Note 112 — CAVALIER SONGS AND BALLADS. (continued 3)

William Kiffin was a celebrated preacher of this time, and had been an officer in the Parliamentary army. A little before the publication of the present ballad a tract had appeared, with the title, “The Life and Approaching Death of William Kiffin. Extracted out of the Visitation Book by a Church Member.” 4to, London, March 13, 1659–60. He is here said to have been originally ’prentice to a glover, and to have been in good credit with Cromwell, who made him a lieutenant-colonel. He appears to have been busy among the sectaries at the period of the Restoration. He is thus mentioned in a satirical pamphlet of that time, entitled “Select City Quæries:”—“Whether the Anabaptists’ late manifesto can be said to be forged, false, and scandalous (as Politicus terms it), it being well known to be writ by one of Kiffin’s disciples; and whether the author thereof or Politicus may be accounted the greater incendiary?”—T. W.