Born at Westgate Street, Bath, Somerset on Good Friday 1793, he was the eldest son of Francis Kilvert, coachmaker, and Anna his wife; his uncle was Richard Kilvert, domestic chaplain to Bishop Richard Hurd and rector of Hartlebury.
He declined the post of principal of Queen's College, Birmingham, stayed in Bath, and took on minor posts, including minister of St. Mary Magdalen's Chapel, chaplain of the General Hospital, and evening lecturer at St. Mary's, Bathwick.
[1] In 1837 Kilvert bought Claverton Lodge, on the southern slope of Bathwick Hill, where he took scholars for the rest of his life.
He died at Claverton Lodge on 16 September 1863, and was buried in Old Widcombe churchyard, near the grave of his father and two of his brothers.
[1] Kilvert married at the close of 1822 Adelaide Sophia de Chièvre, of French refugee extraction, then living at Clapham, near London.