Kingsley family

James Luce Kingsley was born in 1778 and graduated from Yale College in 1799. From 1801 to 1851 he taught at Yale College. Kingsley was a scholar of history, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and also served as librarian of Yale College and editor of the Triennial Catalogue . He died in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1852.

GEORGE THEODORE KINGSLEY, the eldest son of Professor James L. Kingsley (Yale 1799), was born in New Haven on August 25, 1812.

After graduation he spent a year as a private tutor on the eastern shore of Maryland. He then studied in the Yale Law School for two years, and on being admitted to the bar, went in the fall of 1835 to Cleveland, Ohio, where he established himself in practice. His brother (Yale 1834) became his partner in 1837. In June, 1842, he went to Sandusky on professional business, and went to the wharf at midnight on June 9, to take a steamboat for Cleveland. The night was dark, the wind high, and the bay rough; he fell from the wharf, became encumbered in his cloak, which he carried on his arm, and was drowned, in his 30th year.

He was unmarried.

From: Biographical Notices of Graduates of Yale College, pp. 232-233.

* * * * * HENRY COIT KINGSLEY was born in New Haven, Conn., December 11, 1815, the second son of Professor James L. Kingsley (Yale 1799) and Lydia (Coit) Kingsley.

After graduation he was employed for a few months as a private tutor, and in the autumn of 1835 entered the Yale Law School. Here he studied for two years, with the exception of the winter of 1836-1837, which be spent in a law office in Columbus, Ohio. In December, 1837, he was admitted to the practice of law in Ohio, and established himself in Cleveland, in partnership with his brother (Yale 1832). He married, September 6, 1841, Miss Cornelia H., elder daughter of John Day, of Cleveland, who died August 31, 1843, leaving a daughter, who died in 1862. He married again, August 26, 1846, Mrs. Jane Handy, of Utica, N. Y., daughter of Briggs W. Thomas, of that place. He continued actively engaged in the practice of his profession, uniting with it land agencies, until the summer of 1852, when in consequence of the impaired health of himself and his wife, they went to Europe. On returning, in 1853, he removed his residence to New Haven. In 1854 he was elected a Director of the Cleveland and Pittsburgh Railroad Company, which was then seriously, embarrassed, and in 1857 became insolvent. From 1857 to 1866 Mr. Kingsley had the principal charge of the financial affairs of the company, which in 1862 regained a sound position.

In July, 1862, he was elected Treasurer of Yale College, and he remained in this office until his death, fulfilling also during the same time many responsible private trusts with rare efficiency. On the morning of the 19th of November, 1886, while driving to his business he received a severe injury. A cart was driven against his carriage, and as the result, he was thrown violently forwards upon one of the wheels. Two ribs were broken, and other injuries were received. For some weeks he seemed to be in a fair way to recover, when unfavorable symptoms developed, and after severe and protracted suffering he passed away on the morning of December 19, at the age of 71. His wife survives him, without children.

Mr. Kingsley's services to the College which he loved so well, rendered as they were at much personal sacrifice, during years of feeble health, deserve the fullest and most grateful recognition. His acute and rapid judgment, his caution and his thoroughness, have made the years of his administration of the College finances a notable period, while his personal character commanded the respect and admiration of all who were brought into intimacy with him.

From: Yale Obituary Record, 1880-1890, pp. 367-368.

* * * * * WILLIAM LATHROP KINGSLEY, the third child and youngest son of Professor James L. Kingsley (Yale 1799) and Lydia (Coit) kingsley, was born in New Haven on April 1, 1824.

During the first year after graduation he studied in the Yale Law School, and then took the three years' course in the Divinity school. He spent the year 1848 in Europe, and for most of the year 1849 supplied a Congregational pulpit in Strongsville, near Cleveland, O. Returning to the East with somewhat impaired health, he undertook in 1850 the care of a small Congregational Church in Ridgebury, in the town of Ridgefield, Conn., but after brief trial was obliged to relinquish the hope of settled employment in his chosen profession. He returned to New Haven, and for the next six years was more or less an invalid, during which time he twice visited Europe.

In 1857 the condition of his health justified him in undertaking the editorship and proprietorship of the New Englander, to which magazine the best efforts of his life were given without stint and without due pecuniary reward for the next thirty-five years. In the meantime he was also abundantly active in religious, philanthropic, and literary work. He founded and carried on for many years the mission and Sunday school which became eventually the Taylor Church, in a suburb of New Haven. He was for a long series of years the efficient head of one of the most useful local charities. His literary interests were unusually wide, and he did much effective work in the pages of the New Englander and elsewhere, especially in the departments of history and literary criticism. His loyalty and devotion to the College were unbounded, and were notably seen in his editorship of the two sumptuous volumes on the history of the College, published in 1879. A fitting and well deserved recognition of his work was shown in the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters conferred on him in 1891.

His health was broken by an attack of paralysis early in 1892. After several years of invalidism, his condition became worse in the fall of 1895, and he died at his home in New Haven on February 14, 1896, in his 72nd year.

He married on October 5, 1857, Miss H. Louise, youngest daughter of Colonel Timothy Upham, of Charlestown, Mass who died on July 18, 1884. He next married, on April 30, 1890, Miss Jeannie Taylor, of New York city, daughter of James Taylor, who survives him. By his first marriage he had a son who died in infancy, and two daughters who are both living. The elder daughter is the wife of Professor Henry W. Farnam (Y. C. 1874).

From: Yale Obituary Record, 1890-1900, pp. 373-374.

From the guide to the Kingsley memorial collection, 1696-1934, (Manuscripts and Archives)