Kingsmill, Andrew

, one of the earliest puritan divines, was born at Sidmanton, in Hampshire, in 1538, educated at Corpus Christi college, Oxford, and elected fellow of All-souls in 1558. He first studied civil law, and had made very considerable proficiency in it, when a careful perusal of the Holy Scriptures led him to the profession of divinity. So much was he intent on the sacred volume, and such his strength of memory, that he could readily repeat by heart in Greek, the whole of the Epistles to the Romans and Galatians, the first Epistle of John, and other parts of the New Testament. Having taken orders, he became very early an admired preacher at Oxford, at a time when preachers were so scarce, the Roman catholic clergy having left the place, that Wood informs us Dr. Humphrey, Dr. Sampson, and Mr. Kingsmill, were all the university could boast. It appears, however, that Mr. Kingsmill was dissatisfied with the habits or ceremonies, and went therefore to Geneva, where he found a church more suited to his opinions on these points, and where he was much admired for his learning and piety. He removed afterwards to Lausanne, and died there in September 1569, in his thirty-first year. Wood says he was too good for this world, and left behind him a most excellent pattern of piety, devotion, and every other virtue. He published, 1. “A View of Man’s Estate, wherein the great mercy of God in man’s free justification is shewed,” Lond. 1574, 1580, &c. 3vo. 2. “A Godly Advice touching Marriage,” ibid. 1580, 8vo. 3. “Excellent and comfortable Treatise for such as are either troubled in mind, or afflicted in body,” ibid. 1577, 1578, 1585. 4. “Godly and learned Exhortation to bear patiently all afflictions for the Gospel of Christ,” 1577. There is some doubt whether this was his production. 5. “Conference between a learned godly Christian, and an afflicted Conscience,” ibid. 1585, 8vo. All these were posthumous, and edited by his friend Francis Mylls, of AllSouls college. He was the author also of a sermon, and of some pieces in the collection at the end of Burnet’s “Hist, of the Reformation.” Thomas Kingsmill, Hebrew professor at Oxford in 1569, was probably a near relation of this | author, as he was born at the same place. In 1579 he became disordered in his senses, and the celebrated Hooker was his substitute as Hebrew professor for some years. ¹