Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 31.djvu/180

  diary kept by Kingsbury during the latter years of his life, was published by John Bullar of Southampton in 1819.

Kingsbury published, besides the work mentioned above, a number of funeral sermons. A copy of one, which is not mentioned in the British Museum Catalogue, on the ‘Life, Labors, and Departure of the Rev. Edward Ashburner,’ delivered at Poole in Dorset, 6 July 1804, is in Dr. Williams's Library. Another sermon, published in 1789, on ‘The Sickness and Recovery of King Hezekiah,’ was ‘occasioned by the happy recovery of his Majesty’ (George III).



KINGSCOTE, HENRY ROBERT (1802–1882), philanthropist, was born on 25 May 1802. He was second son of Thomas Kingscote (d. 1811), who was brother of Robert Kingscote of Kingscote, Gloucestershire; his mother was Harriet, fourth daughter of Sir Henry Peyton of Dodington in the same county. He was educated at Harrow, and early became a cricketer and rider to hounds. He was six feet five inches in height. He played his first match at Lord's on 21 May 1823. In 1827 he was elected president of the Marylebone Cricket Club. A narrow escape from drowning turned his attention to religious matters; he became a friend of Bishop Blomfield, and with him was instrumental in founding the Church of England Scripture Readers' Association and the Metropolitan Visiting and Relief Association, of which he was a trustee all his life. In 1846 he published a pamphlet-letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury on the needs of the church, which ran through several editions, and in it he urged the extension of lay agency and the foundation of new bishoprics. In 1846 he helped to found the Southwark fund for schools and churches, and in 1847 he helped in alleviating the distress in Ireland. He sent out supplies to the troops during the Crimean war. In 1868 Kingscote was one of the founders of the British and Colonial Emigration Society; he was also the founder of the scheme for establishing workshops for the indigent blind, which was not very successful, and of the National Orphan Asylum at Ham Common. Kingscote died on 13 July 1882. He married, on 11 July 1833, Harriet Elizabeth Tower of Weald Hall, Essex, and by her had three sons and five daughters.



KINGSDOWN,. [See, 1793–1867.]

KINGSFORD, ANNA (1846–1888), doctor of medicine and religious writer, daughter of John Bonus, was born at Maryland Point, Stratford, Essex, 16 Sept. 1846, and was baptised Annie. She married in 1867 Algernon Godfrey Kingsford, vicar of Atcham, Shropshire. From 1868 to 1872 she wrote stories in the ‘Penny Post,’ signed Ninon Kingsford and Mrs. Algernon Kingsford. In 1870 she was received into the Roman catholic church by Cardinal Manning, and she adopted the christian names Annie Mary Magdalen Maria Johanna. In 1872 she purchased and edited in her own name ‘The Lady's Own Paper,’ in which she strenuously supported the movement against vivisection, but she gave up the paper in 1873, and in 1874 went to Paris to commence medical studies. On 22 July 1880 she received the degree of M.D. from the faculty of Paris. She had then adopted vegetarian principles, and the title of her thesis was ‘De l'alimentation végétale chez l'homme;’ this, translated and enlarged, was published in London, 1881, as ‘The Perfect Way in Diet.’ Mrs. Kingsford soon engaged in the active practice of a London physician, but her attention was largely devoted to mystical subjects. She became president of the Theosophical Society in 1883, and founded in 1884 the Hermetic Society. In 1887 a cold caught while visiting M. Pasteur's laboratory on a snowy day developed into pulmonary consumption. She removed to the Riviera without benefit, and, returning to London, died at Wynnstay Gardens, Kensington, 22 Feb. 1888, being buried in Atcham churchyard. She left a daughter.

In person Mrs. Kingsford was singularly beautiful; as a doctor she was very successful with women; she also was one of the pioneers in the cause of the higher education of women. Much doubt exists as to the faith in which she died. Her aim as a religious teacher was to reconcile Christianity with her own mystical theories, and to bring prominently forward the connection of Christianity with eastern faiths, a connection which had in her opinion been long obscured. The Hermetic Society still exists in this country, and has a certain following in the United States.

Mrs. Kingsford's chief works were:
 * 1) ‘Beatrice, a Tale of the Early Christians,’ London, 1863, 12mo, remarkable on account of the youthful age of the authoress.
 * 2) ‘River Reeds,’ a volume of verse, anon., London,