Kingsmill by royal license. He commanded the Vigilant of 64 guns in the action off Ushant on 27 July 1778 [see Keppel, Augustus, Viscount], but after the courts-martial quitted the ship in disgust at the action of the admiralty. On the change of ministry in 1782 he was appointed to the Elizabeth, which after the peace was employed as a guardship. He was elected M.P. for Tregony, Cornwall, on 5 April 1784. In the Spanish armament of 1790 he commanded the Duke of 90 guns. On 1 Feb. 1793 he was promoted to be rear-admiral, and was shortly afterwards appointed commander-in-chief on the coast of Ireland, an arduous, though not brilliant post, which he held continuously till 1800, being advanced meanwhile to the rank of vice-admiral on 4 July 1794, and of admiral on 14 Feb. 1799. He was created a baronet on 24 Nov. 1800, and died without issue at Sidmouth on 23 Nov. 1805.
His brother Edward, principal surveyor of revenue at Belfast, also assumed the surname of Kingsmill in December 1787, and his son Robert succeeded his uncle as second baronet. On the second baronet's death in 1823 the title became extinct.
[Charnock's Biog. Nav. vi. 485; Ralfe's Nav. Biog. i. 354; Burke's Dormant and Extinct Baronetcies.]
KINGSMILL, THOMAS (fl. 1605), regius professor of Hebrew at Oxford, was seventh son of Sir John Kingsmill of Fribock, Hampshire. Entering Magdalen College, Oxford, as a demy, he graduated B.A. in 1559, M.A. in 1564, and supplicated for the B.D. degree in 1572 (Oxf. Univ. Reg., Oxf. Hist. Soc, vol, i.) He was probationer fellow from 1559 to 1568, natural philosophy lecturer in 1563, Hebrew lecturer in 1565, and junior dean of arts in 1567. On 15 Dec. 1565 he was appointed public orator, and on 2 Nov. 1570 regius professor of Hebrew. He became mad for a time, and was obliged to resign his professorship in 1591.
He wrote: 1. 'A Complaint against Securitie in these perilous Times,' 8vo, London, 1602. 2. 'Classicum Poenitentiale (Tractatus de Scandalo, &c.),' 2 pts. 4to, Oxford, 1605. 3. 'The Drunkards Warning: a Sermon,' 8vo, London, 1631,
[Wood's Athenae Oxon. (Bliss), i. 758; Bloxam's Reg. of Magd. Coll. Oxford, iv. 183; Le Neve's Fasti, iii. 514, 574.]
KINGSNORTH, RICHARD (d. 1677), baptist minister, seems to have been a Kentish farmer, although it has been suggested that he was connected with the cloth-making trade. He was led to adopt baptist views through the arguments of the Rev. Francis Cornwell, vicar of Marden, Kent, who announced his own conversion to baptist views in a visitation sermon at Cranbrook in 1644. Christopher Blackwood [q. v.], vicar of Staplehurst, Kent, undertook to confute Cornwell, but, while considering his answer, also became a convert. After being baptised by William Jeffery of Sevenoaks, Blackwood and Kingsnorth founded a baptist congregation which met at Spilshill House, the residence of Kingsnorth, about half a mile from Staplehurst Church. Kingsnorth and most of the congregation were general baptists, and on this account he was chosen and ordained minister.
The church increased under Kingsnorth, spread to adjacent parts, and held meetings at Headcorn, Smarden, and Frittenden. Kingsnorth died in 1677, at which time five of his sons were engaged in the ministry. He is said to have written two works (not extant) vindicating the doctrine of universal redemption, entitled ‘The Pearl of Truth, found out between two Rocks of Error,’ printed in 1670 (Hazlewood, Smarden, p. 198); and ‘Gospel Certainty of Everlasting Felicity.’ After his death a division arose in the church on the subject of the Trinity, and a separation was agreed upon. Two of Kingsnorth's sons, with several ministers and members of the congregation, withdrew and formed a separate church, meeting at Biddenden and Frittenden, while a brother and two other sons remained and upheld the leading tenets of the original foundation. A long list of elders and ministers is given in Hazlewood's ‘Memorials of Smarden.’
[Taylor's General Baptists, i. 286–8; Ivimey's English Baptists, ii. 233–7; Balley's Struggles for Conscience, or Religious Annals of Staplehurst, pp. 12–15; Hazlewood's Memorials of Smarden, pp. 198–9; Kent Examiner and Chronicle, 9 Dec. 1887; information from Mr. W. Tarbutt.]
KINGSTHORPE, RICHARD (fl. 1224), Franciscan. [See Ingworth.]
KINGSTON, Dukes of. [See Pierrepont.]
KINGSTON, self-styled Duchess of. [See Chudleigh, Elizabeth, 1720–1788.]
KINGSTON, Earls of, in the peerage of England. [See Pierrepont.]
KINGSTON, Earl of, in the peerage of Ireland. [See King, Robert, second Earl, 1754–1799.]
