was buried in the college chancel of All Saints' Church, Oxford. By his will he gave to the parish a double-gilt chalice and 50s. to buy a silver-gilt paten. Both utensils are still in use in the church.
Kilbye, who was an able preacher, published a funeral sermon on Thomas Holland, (d. 1612) [q. v.], 4to, Oxford, 1613. He was one of the translators of the Bible appointed by James I in 1604, and took part in the version of the prophetical books. He wrote also Latin commentaries on 'Exodus,' part ii. of which came into the possession of William Gilbert, fellow of Lincoln, and prepared a continuation of John Mercer's commentary on 'Genesis' (1598), but was not allowed to print it.
[Wood's Athenae Oxon. (Bliss), ii. 287.]
KILDARE, Earls of. [See Fitzthomas, John, d. 1316, first Earl; Fitzgerald, Thomas, d. 1328, second Earl; Fitzgerald, Maurice, 1318–1390, fourth Earl; Fitzgerald, Thomas, d. 1477, seventh Earl; Fitzgerald, Gerald, d. 1513, eighth Earl; Fitzgerald, Gerald, 1487–1534, ninth Earl; Fitzgerald, Thomas, 1513–1537,
tenth Earl; Fitzgerald, Gerald, 1525–1585, eleventh Earl.]
KILDELITH, ROBERT (d. 1273), chancellor of Scotland. [See Keldeleth.]
KILHAM, ALEXANDER (1762–1798), founder of the ‘methodist new connexion,’ was born of methodist parents at Epworth, Lincolnshire, on 10 July 1762. As a lad of eighteen he worked at Owston Ferry, Lincolnshire. Returning to Epworth he joined the Methodist Society, during a local revival of methodism, and began to preach in his twenty-first year, his first sermon being at Luddington, Lincolnshire. In 1783 he was engaged, as travelling companion and assistant in preaching, by Robert Carr Brackenbury of Raithby Hall, Lincolnshire, a gentleman of fortune in delicate health, and one of Wesley's followers. Kilham travelled with Brackenbury in Lincolnshire, and accompanied him to Jersey, where Brackenbury conducted a mission. In June 1784 they returned to England. Brackenbury was admitted on the regular list of itinerant preachers at the conference in July. Kilham, on the advice of William Duffton, had applied (6 June 1784), and he was regularly admitted at the conference in July of the following year. He was employed in the Grimsby circuit, where he encountered opposition from his patron's brother, Edward Brackenbury, vicar of Skendleby, Lincolnshire. To secure his position he registered himself under the Toleration Act. His appointments for the next few years were in Yorkshire.
On Wesley's death (2 March 1791) Kilham, though under thirty, at once became an energetic leader of the party opposed to the restriction, in the interests of the established church, of methodist operations. In May 1791 the Hull circular, officially issued by that circuit, advised methodists not to rank themselves as dissenters, but to meet only out of church hours, and to receive the Lord's Supper only in the parish churches. Kilham prepared a reply (anonymous), which was adopted by the Newcastle-on-Tyne circuit. He repudiated Wesley's personal dictation, on scriptural grounds, and argued that methodists were de facto dissenters, and their preachers qualified to administer all Christian ordinances. The conference at Manchester in July passed over Thomas Coke, D.C.L. [q. v.], the conservative leader, and elected as president William Thompson, a moderate man. Kilham was appointed to Newcastle-on-Tyne, where he was ordained by Joseph Cownley. The latter had been ordained by Wesley himself. The preachers in this circuit began (January 1792) to administer the Lord's Supper. An angry controversy ensued, to which Kilham contributed a printed ‘Address.’ He was summoned to the 1792 conference, held in London, and censured for his pamphlet by a large majority, Coke even moving his expulsion. The conference transferred him to Aberdeen, where he was stationed for three years. The conference of 1793 conceded the right of preachers to administer the Lord's Supper under certain restrictions.
In 1794 Kilham wrote, but did not publish, a pamphlet, signed ‘Martin Luther,’ denouncing the hierarchical scheme drawn up at a private meeting in Lichfield [see Coke, Thomas, D.C.L.], and was especially severe on Alexander Mather, whom Wesley had ordained in 1788 as a ‘superintendent.’ The 1794 conference was marked by fierce debates; an address on the sacrament question presented by Kilham was ordered to be torn up by the president. The resolutions actually arrived at went too far in their concessions to suit the conservative leaders, and a stormy agitation was raised throughout the body. Kilham published a pamphlet, signed ‘Aquila and Priscilla,’ going over the whole ground of controversy. Shortly before the conference met in Manchester in 1795 he issued his ‘Martin Luther’ pamphlet. During the meeting of the conference he printed another in Manchester, signed ‘Paul and Silas,’ vindicating the progressive nature of Wesley's
