Life

He was son of William Kirk and his wife Mary Fielding, and was born at Ruckley, near Acton Burnell

Acton Burnell

Acton Burnell is a village and parish in the English county of Shropshire. It lies at 110m above sea level and is near to Park Wood.-Attractions:...

, Shropshire

Shropshire

Shropshire is a county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. It borders Wales to the west...

, on 13 April 1760. At ten years of age he was sent to Sedgley Park School

Sedgley Park School, Wolverhampton

Sedgley Park School was a Roman Catholic Academy located on the outskirts of Wolverhampton, then part of Staffordshire.Originally the home of the Barons and Baronesses Dudley until 1757, Sedgley Park School was founded by William Errington, at the recommendation of Bishop Richard Challoner, on 25...

, Staffordshire

Staffordshire

Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...

. He was admitted into the English College, Rome on 5 June 1773, a few months before the suppression of the Society of Jesus

Society of Jesus

The Society of Jesus is a Catholic male religious order that follows the teachings of the Catholic Church. The members are called Jesuits, and are also known colloquially as "God's Army" and as "The Company," these being references to founder Ignatius of Loyola's military background and a...

 by Pope Clement XIV

Pope Clement XIV

Pope Clement XIV , born Giovanni Vincenzo Antonio Ganganelli, was Pope from 1769 to 1774. At the time of his election, he was the only Franciscan friar in the College of Cardinals.-Early life:...

. He was the last student received at the college by the Jesuits,

Kirk was ordained priest on 18 December 1784. Returning to England in August 1785, his first mission was at Aldenham Hall, Shropshire

Shropshire

Shropshire is a county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. It borders Wales to the west...

, in the family of Sir Richard Acton. In 1786 he became chaplain at Sedgley Park School, and as vice-president assisted the Rev. Thomas Southworth, whom he succeeded as president in 1793. He had previously removed to the small mission at Pipehill, near Lichfield

Lichfield

Lichfield is a cathedral city, civil parish and district in Staffordshire, England. One of eight civil parishes with city status in England, Lichfield is situated roughly north of Birmingham...

, and he had had charge of the congregation at Tamworth

Tamworth

Tamworth is a town and local government district in Staffordshire, England, located north-east of Birmingham city centre and north-west of London. The town takes its name from the River Tame, which flows through the town, as does the River Anker...

.

In July 1797 he left Sedgley to become chaplain and private secretary to Charles Berington

Charles Berington

Charles Berington was an English Catholic bishop, Vicar Apostolic of the Midland District and Titular Bishop of Hiero-Caesarea.-Life:...

, vicar apostolic of the Midland district

Vicar Apostolic of the Midland District

The Vicar Apostolic of the Midland District was the title given to the Bishop who headed the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic Church in England which was known as the Vicariate Apostolic of the Midland District from 1688 and 1840, then the Central District from 1840 to...

, and after the bishop's sudden death (8 June 1798) he stayed at the episcopal residence at Longbirch until the appointment of Dr. Gregory Stapleton

Gregory Stapleton

-Life:Born at Carlton, Yorkshire, he was seventh son of Nicholas Stapleton, by his third wife, Winifred, daughter of John White of Dover Street, London. He went to the English College, Douay, in 1762. Ten years later, then a deacon, he was appointed professor of music...

 to the vicariate in 1801. He then moved to Lichfield, where a chapel built by him was opened on 11 November 1803; afterwards enlarged, it was converted in 1834 into the little Norman church of St. Cross. He also erected chapels at Hopwas

Hopwas

Hopwas is a village in Staffordshire, England. It lies just over west of Tamworth and east of Lichfield. It is situated where the A51 road crosses both the River Tame and the Coventry Canal...

, near Tamworth

Tamworth

Tamworth is a town and local government district in Staffordshire, England, located north-east of Birmingham city centre and north-west of London. The town takes its name from the River Tame, which flows through the town, as does the River Anker...

, and in Tamworth itself. By diploma dated 9 November 1841, Pope Gregory XVI

Pope Gregory XVI

Pope Gregory XVI , born Bartolomeo Alberto Cappellari, named Mauro as a member of the religious order of the Camaldolese, was Pope of the Catholic Church from 1831 to 1846...

 conferred on Kirk the degree of D.D. He died at Lichfield 21 December 1851, aged 91.

There is a portrait of him, engraved by Deere, in the ‘Catholic Directory’ for 1853.

