Richard Kingston

According to his own statements he was a M.A., and was ordained by the Bishop of Galloway, 17 July 1662, at Westminster; and on 6 February 1682 was made chaplain in ordinary to Charles II.

But Matthew Smith in 1700, when engaged with Kingston in a political controversy, charged him with having forged his letters of orders.

[2] In 1665, Kingston was minister at St. James's, Clerkenwell, and worked during the Great Plague; Trelwany believed he was then a tailor, had found sermons, and preached in the absence of the incumbent.

He had resigned this preferment before 17 September 1666, and took up a living at Irthlingborough, Northamptonshire, appointed by Nicholas Knollys who called himself 3rd Earl of Banbury.

By the second half of the 1690s, he was working for Sir William Trumbull, and in the end his cover was blown when he testified in treason trials.

In 1707, his attack on Dr. John Freind's vindication of the Earl of Peterborough's conduct in Spain appeared; he was arrested by order of the House of Lords.