Kirk used his powers to checkmate the German designs to supplant the British in Zanzibar itself; this he did without destroying the Arab form of government. He also directed the efforts, this time successful, to obtain for Britain a portion of the mainland—Bargash in May 1887 granting to Mackinnon a lease of territory which led to the foundation of British East Africa. Having thus served both Great Britain and Zanzibar, Kirk resigned his post (July 1887), retiring from the consular service. In 1889–1890 he was a plenipotentiary at the slave trade conference in Brussels, and was one of the delegates who fixed the tariff duties to be imposed in the Congo basin. In 1895 he was sent by the British government on a mission to the Niger; and on his return he was appointed a member of the Foreign Office committee for constructing the Uganda railway. As a naturalist Kirk took high rank, and many species of the flora and fauna of Central Africa were made known by him, and several bear his name, e.g. the Otogale kirkii (a lemuroid), the Madoqua kirkii (a diminutive antelope), the Landolphia kirkii and the Clematis kirkii. For his services to geography he received in 1882 the patrons’ medal of the Royal Geographical Society, of which society he became foreign secretary. Kirk was created K.C.B. in 1900. He married, in 1867, Miss Helen Cooke.
KIRKBY, JOHN (d. 1290), English ecclesiastic and statesman,
entered the public service as a clerk of the chancery
during the reign of Henry III. Under Edward I. he acted as
keeper of the great seal during the frequent absences of the
chancellor, Robert Burnell, being referred to as vice-chancellor.
In 1282 he was employed by the king to make a tour through
the counties and boroughs for the purpose of collecting money;
this and his other services to Edward were well rewarded, and
although not yet ordained priest he held several valuable
benefices in the church. In 1283 he was chosen bishop of
Rochester, but owing to the opposition of the archbishop of
Canterbury, John Peckham, he did not press his claim to this
see. In 1286, however, two years after he had become treasurer,
he was elected bishop of Ely, and he was ordained priest and
then consecrated by Peckham. He died at Ely on the 26th of
March 1290. Kirkby was a benefactor to his see, to which he
left some property in London, including the locality now known
as Ely Place, where for many years stood the London residence
of the bishop of Ely.
Kirkby’s Quest is the name given to a survey of various English counties which was made under the bishop’s direction probably in 1284 and 1285. For this see Inquisitions and Assessments relating to Feudal Aids, 1284–1431, vol. i. (London, 1899).
KIRKCALDY (locally pronounced Kerkawdi), a royal, municipal
and police burgh and seaport of Fifeshire, Scotland. Pop.
(1901), 34,079. It lies on the Firth of Forth, 26 m. N. of Edinburgh
by the North British railway, via the Forth Bridge. Although
Columba is said to have planted a church here, the authoritative
history of the town does not begin for several centuries
after the era of the saint. In 1240 the church was bestowed by
David, bishop of St Andrews, on Dunfermline Abbey, and in
1334 the town with its harbour was granted by David II. to the
same abbey, by which it was conveyed to the bailies and council
in 1450, when Kirkcaldy was created a royal burgh. In the course
of another century it had become an important commercial
centre, the salt trade of the district being then the largest in
Scotland. In 1644, when Charles I. raised it to a free port, it
owned a hundred vessels, and six years later it was assessed as
the sixth town in the kingdom. After the Union its shipping
fell off, Jacobite troubles and the American War of Independence
accelerating the decline. But its linen manufactures, begun
early in the 18th century, gradually restored prosperity; and
when other industries had taken root its fortunes advanced
by leaps and bounds, and there is now no more flourishing community
in Scotland. The chief topographical feature of the
burgh is its length, from which it is called the “lang toun.”
