80l. From this date he lived chiefly at Lord Weymouth's house, Longleat, Wiltshire, and much at Naish House, near Portishead, Somerset, the residence of two maiden ladies named Kemeys, sometimes staying with Isaac Walton at his rectory of Polshot, Wiltshire, with Francis Cherry [q. v.] and other friends. He opposed the ‘clandestine consecration’ of nonjuring bishops in February 1694, for he was not willing that the schism should be perpetuated. But he certainly published a severe letter, dated 29 March 1695, accusing Archbishop Tenison of unfaithfulness when attending the deathbed of Queen Mary, and commenting on the archbishop's sermon for the queen's funeral. In the following April, dressed in his episcopal vestments, Ken read the burial service over the body of his friend Dr. John Kettlewell [q. v.], in Barking Church. In July he joined the other deprived bishops in putting forth a ‘charitable recommendation’ on behalf of the deprived clergy and their families. This led to his being summoned before the council in April 1696. His answers to the interrogatories proposed to him are reported by himself (Hawkins, pp. 48–56); he was courteously treated, and liberated from custody. In 1699 he received a legacy from Dr. John Fitzwilliam [q. v.], an old Oxford friend. His disapproval of the consecrations of 1694 caused a separation between him and the more violent nonjurors; he declared that he never used or would be present at public prayers containing any ‘characterisetick,’ any acknowledgment, that is, of either king, and he earnestly desired that the schism should end with the living, that the death of a deprived bishop should be held to give the intruder into his see a canonical position. In 1701 he suggested that he and Bishop Lloyd (Norwich), the only two deprived bishops then living, should hasten the termination of the schism by resigning their canonical claims. His moderate behaviour and his anxiety for the peace of the church still further offended many of the nonjurors.
In 1702 Queen Anne offered through Lord Weymouth to restore Ken to his see. He refused the offer, both because he would not take the oath of abjuration, and on the ground of age and infirmity. His health was declining (see Plumptre, ii. 123), and he suffered severely from rheumatism and colic. On 26 Nov. 1703 Richard Kidder [q. v.], who had supplanted him at Wells, died. The principles on which Kidder administered the diocese had been a cause of grief to Ken, who in speaking of him showed that he was not exempt from the feelings with which less holy men are wont to regard those supplanting them in office; to him Kidder was a ‘hireling’ who ‘ravaged the flock.’ Hearing that the see had been offered to his friend Hooper, then bishop of St. Asaph, and had been declined by him, he wrote to beg Hooper to accept it, in order to prevent the appointment of a ‘latitudinarian traditor,’ and offered to cede his right to him. Hooper accepted the see. Ken was bitterly attacked by many nonjurors for making this cession, and their reproaches not abating, he in 1704 turned to his friend Lloyd for sympathy. Lloyd, however, blamed him for acting without the consent of the heads of the party, and a short heat arose between the friends, which was ended by a letter from Ken expressing sorrow for any signs of irritation on his part. In June the queen granted Ken a treasury pension of 200l. Lloyd's death in January 1710 left Ken the only survivor of the deprived bishops, and in answer to a letter from Nelson he said that he considered that the schism ought to end, and looked forward with approval to the return of Dodwell and his friends to attendance at the services of the church. ‘Being a public person,’ he did not intend to return to church, though he should not hesitate to communicate with his successor ‘in that part of the office which is unexceptionable.’ On 21 April he intended to go to Wells and receive the sacrament with Bishop Hooper. It is unlikely that he was able to do so, for his health became worse, and he went to the Bristol Hot-well, where he remained suffering acutely until November, when he visited Lewston, near Sherborne, Dorset, the residence of the widow of Lord Weymouth's eldest son. While there he was attacked early in 1711 by paralysis and dropsy. He left Lewston, intending to try the Bath waters, and reached Longleat on 10 March. On the 12th he was unable to leave his bed, and on the 19th he died. On the 21st he was buried agreeably to his instructions at sunrise, without any manner of pomp, in the churchyard of the parish church nearest the place of his death, beneath the east window of the parish church of Frome. His tomb is merely a coffin-shaped iron grating, with a mitre and crozier. In his will Ken declared: ‘I die in the holy catholic and apostolic faith, professed by the whole church before the division of East and West; more particularly I die in the communion of the church of England, as it stands distinguished from all papal and puritan innovations, and as it adheres to the doctrine of the cross’ (Hawkins, p. 27).
In person Ken was short and slender, with dark eyes and hair. His expression was winning. He wore no hair on his face
