John Fenwick Kitto
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John Fenwick Kitto (31 December 1837 – 13 April 1903) was an English
Early life and education
John Fenwick Kitto was born on 31 December 1837 in Islington, London, England. His father, John Kitto, was a reverend and writer of Biblical topics.[1] His mother was Annabella Fenwick, who had married John Kitto on 21 September 1833 at Christ Church on Newgate Street, while the church was undergoing reparations.[2]
Kitto attended North London Collegiate School in Camden Town, where he was educated by the headmaster Dr. Williams. He then studied at St. Alban's Hall, Oxford University, where in 1860 he placed Second Class in Mathematics and graduated with a bachelor of arts. He returned in 1870 for a master's degree.[1][3]
Career
Curate of St. Pancras
Kitto was ordained in 1862 by the Bishop of London, Archibald Campbell Tait, and served as Curate of St. Pancras under William Weldon Champneys from 1862 to 1866.[1] While serving as Curate of St. Pancras, he was invited to join the Committee of the Church of England Sunday-School Institute, and became the first clergyman to occupy the position of chairman, which he served as for twenty-one years.[3]
Vicar of St. Matthias Old Church
In 1867, he was appointed by Tait as the first incumbent vicar of St. Matthias Old Church.[1] The chapel, formerly called Poplar Chapel and dating to 1776, had been a chapel of the British East India Company, but became an ecclesiastical parish of the Church of England in 1866.[4] It was consecrated by the Archbishop of Armagh in 1867.[5]
The year Kitto took the vicarage, London's East End saw a localized outbreak of cholera that killed over five-thousand people caused by the incomplete state of London's sewer system in the East End, which was still undergoing construction, and negligence by the East London Waterworks Company allowing sewage to enter drinking water.[6] Due to the outbreak of cholera and the mass closing of industrial workplaces such as shipbuilding yards, ironworks, and factories, many inhabitants of the East End were facing increased pressure for work, with poverty and starvation rising. Because of this, and using his position in the clergy, Kitto devised an emigration plan and enlisted others to help him establish the East End Emigration Relief Fund, which would relocate poverty-stricken families to better circumstances abroad.[1]
Restoration of St. Matthias Old Church
Restoration of the church began in 1867, with funds raised from
Charitable work in Poplar
While serving as Vicar of St. Matthias, Kitto also established a mission house and served as Honorable Secretary to the Committee of the Poplar Hospital for Accidents.[1] The hospital, founded in 1855, specifically provided for people wounded while working at the docks.[9] He also started a convalescent home for East End poor, which was maintained at Reigate.[3]
Rector of Whitechapel
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/30/Whitechapel_St._Mary%27s_Church_after_the_fire_1880.jpg/220px-Whitechapel_St._Mary%27s_Church_after_the_fire_1880.jpg)
In 1875, Kitto was presented by Bishop Jackson to the rectory of Whitechapel, where he was to oversee the rebuilding of the parish church (St. Mary Matfelon) with funds donated by Octavius Coope. Kitto designed an open-air pulpit for the church, the first in England since the Reformation. The church was opened and consecrated in February 1877.[3] This church, the third on the site, suffered a fire in 1880, with only the vestry, tower, and church rooms remaining.[10]
Charitable works in Whitechapel
While in Whitechapel, Kitto established an expansive network of charitable organizations including the 'Invalids and Sick Children's Dinner Fund' which provided about three-thousand meals annually, a convalescent home, a burial programme for the poor, a home for training young women as domestic servants, and a playground for poor children in the parish.[1]
Rector of Stepney
Prior to the fire at St. Mary Matfelon, Kitto was appointed by
In 1885, a Church journal described him as "a Low Churchman of Liberal views, [...] with considerable organising ability" and as "[...] an able preacher."[14]
East End Emigration Society
