member of the separatist congregation gathered in Southwark by Henry Jacob
and then ministered to by John Lothrop
. Kiffin preached occasionally. In 1641-2, during the ministry of Henry Jessey
, he and others became Baptists, but remained a member of Jessey's church till 1644.
Early in 1641 he was arrested at a Southwark conventicle
and committed by Judge Mallet to the White Lion prison
, bail being refused. Mallet was himself committed to the Tower in the following July, whereupon Kiffin obtained his release. On 17 October 1642 he was one of four Baptist disputants encountered at Southwark by Daniel Featley
.
In 1643 Kiffin began business in woollen cloth on his own account with Holland. He became rich. In 1647 he was parliamentary assessor of taxes for Middlesex. In 1649 he made good use of the five weeks' grace before the coming into force of restrictions upon the import of foreign goods. In 1652, on the outbreak of the first Anglo–Dutch War, he gained money and privileges by furnishing requisites for the English fleet. Meanwhile he was pursuing his religious labours. His name heads in 1644 the signatories to a confession of faith drawn up by seven churches "commonly (but uniustly) called anabaptists." Joshua Ricraft,
a presbyterian merchant, attacked him (1646)
as "the grand ringleader" of the baptists.
Thomas Edwards
assailed
him in 1646 as a "mountebank," and as adopting
the "atheistical" practice of unction for
this recovery of the sick.
Kiffin had offered in vain (15 Nov. 1644) to
discuss matters publicly with Edwards in his
church (St. Botolph's, Aldgate). He joined
Hanserd Knollys
in a public disputation
(1646) at Holy Trinity Church, Coventry
, with
John Bryan, D.D., and Obadiah Grew
,
D.D. In January 1649 parliament, in response to a petition from Ipswich, gave him liberty to preach in any part of Suffolk, where he travelled with Thomas Patience, his assistant.
He corresponded (1653) with the Baptist churches in Ireland and Wales. His settlement with the congregation, which, on 1 March 1667, opened a meeting-house in Meeting-house Yard, Devonshire Square, London, is usually dated in 1653. But as early as 1643 Kiffin and Patience ministered to this congregation, which consisted of seceders from Wapping practising close communion. He signed the declaration of 1651. On 12 July 1655 Kiffin was brought before Christopher Pack, the Lord Mayor, for preaching that infant baptism was unlawful, a heresy visited with severe penalties under the "draconick ordinance" of 1648. The execution of the penalty was indefinitely postponed. A pamphlet (The Spirit of Persecution again Broke Loose, &c., 1655) contrasts this leniency with the severity used towards John Biddle
. He was M.P. for Middlesex, 1656-8.
Between 1654 and 1659 Kiffin is spoken of as captain and lieutenant-colonel in the London militia. This may account for his arrest, and the seizure of arms at his house in Little Moorfields
, shortly before the Restoration
, in 1660, by order of Monck
, who was quartered near him. He was released by order of the common council, and the arms were restored to him. A more serious trouble befell him later in the year. A forged letter, dated 21 December 1660, and professing to come from Taunton
, implicated him in an alleged plot, following the death of the Princess of Orange
(24 December). He was arrested on 29 December, and kept in the guard-house at Whitehall, but released on 31 Dec. by Sir Robert Foster
, the chief justice, the date and other circumstances proving the letter a forgery. On 7 January 1661 Venner's insurrection
broke out. Kiffin at once headed a "protestation" of London baptists, but nevertheless was arrested at his meeting-house and detained in prison for four days.
About 1663 he gave evidence before a committee of the House of Commons, and before the privy council, against granting to the "Hamburg Company" a monopoly of the woollen trade with Holland and Germany. His evidence permanently impressed Charles II
in his favour, and gained him the goodwill of Clarendon
. A year later he was arrested at the instance of George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham
, on suspicion of being concerned in an anabaptist plot against the king's life. He wrote to Clarendon, and was at once released by the privy council, and though a prosecution was threatened nothing came of it. In 1669 his meeting-house was in Finsbury Court, Moorfields. On two occasions, in 1670 and 1682, Kiffin, when prosecuted for conventicle-keeping, successfully pleaded technical flaws. On two other occasions (one in 1673) he obtained interviews with the king, securing the suppression of a libel against Baptists, and the pardon of twelve Aylesbury baptists who had been sentenced to death under 35 Eliz. c. 1. Crosby relates that Charles wanted a loan of £40,000 from Kiffin, who made him a present of £10,000, and said afterwards that he had thus saved £30,000. In 1675 he took part
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
.
