KIPPIS, ANDREW, D.D., F.R S , a Unitarian divine, held in great estimation both among the members of his own communion and generally in the world of literature and science, was born in 1725. He was descended of ministers who had left the Church in 1662, on the parsing of the Act of Uniformity, and was educated in a theological academy at Northampton, then under the superintendence of the pious and learned Dr. Doddridge. After a few years spent in the exercise of leis ministry at Boston in Lincolnshire, and at Dorking in Surrey, Dr. Kipple settled in London in 1753 as pastor of a congregation of Presbyterian dissenters in Westminster, of which, before it adopted Unitarian views, Dr. Edmund Calamy, a name of note among the dissenters, had formerly been the minister. Dr. Kippie continued connected with this society till his death. The duties arising out of this connection did not preclude him 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. In 1771 he was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and in the next year a Fellow of the Royal Society.
Dr. Kippis was • principal contributor to the 'Monthly Review' at a time when it was considered as the leading periodical work of the day. He had also much to do with the conduct of The New Annual
Register.' There are several pamphlets of his on tho claims of the dissenters and on other topics of temporary interest ; but the work with which his name is most honourably connected is the republication of the Biogrephia 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, and yet it had proceeded no farther 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. Kipple himself, and particularly that of Captain Cook, which was printed 10 a separate form also.
Dr. Kipple'. was a literary life of great industry. He was the editor of the collected edition of the works of Dr. Nathaniel Lardncr [Leeneen. NATETANIEL], to which he prefixed a life of that eminent theological echo ar. He published also the ethical and theological lectures of his tutor, Dr. Doddridge, with a large collection of refer ences to authors on the various topics to which they relate, in two octavo volumes. A volume of his sermons was also published.