Formerly it consisted of little besides High Street, with closes
and wynds branching off from it; but now that it has absorbed
Invertiel, Linktown and Abbotshall on the west, and Pathhead,
Sinclairtown and Gallatown on the east, it has reached a
length of nearly 4 m. Its public buildings include the parish
church, in the Gothic style, St Brycedale United Free church,
with a spire 200 ft. high, a town-hall, corn exchange, public
libraries, assembly rooms, fever hospital, sheriff court buildings,
people’s club and institute, high school (1894)—on the site of
the ancient burgh school (1582)—the Beveridge hall and free
library, and the Adam Smith memorial hall. To the west lies
Beveridge Park of 110 acres, including a large sheet of water,
which was presented to the town in 1892. The harbour has an
inner and outer division, with wet dock and wharves. Plans
for its extension were approved in 1903. They include the
extension of the east pier, the construction of a south pier 800 ft.
in length, and of a tidal harbour 5 acres in area and a dock of
4 acres. Besides the manufacture of sheeting, towelling, ticks,
dowlas and sail-cloth, the principal industries include flax-spinning,
net-making, bleaching, dyeing, tanning, brewing, brass and
iron founding, and there are potteries, flour-mills, engineering
works, fisheries, and factories for the making of oil-cloth and
linoleum. In 1847 Michael Nairn conceived the notion of
utilizing the fibre of cork and oil-paint in such a way as to
produce a floor-covering more lasting than carpet and yet
capable of taking a pattern. The result of his experiments was
oil-cloth, in the manufacture of which Kirkcaldy has kept the
predominance to which Nairn’s enterprise entitled it. Indeed,
this and the kindred linoleum business (also due to Nairn, who
in 1877 built the first linoleum factory in Scotland) were for
many years the monopoly of Kirkcaldy. There is a large
direct export trade with the United States. Among well-known
natives of the town were Adam Smith, Henry Balnaves
of Halhill, the Scottish reformer and lord of session in the time
of Queen Mary; George Gillespie, the theologian and a leading
member of the Westminster Assembly, and his younger brother
Patrick (1617–1675), a friend of Cromwell and principal of
Glasgow University; John Ritchie (1778–1870), one of the
founders of the Scotsman; General Sir John Oswald (1771–1840),
who had a command at San Sebastian and Vittoria. Sir Michael
Scott of Balwearie castle, about 112 m. W. of the town, was sent
with Sir David Wemyss to bring the Maid of Norway to Scotland
in 1290; Sir Walter Scott was therefore in error in adopting the
tradition that identified him with the wizard of the same name,
who died in 1234. Carlyle and Edward Irving were teachers
in the town, where Irving spent seven years, and where he made
the acquaintance of the lady he afterwards married. Kirkcaldy
combines with Dysart, Kinghorn and Burntisland to return one
member to parliament.
KIRKCALDY OF GRANGE, SIR WILLIAM (c. 1520–1573),
Scottish politician, was the eldest son of Sir James Kirkcaldy
of Grange (d. 1556), a member of an old Fifeshire family. Sir
James was lord high treasurer of Scotland from 1537 to 1543
and was a determined opponent of Cardinal Beaton, for whose
murder in 1546 he was partly responsible. William Kirkcaldy
assisted to compass this murder, and when the castle of
St Andrews surrendered to the French in July 1547 he was sent
as a prisoner to Normandy, whence he escaped in 1550. He was
then employed in France as a secret agent by the advisers of
Edward VI., being known in the cyphers as Corax; and later
he served in the French army, where he gained a lasting reputation
for skill and bravery. The sentence passed on Kirkcaldy
for his share in Beaton’s murder was removed in 1556, and
returning to Scotland in 1557 he came quickly to the front; as
a Protestant he was one of the leaders of the lords of the congregation
in their struggle with the regent, Mary of Lorraine,
and he assisted to harass the French troops in Fife. He opposed
Queen Mary’s marriage with Darnley, being associated at this
time with Murray, and was forced for a short time to seek refuge
in England. Returning to Scotland, he was accessory to the
murder of Rizzio, but he had no share in that of Darnley; and
he was one of the lords who banded themselves together to rescue
Mary after her marriage with Bothwell. After the fight at
Carberry Hill the queen surrendered herself to Kirkcaldy, and
his generalship was mainly responsible for her defeat at Langside.