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
, and narrowly escaped with
his life, "a jury of merchants" 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 Monmouth's rebellion.
Kiffin offered £3,000 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." 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 £50 towards the
lord mayor's feast, but would not have done
so had he known the papal nuncio (Count Ferdinando 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
.
After the death of Patience (1666) he was assisted in his ministry by Daniel Dyke
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 John Stow
's Survey, ed. John 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. His granddaughter, Rebecca Hewling, married Oliver Cromwell's grandson, Major Richard Cromwell.
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.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
Baptist minister. He was also a successful merchant in the woolen trade.
Life
He was born in London early in 1616. His family appears to have been of Welsh descent. Both his parents died of the plagueBlack Death
The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Of several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Thought to have...
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
John Lilburne
John Lilburne , also known as Freeborn John, was an English political Leveller before, during and after English Civil Wars 1642-1650. He coined the term "freeborn rights", defining them as rights with which every human being is born, as opposed to rights bestowed by government or human law...
, then a brewer (note: this probably is inaccurate; Liliburne was the same age as Kiffin; he was also not a brewer until 1641ish); 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
John Davenport (clergyman)
John Davenport was an English puritan clergyman and co-founder of the American colony of New Haven.-Early life:Born in Manchester, Warwickshire, England to a wealthy family, Davenport was educated at Oxford University...
and Lewis du Moulin
Lewis Du Moulin
Lewis Du Moulin was a French Huguenot physician and controversialist, who settled in England. He became Camden Professor of History at the University of Oxford.-Life:...
, but attached himself next year to John Goodwin
John Goodwin (preacher)
John Goodwin was an English preacher, theologian and prolific author of significant books.-Early life:Goodwin was born in Norfolk and educated at Queens' College, Cambridge, where he graduated M.A. and obtained a fellowship on 10 November 1617. He left the university and married, took orders and...
the independent. He joined a religious
society of apprentices, and became (1638) a member of the separatist congregation gathered in Southwark by Henry Jacob
Henry Jacob
Henry Jacob was an English clergyman of Calvinist views, who founded a separatist congregation associated with the Brownists.-Life:...
and then ministered to by John Lothrop
John Lothrop
John Lothropp was an English Anglican clergyman, who became a Congregationalist minister and emigrant to New England. He was the founder of Barnstable, Massachusetts.-Early life:...
. Kiffin preached occasionally. In 1641-2, during the ministry of Henry Jessey
Henry Jessey
Henry Jessey or Jacie was one of many English Dissenters. He was a founding member of the Puritan religious sect, the Jacobites. Jessey was considered a Hebrew and a rabbinical scholar.-Life:...
, he and others became Baptists, but remained a member of Jessey's church till 1644.
Early in 1641 he was arrested at a Southwark conventicle
Conventicle
A conventicle is a small, unofficial and unofficiated meeting of laypeople, to discuss religious issues in a non-threatening, intimate manner. Philipp Jakob Spener called for such associations in his Pia Desideria, and they were the foundation of the German Evangelical Lutheran Pietist movement...
and committed by Judge Mallet to the White Lion prison
Marshalsea
The Marshalsea was a prison on the south bank of the River Thames in Southwark, now part of London. From the 14th century until it closed in 1842, it housed men under court martial for crimes at sea, including those accused of "unnatural crimes", political figures and intellectuals accused of...
, bail being refused. Mallet was himself committed to the Tower in the following July, whereupon Kiffin obtained his release. On 17 October 1642 he was one of four Baptist disputants encountered at Southwark by Daniel Featley
Daniel Featley
Daniel Featley, also called Fairclough and sometimes called Richard Fairclough/Featley , was an English theologian and controversialist...
