Richard Kidder

Richard Kidder (1633–1703) was an English Anglican churchman, Bishop of Bath and Wells, from 1691 to his death. He was a noted theologian.

He was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he was a sizar, from 1649, graduating 1652. He became a Fellow there in 1655, and vicar of Stranground, Huntingdonshire, in 1659. He was deprived in 1662.

He was rector of Rayne Parva, Essex, from 1664 to 1674, having conformed to the Act of 1662. He was later vicar of St. Martin Outwich, London, and in 1689 a royal chaplain, and dean of Peterborough.

His A Demonstration of the Messias has been identified as a significant influence on the librettist Charles Jennens, in writing the words for the Messiah of Handel. This book also took up suggestions of Joseph Mede on multiple authorship of the Book of Zechariah.

He was killed in the Great Storm of 1703, on 26 November (7 December in today’s calendar); he was in bed with his wife in the episcopal palace at Wells when the chimney fell on both of them.

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