Works

Kirk collected materials for a continuation of Charles Dodd's Church History of England: letters, tracts, annals, records, diaries, and papers. There were over fifty volumes, and account of all these materials, was published by him in a ‘Letter to the Rev. Joseph Berington, respecting the Continuation of Dodd's Church History of England,’ Lichfield, September 1826. He handed over the work to Mark Aloysius Tierney

Mark Aloysius Tierney

Mark Aloysius Tierney was an English Catholic historian.-Life:After his early schooling with the Franciscans in Baddesley Green, Warwickshire, he was educated at St. Edmund's College, old Hall, which he entered in 1810 and where he was ordained priest, 19 Sept., 1818...

 of Arundel

Arundel

Arundel is a market town and civil parish in the South Downs of West Sussex in the south of England. It lies south southwest of London, west of Brighton, and east of the county town of Chichester. Other nearby towns include Worthing east southeast, Littlehampton to the south and Bognor Regis to...

, who brought out a new edition of Dodd's ‘History,’ 5 vols. London, 1839–43. This edition is incomplete, ending with the year 1625. On Tierney's death in 1862 the manuscript materials were bequeathed to Dr. Thomas Grant

Thomas Grant

Thomas Grant was a Catholic bishop.Born at Ligny-les-Aires, Arras, France, on November 25, 1816, the son of Bernard Grant, an Irishman who enlisted in the British army, became sergeant, and finally purchased a commission. His mother, Ann MacGowan, was also Irish by birth...

, bishop of Southwark. Biographical collections by Kirk, mostly of a later date than Dodd, came into the possession of Henry Manning

Henry Manning

Henry Manning was a spy in the exiled court of Charles II at Cologne and Brussels. He reported back to John Thurloe, Cromwell's chief of counter-espionage. He was unmasked as a mole in 1655, prosecuted and executed by firing squad.-Source:...

. In 1909 was published Biographies of English Catholics in the Eighteenth Century, edited from Kirk by John Hungerford Pollen

John Hungerford Pollen (Jesuit)

John Hungerford Pollen was an English Jesuit, known as a historian of the Protestant Reformation.-Life:He was one of the group of Jesuit historians restoring the reputation of Robert Persons...

 and Edwin Hubert Burton.

About 1794 Kirk undertook the task of preparing for publication the ‘State Papers and Letters’ of Sir Ralph Sadler, ambassador to Scotland in the time of Elizabeth I. These were published in 3 vols. 1809, by Arthur Clifford

Arthur Clifford

-Life:Clifford was the sixth of the eight sons of the Hon. Thomas Clifford of Tixall, Staffordshire, by the Hon. Barbara Aston, younger daughter and coheiress of James Aston, 5th Lord Aston of Forfar...

, with a biographical sketch by Sir Walter Scott. The original papers were then in the possession of the Cliffords of Tixall

Tixall

Tixall is a small village and former civil parish in the English county of Staffordshire lying on the western side of the Trent valley between Rugeley and Stone, Staffordshire and roughly 4 miles east of Stafford...

, Staffordshire; they went to the British Museum

British Museum

The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...

.

Kirk wrote, in collaboration with the Rev. Joseph Berington

Joseph Berington

Joseph Berington was one of the prominent British Catholic writers of his day.- Life :Joseph Berington, born at Winsley, Herefordshire, was educated at the English College at Douai. After his ordination to the priesthood he was promoted to the chair of philosophy in the university there...

, ‘The Faith of Catholics confirmed by Scripture and attested by the Fathers of the first five centuries of the Church,’ London, 1813 and 1830; 3rd edit. revised and greatly enlarged by the Rev. James Waterworth, 3 vols. London, 1846. There is a Latin translation in Joseph Braun's ‘Bibliotheca Regularum Fidei,’ Bonn, 1844, vol. i. The work was attacked by the Rev. John Graham

John Graham

- Politics and history :*John de Graham , Scottish soldier*John Graham, Earl of Menteith*John Graham, 3rd Earl of Montrose , Scottish peer*John Graham, 4th Earl of Montrose, , Scottish peer...

, M.A., in a review printed at the end of his ‘Annals of Ireland,’ London, 1819; and the Rev. Richard Thomas Pembroke Pope published ‘Roman Misquotation; or, Certain Passages from the Fathers adduced in Kirk's work brought to the test of their originals,’ London, 1840. Kirk published an edition of the 1680 Roman Catholic Principles in 1815. He argued from circumstantial evidence that the ‘Principles’ were drawn up by the Benedictine father James Corker

James Corker

James Corker or James Cleveland was a man of English descent who took part in clan fighting in precolonial Sierra Leone.-Background:...

.