William Kingsley (d. 1701)

William Kingsley appears to have been the grandson of Archdeacon William Kingsley. A number of members of the family were called William. The archdeacon's son George had a son called William who resided in the family's house at 11 The Precincts and seems to have died in 1701. William junior seems to have studied at Oriel College, Oxford (matric. 19 July, 1659) and was then a student of Middle Temple, 1660 ('as son and heir of George, late of Canterbury, Kent, deceased').

William owned several medieval manuscripts which later came into the Cathedral Library. It is possible that they had previously belonged to his grandfather Archdeacon William Kingsley or else to his father George Kingsley who was appointed to the office of Registrar of the Archdeacon's Court, by his father in 1639. Some of his manuscripts dated 1667 are included in the 1669 catalogue of manuscripts; others seem to have been given in the 1670s.

CCA-DCc/LitMs/A/8
CCA-DCc/LitMs/C/3

Shelfmark CCA-DCc/LitMs/C/15

Cicero's letters

Description from the Cathedral Archives Catalogue:

Date: late 15th century
Description: The large initial letters have not been filled in by the illuminator, the smaller ones and the headings are rubricated. At the foot of the first page is a border of foliage, with wild strawberries realistically treated. The following note is on a fly-leaf at the beginning:- "This booke I Edmond Withyrpoll found in the lybrary of oure ladyes churche in bulleyn the xxvth day of September in Ao Dni 1544".
The name of William Kingsley and the date 1667 are on the first page, but the book does not appear under Kingsley's name in the catalogue of benefactors.
Described in Ker, Medieval manuscripts, p276-7. Written in France, from the library of Our Lady Boulogne.
Language: Latin
Physical Description: Paper book, 217 leaves. 11 3/4 in. by 8 1/8 in.

Edmund Withypoll (c.1510-1582) was member of Parliament for Ipswich (1558). He was a financier and a landowner in Ipswich. He took part in the siege and capture of Boulogne in 1544.

This manuscript has been said to have belonged to Archdeacon William Kingsley who died in 1648. The date 1667 is possibly the date of its entry into the Chapter Library as a gift from Kingsley's grandson William Kingsley junior. It is not mentioned in the list of books given by William Kingsley junior (Benefactors' Book, f. 113r) but is found in the 1669 catalogue of manuscripts (CCA-DCc-LA/1/16) p. 19.

It is listed in Todd's Catalogue of 1793 (p. 281) and in the 1802 printed catalogue (p. 120) as Lit. MS. C.15; in these sources the date of gift to the Cathedral is stated to be 1663.

CCA-DCc/LitMs/C/20

Shelfmark CCA-DCc/LitMs/D/6

Glossed Gospel of Matthew. 12th century.

Inscription (14c?) on f. 2r: Lib[er] S[an]c[t]i Aug[ustini] Cant[uariensis]

Inscription (17c) on f.2r: Liber Sti: Augustini Cant: | Guiliel: Kingsley Guili | Ann: dom: 1667.

A medieval manuscript from the library of St Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury.

In the seventeenth century the book was in the hands of the Kingsley family of Canterbury. It is possible that it had belonged to Archdeacon William Kingsley (d. 1648). It has an ownership inscription of the archdeacon's grandson William Kingsley (d. 1701) dated 1667.

Shelfmark CCA-DCc/LitMs/D/13

Richard Rolle, 1290?-1349. The Pricke of Conscience . mid 14th century.

On the verso of the first flyleaf: Iste liber constat d[omi]no Rectori de Morton [and later the name] Nicholas Moyn]

On the verso of the third flyleaf: Part of the will of Nicholas Moyn, made in 1425, who directs his executors to bury his body in North Morton church [North Moreton, Berkshire?], and makes a bequest of 6d. to the church of Salisbury [N.R. Ker]

Inscription on first flyleaf and verso of third flyleaf: Iste liber constat Henr. Sadeler.

Inscription on first flyleaf: This broake and imperfect peece of poems I freely give to Wm. Kingsley of Canterbury, out of the few books I have in my librarie ... this being assurtened to be in my librarie for three hundred years Roger Etchmarch(?). [transcribed by N. Ker]

Inscription on final verso: Will[iam] Kingsley Anno Dom. 1672.

