Kippis, Andrew, Dd, Frs, Fas

Kippis, Andrew, D.D., F.R.S., F.A.S., all eminent English Unitarian divine, was born at Nottingham in 1725. He studied under Dr. Doddridge at Northampton, and in 1746 became minister of a congregation at Boston, Lincolnshire. In 1750 he removed to Dorking, and in 1753 became the pastor of a Presbyterian congregation of Unitarian tendency at Prince's Street, Westminster, with which society he continued connected till his death, which occurred in 1795. The duties arising out of this connection, however, did not preclude Dr. Kippis from seeking other means of public usefulness. In 1763 he became a tutor in an academy for the education of dissenting ministers in London, on a plan similar to that on which the academy at Northampton had been conducted. He was also one of the principal contributors to the Monthly Review and the Gentleman's Magazine at a time when these were considered the leading periodicals of England. There are several pamphlets of his on the claims of the dissenters, and on other topics of temporary interest; but the work with which his name is most honorably connected is the republication of the Biographia Britannica, with a large addition of new lives, and a more extended account of many persons whose lives are in the former edition of that work. The design was too vast to be accomplished by any one person, however well assisted. Five large folio volumes were printed of the work (1778), and yet it had proceeded no further than to the name of Fastolf. Part of a sixth volume, it is understood, was printed, but it has not been given to the world. Many of the new lives were written by Dr. Kippis himself, and particularly that of captain Cook, which was printed in a separate form also. Dr. Kippis's was a literary life of great industry. Hle was the editor of the collected edition of the works of Dr. Nathaniel Lardner (q.v.), with a life of that eminent theological scholar. He published also the ethical and theological lectures of his tutor, Dr. Doddridge, with a large collection of references to authors on the various topics to which they relate. His other works of interest are, Sermon on Luke ii, 25 (Lond. 1780, 8vo): — 'Sermon on Psalm 144, 15 (London, 1788, 8vo) : — 4 Vindication of Protestant Dissenting Ministers (1773). See Rees, Funeral Serm.; Gent. Mag. vols. 65, 66, 74; Darling, Encyclopaedia Bibliog. s.v.; English Cyclopcedia, s.v.