JOHN

See also:

• JOHN KYRLE (1637-1724)

KYRLE (1637-1724)  , " the Man of Ross," English philanthropist, was born in the parish of Dymock, Gloucester-shire, on the 22nd of May 1637 . His father was a barrister and M.P., and the family had lived at Ross, in Herefordshire, for many generations . He was educated at Balliol College, Oxford, and having succeeded to the property at Ross took up his abode there . In everything that concerned the welfare of the little town in which he lived he took a lively interest—in the education of the children, the distribution of alms, in improving and embellishing the town . He delighted in mediating between those who had quarrelled and in preventing lawsuits . He was generous to the poor and spent all he had in good works . He lived a great deal in the open air working with the labourers on his farm . He died on the 7th of November 1724, and was buried in the chancel of Ross Church . His memory is pre-served by the Kyrie Society, founded in 1877, to better the lot of working people, by laying out parks, encouraging house decoration, window gardening and flower growing . Ross was eulogized by Pope in the third Moral Epistle (1732), and by Coleridge in an early poem (1794) .