In 1882, Kitto founded the East End Emigration Society, following his existing work with emigration. The society was founded with the intention of sending poverty-stricken East-Enders to Canada, pay for their first few months, and help them find employment. Poor families and boys were sent to the Andrews Home located at 46 Belmont Park in Montreal, Quebec, which was maintained primarily by endowment and under the jurisdiction of the Anglican Synod of Montreal.[15]
Vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields
In 1886, Kitto was appointed to the Vicarage of St Martin-in-the-Fields, following
Founding of organizations
In 1892, alongside Louisa Magenis (the daughter of the 3rd Earl of Belmore) and with patronage from Prince Christian, Kitto opened and managed the Rehearsal Club, which provided a place for theatre personnel to rest, read, eat, drink, and socialize safely and at a modest price from eleven at night to eight in the morning, the "dead hours" between performance times.[19] He also opened, in 1897, the Wantage Club, a club for waitresses and other restaurant and hotel staff that provided rest and recreation for off-duty workers, including a library and entertainments.[20]
Death
Kitto died on 13 April 1903, in London.[18] He was succeeded as Vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields by Leonard Edmund Shelford.[16]
Personal life
Kitto married Elizabeth Symon, only daughter of Adam Symon of Dundee, in Christ Church Surbiton Hill in November 1865.[3][21] She was an avid supporter of his charitable works and personally assisted in provided for the poor.[1] Kitto described himself as a teetotaller.[22]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h "The Church-Worker's Portrait Gallery". The Church-Worker: A Magazine for Sunday School Teachers and Church-Workers generally. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1883. p. 87.
- ^ John, Eadie (1858). Life of John Kitto, D. D., F. S. A. Edinburgh: William Oliphant and Sons. p. 289.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Plarr, Victor (1899). Men and Women of the Time: A Dictionary of Contemporaries. London: G. Routledge and Sons. p. 603.
- ^ W. W., Hutchings (1903). London Town Past and Present. Vol. 2. London: Cassell and Company. p. 980.
- OCLC 32046636.
- OCLC 70483471.
- ^ a b Poplar High Street: The church of St Matthias," in Survey of London: Volumes 43 and 44, Poplar, Blackwall and Isle of Dogs, ed. Hermione Hobhouse (London: London County Council, 1994), 98-107. British History Online, accessed January 7, 2022, http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vols43-4/pp98-107 .
- ^ Brittain, Vera (1969). The Pictorial History of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Pitkin Pictorials. p. 6.
- ^ Records of Poplar Hospital, East India Dock Road, London. Poplar Hospital, Poplar, London. The National Archives. 1858–1964.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: others (link) - OCLC 1107805511.
- ^ Phillips, J. S. (1880). Evangelical Christendom, Christian Work, and the News of the Churches. London: William John Johnson. p. 271.
- ^ Baker, T. F. T. (1998). "A History of the County of Middlesex: Volume 11, Stepney, Bethnal Green". London: Victoria County History. Retrieved 8 January 2022.
- ^ Locks, Walter Alexander (1902). East London Antiquities: Some Record of East London in the Days of Old, Its History, Legends, Folk-lore and Topography. London: East London Advertiser. p. 13.
- ^ The Church Portrait Journal and Ecclesiastical Art Magazine. Vol. 7. London: Church Printing Company. 1885. p. 32.
- OCLC 288630912.
- ^ Gater, George Henry(1979). The Parish of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Volume 18 of Survey of London, Joint Publishing Committee Representing the London County Council and the London Survey Committee. New York: AMS Press. p. 128.
- JSTOR 23916532.
- ^ a b The Annual Register: A Review of Public Events at Home and Abroad for the year 1903. London: Longman, Green, & Co. 1904. pp. 128–129.
- OCLC 952156589.
- OCLC 45356652.
- The Gentleman's Magazine and Historical Review. London: Edward Cave. p. 640.
- ^ "Temperance Notes". The Coffee Public-House News. 1 September 1880. p. 433. Retrieved 7 January 2022.