.
In 1643 Kiffin began business in woollen cloth on his own account with Holland. He became rich. In 1647 he was parliamentary assessor of taxes for Middlesex. In 1649 he made good use of the five weeks' grace before the coming into force of restrictions upon the import of foreign goods. In 1652, on the outbreak of the first Anglo–Dutch War, he gained money and privileges by furnishing requisites for the English fleet. Meanwhile he was pursuing his religious labours. His name heads in 1644 the signatories to a confession of faith drawn up by seven churches "commonly (but uniustly) called anabaptists." Joshua Ricraft,
a presbyterian merchant, attacked him (1646)
as "the grand ringleader" of the baptists.
Thomas Edwards
Thomas Edwards (Heresiographer)
Thomas Edwards was an English Puritan clergyman. He was a very influential preacher in London of the 1640s, and also one of the most ferocious polemical writers of the time, arguing from a conservative Presbyterian point of view against the Independents.-Life:He graduated M.A. from Queens'...
assailed
him in 1646 as a "mountebank," and as adopting
the "atheistical" practice of unction for
this recovery of the sick.
Kiffin had offered in vain (15 Nov. 1644) to
discuss matters publicly with Edwards in his
church (St. Botolph's, Aldgate). He joined
Hanserd Knollys
Hanserd Knollys
-Life:He was born at Cawkwell, Lincolnshire, about 1599. He was educated privately under a tutor, was for a short time at Great Grimsby grammar school, and afterwards matriculated at St Catharine's College, Cambridge in 1627 or 1629. Leaving the university, he became master of the grammar school at...
in a public disputation
(1646) at Holy Trinity Church, Coventry
Holy Trinity Church, Coventry
Holy Trinity Church, Coventry is a parish church in the Church of England located in Coventry City Centre, West Midlands, England.Above the chancel arch is probably the most impressive Doom wall-painting now remaining in an English church.-History:...
, with
John Bryan, D.D., and Obadiah Grew
Obadiah Grew
-Life:Grew was born at Atherstone, Warwickshire on 1 November 1607, the third son of Francis Grew and Elizabeth Denison. He was baptised the same day at the parish church of Mancetter, Warwickshire. Francis Grew was a layman, originally of good estate but impoverished by prosecutions for...
,
D.D. In January 1649 parliament, in response to a petition from Ipswich, gave him liberty to preach in any part of Suffolk, where he travelled with Thomas Patience, his assistant.
He corresponded (1653) with the Baptist churches in Ireland and Wales. His settlement with the congregation, which, on 1 March 1667, opened a meeting-house in Meeting-house Yard, Devonshire Square, London, is usually dated in 1653. But as early as 1643 Kiffin and Patience ministered to this congregation, which consisted of seceders from Wapping practising close communion. He signed the declaration of 1651. On 12 July 1655 Kiffin was brought before Christopher Pack, the Lord Mayor, for preaching that infant baptism was unlawful, a heresy visited with severe penalties under the "draconick ordinance" of 1648. The execution of the penalty was indefinitely postponed. A pamphlet (The Spirit of Persecution again Broke Loose, &c., 1655) contrasts this leniency with the severity used towards John Biddle
John Biddle (Unitarian)
John Biddle or Bidle was an influential English nontrinitarian, and Unitarian. He is often called "the Father of English Unitarianism".- Life :...
. He was M.P. for Middlesex, 1656-8.
Between 1654 and 1659 Kiffin is spoken of as captain and lieutenant-colonel in the London militia. This may account for his arrest, and the seizure of arms at his house in Little Moorfields
Moorfields
In London, the Moorfields were one of the last pieces of open land in the City of London, near the Moorgate. The fields were divided into three areas, the Moorfields proper, just north of Bethlem Hospital, and inside the City boundaries, and Middle and Upper Moorfields to the north.After the Great...
, shortly before the Restoration
English Restoration
The Restoration of the English monarchy began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Interregnum that followed the Wars of the Three Kingdoms...
