Monument To Andrew Kippis, West Enclosure

The monument is a late 18th-century headstone situated within the West Enclosure of Bunhill Fields Burial Ground. It commemorates Andrew Kippis (1725-95), a prominent Presbyterian minister, scholar, and biographer, and his wife Elizabeth (died 1796), along with a family friend, Joseph Littlefear (died 1832). The monument consists of an upright stone slab topped with a pediment, and has a small reset footstone at the base. The main inscription, though now only partly legible, details the burials of these individuals.

Andrew Kippis was a noted champion of Dissenters' rights and religious liberty, actively involved in securing the Dissenters' Relief Act of 1779. He was a prolific writer on history and theology, contributing to periodicals and publishing biographies. He also worked as a teacher and was involved in an unfinished national biographical dictionary, the Bibliographia Britannica. Kippis held honorary doctorates from Edinburgh University and was a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and the Royal Society.

Bunhill Fields Burial Ground opened in 1665 and became a significant cemetery for London’s Nonconformist community. It is now a public park, having been landscaped and restored after wartime damage. The monument is designated at Grade II for its historical significance as a memorial to a leading figure in the Nonconformist movement and for its group value with other listed tombs within the West Enclosure of the Grade I registered burial ground.