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Back to article: JOHN KYRLE (1637-1724)

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KYRLE, JOHN (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).