, in 1660, by order of Monck
George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle
George Monck, 1st Duke of Albemarle, KG was an English soldier and politician and a key figure in the restoration of Charles II.-Early life and career:...
, who was quartered near him. He was released by order of the common council, and the arms were restored to him. A more serious trouble befell him later in the year. A forged letter, dated 21 December 1660, and professing to come from Taunton
Taunton
Taunton is the county town of Somerset, England. The town, including its suburbs, had an estimated population of 61,400 in 2001. It is the largest town in the shire county of Somerset....
, implicated him in an alleged plot, following the death of the Princess of Orange
Mary, Princess Royal and Princess of Orange
Mary, Princess Royal, Princess of Orange and Countess of Nassau was the eldest daughter of King Charles I of England, Scotland, and Ireland and his queen, Henrietta Maria of France...
(24 December). He was arrested on 29 December, and kept in the guard-house at Whitehall, but released on 31 Dec. by Sir Robert Foster
Robert Foster (judge)
Sir Robert Foster was an English judge and Chief Justice of the King’s Bench.-Early career:Foster was the youngest son of Sir Thomas Foster, a judge of the common pleas in the time of James I. He was born in 1589, admitted a member of the Inner Temple in 1604, and called to the bar in January 1610...
, the chief justice, the date and other circumstances proving the letter a forgery. On 7 January 1661 Venner's insurrection
Thomas Venner
Thomas Venner was a cooper and rebel who became the last leader of the Fifth Monarchy Men, who tried unsuccessfully to overthrow Oliver Cromwell in 1657, and subsequently led a coup in London against the newly-restored government of Charles II...
broke out. Kiffin at once headed a "protestation" of London baptists, but nevertheless was arrested at his meeting-house and detained in prison for four days.
About 1663 he gave evidence before a committee of the House of Commons, and before the privy council, against granting to the "Hamburg Company" a monopoly of the woollen trade with Holland and Germany. His evidence permanently impressed Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
in his favour, and gained him the goodwill of Clarendon
Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon
Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon was an English historian and statesman, and grandfather of two English monarchs, Mary II and Queen Anne.-Early life:...
. A year later he was arrested at the instance of George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham
George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham
George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, 20th Baron de Ros of Helmsley, KG, PC, FRS was an English statesman and poet.- Upbringing and education :...
, on suspicion of being concerned in an anabaptist plot against the king's life. He wrote to Clarendon, and was at once released by the privy council, and though a prosecution was threatened nothing came of it. In 1669 his meeting-house was in Finsbury Court, Moorfields. On two occasions, in 1670 and 1682, Kiffin, when prosecuted for conventicle-keeping, successfully pleaded technical flaws. On two other occasions (one in 1673) he obtained interviews with the king, securing the suppression of a libel against Baptists, and the pardon of twelve Aylesbury baptists who had been sentenced to death under 35 Eliz. c. 1. Crosby relates that Charles wanted a loan of £40,000 from Kiffin, who made him a present of £10,000, and said afterwards that he had thus saved £30,000. In 1675 he took part
in a scheme for ministerial education among
baptists; and in the following year went
into Wiltshire, to aid in dealing with the
Socinian
Socinianism
Socinianism is a system of Christian doctrine named for Fausto Sozzini , which was developed among the Polish Brethren in the Minor Reformed Church of Poland during the 15th and 16th centuries and embraced also by the Unitarian Church of Transylvania during the same period...
tendencies of Thomas Collier
Thomas Collier
For the Baptist preacher see Thomas Collier .Thomas Collier RI was an English landscape painter....
.
In 1683 his house was searched on suspicion
of his complicity with the Rye House plot
Rye House Plot
The Rye House Plot of 1683 was a plan to assassinate King Charles II of England and his brother James, Duke of York. Historians vary in their assessment of the degree to which details of the conspiracy were finalized....
;
his son-in-law, Joseph Hayes, a banker, was
tried for remitting money to Sir Thomas Armstrong
Thomas Armstrong
Sir Thomas Armstrong was an English organist, conductor, educationalist and adjudicator. He had a substantial influence on British music for well over half a century. From 1955 to 1968 he was principal of the Royal Academy of Music...
