A second Wantage child of 1692
Isaac Kimber was born in Wantage on 1 December 1692, a few months after Joseph Butler, the future bishop, was born in the same small market town. Both came from families outside the Church of England: Butler’s were Presbyterians, and Kimber grew up among the General Baptists, a community with a long history in the Vale.
He left Wantage to study in London, learning languages under John Ward, later professor of rhetoric at Gresham College, and philosophy and divinity under the dissenting tutor John Eames. He trained for the Baptist ministry and served as an assistant minister to congregations in London and at Nantwich in Cheshire, but preaching did not bring him a living, and he turned increasingly to writing for the booksellers.
Historian and journalist
Kimber’s Life of Oliver Cromwell (1724) was one of the first popular biographies of the Protector and went through several editions. In 1728 he started a periodical called The Morning Chronicle, which ran until 1732 (it is not the same paper as the better-known Morning Chronicle founded in 1769). He edited the works of Bishop William Beveridge (1729) and later wrote An Abridgement of the History of England (1745). From 1732 until his death he edited The London Magazine, the main rival to The Gentleman’s Magazine, and the post then passed to his son Edward.
His life was not easy. The Dictionary of National Biography notes that his wife was mentally ill for twenty-three years. He died of a stroke early in 1755, and his funeral sermon was preached on 9 February.
Locally
Nothing in Wantage marks Kimber’s birth, and the house he was born in is not known. His story is a reminder that the town’s Nonconformist families produced writers and ministers as well as the better-known Anglican figures. His son Edward Kimber became a novelist and travel writer.