Andrew Kippis was an English nonconformist

English Dissenters

English Dissenters were Christians who separated from the Church of England in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.They originally agitated for a wide reaching Protestant Reformation of the Established Church, and triumphed briefly under Oliver Cromwell....

 clergyman and biographer.

The son of Robert Kippis, a silk-hosier, he was born at Nottingham

Nottingham

Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...

. Having gone to school at Sleaford

Sleaford

Sleaford is a town in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. It is located thirteen miles northeast of Grantham, seventeen miles west of Boston, and nineteen miles south of Lincoln, and had a total resident population of around 14,500 in 6,167 households at the time...

 in Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...

 he passed at the age of sixteen to the Dissenting academy

Dissenting academies

The dissenting academies were schools, colleges and nonconformist seminaries run by dissenters. They formed a significant part of England’s educational systems from the mid-seventeenth to nineteenth centuries....

 at Northampton

Northampton

Northampton is a large market town and local government district in the East Midlands region of England. Situated about north-west of London and around south-east of Birmingham, Northampton lies on the River Nene and is the county town of Northamptonshire. The demonym of Northampton is...

, of which Dr Philip Doddridge

Philip Doddridge

Philip Doddridge DD was an English Nonconformist leader, educator, and hymnwriter.-Early life:...

 was then president. In 1746 Kippis became minister of a church at Boston; in 1750 he moved to Dorking, Surrey; and in 1753 he became pastor of a Presbyterian congregation at Westminster

Westminster

Westminster is an area of central London, within the City of Westminster, England. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, southwest of the City of London and southwest of Charing Cross...

, where he remained till his death.

Kippis took a prominent part in the affairs of his church. From 1763 till 1784 he was classical and philological tutor in the Coward Trust's academy at Hoxton

Hoxton

Hoxton is an area in the London Borough of Hackney, immediately north of the financial district of the City of London. The area of Hoxton is bordered by Regent's Canal on the north side, Wharf Road and City Road on the west, Old Street on the south, and Kingsland Road on the east.Hoxton is also a...

, and subsequently in the New College at Hackney

New College at Hackney

The New College at Hackney was a dissenting academy set up in Hackney, at that time a village on the outskirts of London, by Unitarians. It was in existence from 1786 to 1796...

. In 1778 he was elected a fellow of the Antiquarian Society

Society of Antiquaries of London

The Society of Antiquaries of London is a learned society "charged by its Royal Charter of 1751 with 'the encouragement, advancement and furtherance of the study and knowledge of the antiquities and history of this and other countries'." It is based at Burlington House, Piccadilly, London , and is...

, and a fellow of the Royal Society

Royal Society

The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...

 in 1779.

Kippis was a very voluminous writer. He contributed largely to The Gentleman's Magazine

The Gentleman's Magazine

The Gentleman's Magazine was founded in London, England, by Edward Cave in January 1731. It ran uninterrupted for almost 200 years, until 1922. It was the first to use the term "magazine" for a periodical...

, The Monthly Review

Monthly Review (London)

The Monthly Review was an English periodical founded by Ralph Griffiths, a Nonconformist bookseller. The first periodical in England to offer reviews, it featured the novelist and poet Oliver Goldsmith as an early contributor. William Kenrick, the "superlative scoundrel", was editor from 1759 to...

and The Library; and he had a good deal to do with the establishment and conduct of The New Annual Register

Annual Register

The Annual Register is a long-established reference work, written and published each year, which records and analyses the year’s major events, developments and trends throughout the world...

. He published also a number of sermons and occasional pamphlets; and he prefixed a life of the author to a collected edition of Dr Nathaniel Lardner's Works (1788). He wrote a life of Dr Doddridge, which is prefixed to Doddridge's Exposition of the New Testament (1792). His chief work is his edition of the Biographia Britannica

Biographia Britannica

Biographia Britannica was a multi-volume biographical compendium, "the most ambitious attempt in the latter half of the eighteenth century to document the lives of notable British men and women". The first edition, edited by William Oldys, appeared in 6 volumes between 1747 and 1766...

, of which, however, he only lived to publish five volumes (folio, 1778–1793). In this work he had the assistance of Dr Joseph Towers

Joseph Towers

-Life:He was born in Southwark on 31 March 1737. His father was a secondhand bookseller, and at twelve years old he was employed as a stationer's errand boy. In 1754 he was apprenticed to Robert Goadby of Sherborne, Dorset, a Whig supporter, and influential through his newspaper, the Sherborne...

, minister of Newington Green Unitarian Church

Newington Green Unitarian Church

Newington Green Unitarian Church in north London is one of England's oldest Unitarian churches. It has had strong ties to political radicalism for over 300 years, and is London's oldest Nonconformist place of worship still in use...

.

One of the works by Kippis is Cook's Voyages, published by J. B. Smith & Co. in 1859, including a letter by Kippis to King George III of the United Kingdom

George III of the United Kingdom

George III was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of these two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death...

 dated June 13, 1788. Presumably this work was published by another publisher during the lifetime of Kippis. The book has accounts of the three voyages — 1768-1771

First voyage of James Cook

The first voyage of James Cook was a combined Royal Navy and Royal Society expedition to the south Pacific ocean aboard HMS Endeavour, from 1768 to 1771...

, 1772–1775, and 1776-1779 — as well as an account of the character of Captain Cook, the effects of his voyages, and a commentary of his services.