Zephaniah Kingsley Sr: Extraordinary in his own Right

Signature of Zephaniah Kingsley Sr.

Zephaniah Kingsley's growing fame and singular life often overshadows that of his eponymous father, Zephaniah Kingsley Sr. In the past they were often confounded, as correspondence from the 1960s between the president of the University of New Brunswick—seeking more information on its elusive founder—and the Florida Park Service's Kingsley Plantation office reveals.

Because I believe that ZK Sr. was no less a noteworthy personage whose story should also be remembered, I have begun a wikipedia page titled Zephaniah Kingsley Sr. As an open file, it now belongs to the community and has been, and will continue to be, further enriched and modified. Dr. Schafer's comprehensive book on Zephaniah Kingsley Zephaniah Kingsley Jr. and the Atlantic World: Slave Trader, Plantation Owner, Emancipator has since its 2013 publication become the primary source of reliable and previously unknown information on ZK Sr.

Among other things, ZK Sr. was a successful merchant, a loyalist during the American Revolution and one of the seven founders of the University of New Brunswick, Canada’s oldest English language university. He was the grandfather of Anna McNeill Whistler — better known as "Whistler's Mother" in the painting Arrangement in Grey and Black No.1 by her son (and Kingsley’s great-grandson) James McNeill Whistler.

His loyalty to Great Britain was one of his most admirable aspects. Not because I would have necessarily agreed with him, but because his resolve showed an admirable strength of character. He never yielded in spite of having suffered loss of property and having been ultimately banished from his South Carolina home.

But perhaps his most enduring endeavor resulted from his vision to establish an institution of higher learning in the fledgling colony he called home. Below is an image of the 1785 petition written by ZK Sr and six other prominent citizens to Governor Carleton with the intent to found "an academy or school of liberal arts and sciences at Fredericton". This eventually became Canada's oldest English language university, the University of New Brunswick.

A website of the University Archives titled 'The Founders' Petition of 1785' includes brief bios of the seven founders, an explanatory note, a larger image of the Petition and the text of the petition.

The 1785 Founder's Petition of Zephaniah Kingsley Sr. and others to Governor Thomas Carleton requesting the establishment of an academy at Fredericton. This is the founding document of what would eventually become the University of New Brunswick.