Richard Kidder 1633-1703

Richard KIDDER 1633-1703

Biographical Note

Born at East Grinstead, Sussex, son of William Kidder, an impoverished gentleman. Initially trained as an apothecary, he graduated BA at Emmanuel College, Cambridge in 1652, fellow 1655, MA 1656, DD 1690. Vicar of Stanground, Huntingdonshire 1659, rector of Rayne, Essex 1664, before moving to a succession of London livings. Appointed a royal chaplain to William and Mary, be became Dean of Peterborough in 1689, Bishop of Bath and Wells 1691. His time as Bishop was blighted by politics and controversy, partly resulting from his taking the place of the ejected Thomas Ken.

Books

Kidder is noted as a scholar and a man of many books, although we do not know the extent of his library, and his books are not mentioned in his will. None were left to Wells Cathedral, but the Library there has a manuscript catalogue of ca.500 volumes owned by him. The books appear to have passed to Nathaniel Brydges, Chancellor of Wells.

Sources

• Will of Richard Kidder, The National Archives PROB 11/474/498.
• Church, C., Notes on the … Library of the Dean and Chapter … of Wells, Archaeologia 57 (1901), 201-28.
• Marshall, William. '"Kidder, Richard (bap. 1634, d. 1703), bishop of Bath and Wells."' Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.