Apparently owned by Nicholas Moyn, rector of North Morton,Berkshire (now Oxfordshire) in the early fifteenth century.

Subsequently owned by Henry Sadeler and then by Roger Etchmarch who gave it to a William Kingsley, possibly William Kingsley, Archdeacon of Canterbury in the mid-seventeenth century; it was finally in the possession of his grandson William Kingsley by 1672 who presumably had given it to the Chapter Library.

It is listed in the 1671 catalogue of manuscripts (p.20) as 'An ancient English Poem. Stimulus Conscientiae.'

Shelfmark CCA-DCc/LitMs/E/4

The Cathedral Archives Catalogue has the following entry:

Writer: Atkynson, Richard

(1) Commentarium in primam Epistolam ad Corinthos.

(2) Tractatus theologicus.

(3) Epilogus precedentium et aptatio.

Dedicated "suo amico ac in Christo fratri fidelissimo Johanni Scotte, S.P.D." The Author was apparently a native of Southwell, and may have been the Richard Atkynson who was Provost of King's College, Cambridge, 1553 to 1556.

The book was bequeathed to the Chapter Library by William Kingsley, son [i.e. grandson] of Archdeacon Kingsley, in 1671. It is bound in the parchment leaves of a mediaeval service book, and on the inside of the cover is the name of "John Twyn" (Twyne), the first headmaster of the King's School.

Richard Atkynson and his friend John Scott seem to have been Catholic clergy who were out of office during the Edwardian period. The commentary on 1 Corinthians talks of their Babylonian exile and Atkinson's composition as a form of consolation. Atkinson was back in favour as Provost of King's College during the reign of Queen Mary. The manuscript is dated at the end (f.191v) 12th of the Kalends of September 1547 (21 August) with a repeated dedication to Scott.

William Kingsley's name is found at the top of the first leaf: 'Guliel: Kingsley An[n]o Dom[in]i 1671'

It is not clear who the manuscript passed from John Scott and eventually into the hands of John Twyne and thence to the Kingsleys. Archdeacon Kingsley's grandson presumably donated it to the Chapter Library at a later date than his manuscripts which are recorded in the 1669 catalogue.
CCA-DCc/LitMs/E/10

Shelfmark CCA-DCc/LitMs/E/34

Archdeacon William Kingsley's copy of the Cathedral Statutes and documents relating to the Archdeacon's Court (1620s–1640s).

The Cathedral Archives catalogue has the following entry:

A paper book in a parchment cover containing seventeenth century copies of the following documents:

(1.) King Henry VIIIth's Statutes for Canterbury Cathedral.

(2.) Injunctions delivered by Archbishop Parker to the Dean and Chapter, September 23, 1573, to May 2, 1574. (Printed in Wilkins' Concilia. Vol. iv, p. 275.)

(3.) The Incorporation Charter of Henry VIII, April 8, 1541.

(4.) The Endowment Charter of Henry VIII, May 6, 1541.

(5.) A Charter dated March 9, 1546, whereby the King grants to the Dean and Chapter the Manor and Church of Godmersham, and releases them from their obligation to maintain 24 students at the Universities, in exchange for the Almonry buildings, Canterbury College in Oxford, and eight Manors outside the County of Kent.

(6.) Extracts from the Registers of Christ Church, 1390 to 1453.

(7.) Names of the Deans and Prebendaries of Christ Church. (The last Dean on the list is Isaac Bargrave, died 1642.)
[Thomas Westley, the last entry for Stall VII, had died by 1639.]

(8.) Letters from King Charles I and Archbishop Laud to the Dean and Chapter, respecting alleged encroachments in the Precincts by the erection of mean buildings therein, with the replies of the Dean and Chapter to the same.

(9.) Politia Ecclesiae Anglicanae.

(10.) A note relating to the admission of George Kingsley to the office of Registrar of the Archdeacon's Court, by his father William Kingsley Archdeacon of Canterbury, 1639. And an account of the revenues of the Archdeaconry in the years 1619-20.

: Archdeacon William Kingsley's copy of the Cathedral Statutes and documents relating to the Archdeacon's Court (1620s–1640s).

The Schoenberg Database of Manuscripts has an extended list of over a dozen manuscripts and other documents in the Chapter Library which had belonged to Kingsley.[1]