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[1] 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').[2]
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.[3] Some of his manuscripts dated 1667 are included in the 1669 catalogue of manuscripts; others seem to have been given in the 1670s.
- 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.[4]
- Date: late 15th century
- Description from the Cathedral Archives Catalogue:
- 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.[5]
- 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.
- 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.[6][7]
- 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.'
CCA-LitMs/E/4
CCA-LitMs/E/10
CCA-LitMs/E/34
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]
References
- ↑ Margaret Sparks, Canterbury Cathedral Precincts (2007), p. 219.
- ↑ Foster, Alumni Oxonienses 1500-1714
- ↑ CCA-DCc/LitMs/E/34(10)
- ↑ Description from online catalogue of the Cathedral Archives, accessed July 2012.
- ↑ History of Parliament Online
- ↑ M. R. James, The ancient libraries of Canterbury and Dover (1903), no. 157
- ↑ B. Barker-Benfield, St Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury (2008), no. 157.