A Dictionary of the Booksellers and Printers who Were at Work in England, Scotland and Ireland from 1641 to 1667/Kingston, or Kyngston (Felix)
KINGSTON, or KYNGSTON (FELIX), printer in London, (1) Over against the sign of the checker, Paternoster Row, 1603 [Sayle, p. 604]; (2) In Pater-Noster-Row, at the Signe of the Gilded Cock, 1644. 1597-1651. Son of John Kingston, printer, 1553-84. Originally a member of the Company of Grocers, from which he was transferred to the Company of Stationers and admitted a freeman June 25th, 1597. [Arber, ii. 718.] According to Sir John Lambe's notes he succeeded his father in 1615, in which year he had two presses. [Arber, iii. 699.] In 1618, in company with Matthew Lownes and Bartholomew Downes, Felix Kingston was appointed by Privy Seal one of the King's Printers in Ireland. He also held a share in the Latin stock, in which he was one of the second rank, but only paid £35 out of the £50 due him, and subsequently withdrew from the venture. [Library, July, 1907, p. 290 et seq.] Master of the Company of Stationers, 1635-6. One of the twenty printers appointed under the Act of 1637. Mr. Sayle states that he used five devices before 1640. At the time of his death he must have been one of the oldest printers in London. For a list of books printed by him the reader is referred to Gray's Index to Hazlitt, p. 425. In the will of John Reeve, of Teddington, co. Middlesex, husbandman, proved on December 24th, 1621, several bequests are made to a Felix Kingston and other persons of the name of Kingston, but there is no evidence that they refer to the printer. [P.C.C. 89 Savile.] The second imprint given above occurs in Richard Bernard's Thesaurus Biblicus seu Promptuarium Sacrum, 1644.