, and narrowly escaped with
his life, "a jury of merchants" 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
Taunton
Taunton is the county town of Somerset, England. The town, including its suburbs, had an estimated population of 61,400 in 2001. It is the largest town in the shire county of Somerset....
on 30 Sept.,
William at Lyme Regis
Lyme Regis
Lyme Regis is a coastal town in West Dorset, England, situated 25 miles west of Dorchester and east of Exeter. The town lies in Lyme Bay, on the English Channel coast at the Dorset-Devon border...
on 12 Sept. 1686)
for having joined Monmouth's rebellion.
Kiffin offered £3,000 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." 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
Edict of Nantes
The Edict of Nantes, issued on 13 April 1598, by Henry IV of France, granted the Calvinist Protestants of France substantial rights in a nation still considered essentially Catholic. In the Edict, Henry aimed primarily to promote civil unity...
, Kiffin maintained at his own expense
an exiled Huguenot
Huguenot
The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...
family of rank.
Both on constitutional and on anti-popish
grounds he refused to avail himself of James II
James II of England
James II & VII was King of England and King of Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland...
'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 £50 towards the
lord mayor's feast, but would not have done
so had he known the papal nuncio (Count Ferdinando d'Adda
Ferdinando d'Adda
Ferdinando d'Adda was a Roman Catholic Cardinal, bishop and diplomat.D'Adda was born in Milan. He served as Prefect of the Congregation of Rites...
) was invited. For nearly
a year he held office as alderman of Cheap
ward, being succeeded on 21 Oct. 1688 by
Sir Humphrey Edwin
Humphrey Edwin
-Early life:Edwin was born at Hereford, the only son of William Edwin, twice mayor of Hereford, by his wife, Anne, of the family of Mansfield. He came to London, and in or before 1670 married Elizabeth, the daughter of Samuel Sambrooke, a wealthy London merchant of the ward of Bassishaw, and sister...
.
After the death of Patience (1666) he was assisted in his ministry by Daniel Dyke
Daniel Dyke
Daniel Dyke was an English Baptist minister.-Life:He was the son of Jeremiah Dyke, minister of Epping, Essex, and was educated first at a private school in the country, and then sent to Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. There he matriculated in 1629, graduated B.A. in 1633 and M.A. in 1636...
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 John Stow
John Stow
John Stow was an English historian and antiquarian.-Early life:The son of Thomas Stow, a tallow-chandler, he was born about 1525 in London, in the parish of St Michael, Cornhill. His father's whole rent for his house and garden was only 6s. 6d. a year, and Stow in his youth fetched milk every...
's Survey, ed. John Strype
John Strype
John Strype was an English historian and biographer. He was a cousin of Robert Knox, a famous sailor.Born in Houndsditch, London, he was the son of John Strype, or van Stryp, a member of a Huguenot family whom, in order to escape religious persecution within Brabant, had settled in East London...
, 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. His granddaughter, Rebecca Hewling, married Oliver Cromwell's grandson, Major Richard Cromwell.
Works
- A Glimpse of Sion's Glory, &c., 1641, 4to.
- The Christian Man's Trial, &c., 1641
- Observations on Hosea ii. 7, 8, &c., 1642
- A Letter to Mr. Edwards, &c., 1644, 12mo (dated 15 Nov.)
- 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)
- A Declaration concerning the Publicke Dispute, &c., 1645, 4to (by Kiffin, Hanserd KnollysHanserd Knollys-Life:He was born at Cawkwell, Lincolnshire, about 1599. He was educated privately under a tutor, was for a short time at Great Grimsby grammar school, and afterwards matriculated at St Catharine's College, Cambridge in 1627 or 1629. Leaving the university, he became master of the grammar school at...
, and Benjamin Cox) - Walwyn's Wiles, &c., 1649
- A Letter to the Lord Mayor, by Lieut.-Col. Kiffin, &c., 1659, fol.
- 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.