Author: Kingston, William
Biography:
KINGSTON, William (fl 1832-7)
Kingston, by profession a painter, published only two books, both in 1835. The first was a collection of poems which according to his preface had been composed mainly in two bursts of creative activity in 1816 and 1834. He promises more if the public should prove favourable, but no more appeared. The second was a treatise introducing an original system of painting "in dry colours": this book was based on a series of lectures he had been touring with since 1832. His long, philosophical introduction includes testimonials and extracts from favourable reviews. His lecture tours began in Dublin and it seems likely that he was an Irishman by birth. Other cities visited include Bristol, Paris, Brighton, London, Weymouth, Bath, and Plymouth. A newspaper notice of 1837 from Manchester shows that he continued to tour for at least a few years longer, but there the trail ends. No reliable documentation has been found for his birth, parentage, marriage, or death. It is possible that he was the Irish-born man of that name recorded in the 1861 Census as head of a household in the poor district of St. Giles in the Fields in London. If so, by then he was 60 (b 1801) living with his wife Elizabeth, a laundress and native of the area (b 1815); their son James (b 1831); and James's wife Ellen and three sons aged 7, 5, and 2. William Kingston's occupation is given as "house painter's labourer," the son's as "house painter," and the daughter-in-law's as "shirt-maker." In the 1851 Census from the same district, Kingston's occupation had been "Porter." (findmypast.com 7 Jun. 2021; ancestry.com 7 Jun. 2021; William Kingston, The Kingstonian System of Painting in Dry Colours [1835]; Manchester Courier 21 Jan. 1837)