Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 31.djvu/193

Kingston was at the meeting with Charles V in July. Henry seems to have liked him, and presented him with a horse of very great value. For the next year or two he was a diligent country magistrate and courtier, levying men for the king's service in the west, and living when in London with the Black Friars (ib. III. ii. App. 28, III. ii. 3274). In April 1523 Kingston joined Dacre on the disturbed northern frontier, and with Sir Ralf Ellerker had the most dangerous posts assigned him (ib. pp. 2955, 2960); he was present at the capture of Cessfurd, the stronghold of the Kers, on 18 May (ib. p. 3039). He returned rather suddenly to London, and was made knight of the king's body and captain of the guard. On 30 Aug. 1523 he landed at Calais in the army of the Duke of Suffolk (ib. p. 3288). Surrey wrote from the north lamenting his absence. On 28 May 1524 he became constable of the Tower at a salary of 100l. He appears among those who signed the petition to Clement VII for the hastening of the divorce, 13 July 1530.

In November 1530 Kingston went down to Sheffield Park, Nottinghamshire, to take charge of Wolsey. The cardinal is said to have been alarmed at his coming because it had been foretold that he should meet his death at Kingston. Kingston tried to reassure him, and was with him at the time of his death, riding to London to acquaint the king with the circumstances (, Life of Wolsey, ed. 1827, pp. 371 sq.). On 11 Oct. 1532 he landed at Calais with Henry on the way to the second interview with Francis at Boulogne, and on 29 May 1533 he took an official part in the coronation of Anne Boleyn. He is said to have been of Catherine's party, though the emperor not unreasonably distrusted him (cf., Anne Boleyn, ii. 61; Letters and Papers, viii. 327). On 21 Feb. 1535–1536 Kingston wrote to Lord Lisle, an old Gloucestershire neighbour, ‘I have done with play, but with my lord of Carlisle, penny gleek, this is our pastime’ (ib. x. 336). He seems to have become prematurely old, but continued to be constable. He received Anne Boleyn 2 May 1536, when committed a prisoner to the Tower, and with his wife took charge of her and reported her conversations to Cromwell. To him Anne joked about the size of her neck and the skill of the executioner (ib. pp. 793, 797–8, 910). Kingston was made controller of the household 9 March 1539, and knight of the Garter 24 April following. He had many small grants, and on the dissolution of monasteries received the site of the Cistercian abbey of Flaxley, Gloucestershire. He died at Painswick, Gloucestershire, 14 Sept. 1540, and was buried there. He married, first, Elizabeth, of whom nothing seems known, and by her had Anthony, who is separately noticed, and Bridget, married to Sir George Baynham of Clearwell, Gloucestershire; secondly, Mary, daughter of Sir Richard Scrope of Upsall, Yorkshire, and widow of Sir Edward Jerningham of Somerleyton, Suffolk.

[Metcalfe's Knights; Nicolas's Testamenta Vetusta; Lodge's Illustr. of Brit. Hist. i. 19; Chron. of Calais (Camd. Soc.), pp. 33, 41; Wriothesley's Chron. (Camd. Soc.), pp. 36, 37, 94; Fuller's Church Hist. v. 178; Trans. of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Arch. Soc. vi. 284 sq.; authorities quoted.]  KINGSTON, WILLIAM HENRY GILES (1814–1880), novelist, born in Harley Street, London, 28 Feb. 1814, was eldest son of Lucy Henry Kingston, and grandson by the mother's side of Sir Giles Rooke [q. v.], justice of the common pleas. His father was in business in Oporto, and there for many years the son lived, making frequent voyages to England, and contracting a lifelong affection for the sea. He entered his father's business, but soon indulged his natural bent for writing. His newspaper articles on Portugal were translated into Portuguese, and assisted the conclusion of the commercial treaty with Portugal in 1842, when he received from Donna Maria da Gloria an order of Portuguese knighthood and a pension. His first book was ‘The Circassian Chief,’ a story published in 1844, and while still living in Oporto, he wrote ‘The Prime Minister,’ an historical novel, and ‘Lusitanian Sketches,’ descriptions of travels in Portugal. Settling in England, he interested himself in the emigration movement, edited in 1844 ‘The Colonist’ and ‘The Colonial Magazine and East India Review,’ was honorary secretary of a colonisation society, wrote in 1848 ‘Some Suggestions for a System of General Emigration,’ lectured on colonisation in 1849, published a manual for colonists, ‘How to Emigrate,’ in 1850, and visited the western highlands on behalf of the emigration commissioners. He was afterwards a zealous volunteer and worked actively for the improvement of the condition of seamen. But from 1850 his chief occupation was writing books for boys, or editing boys' annuals and weekly periodicals. The ‘Union Jack,’ a paper for boys, he started only a few months before his death. The best known of his stories, which numbered more than a hundred, are: ‘Peter the Whaler,’ 1851; ‘Blue Jackets,’ 1854; ‘Digby Heathcote,’ 1860; ‘The Cruise of the Frolic,’ 1860; ‘The Fireships,’ 1862; ‘Foxholme Hall,’ 1867; ‘Ben Burton,’ 1872; ‘The Three Midshipmen,’