John Kyrle
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John Kyrle (22 May 1637 - 7 November 1724), known as "the Man of Ross", was an English philanthropist, was born in the parish of Dymock, Gloucestershire. His father was a barrister and M.P., and the family had lived at Ross-on-Wye, in Herefordshire for many generations. He was educated at Balliol College, Oxford, and having succeeded to the property at Ross-on-Wye he lived 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 and 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 laborers on his farm. He died on 7 November 1724, and was buried in the chancel of Ross Church.
His memory was preserved by the Kyrle Society, founded in 1876 by Miranda Hill, to better the life of working people, by laying out parks, encouraging house decoration, window gardening and flower growing. The Society was a progenitor of the National Trust.
Ross was eulogized by Alexander Pope in the third Moral Epistle (1732), and by Coleridge in an early poem of 1794.
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This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
