1. John Kyrle, known as "the Man of Ross", was an English philanthropist, remembered for his time in Ross-on-Wye in Herefordshire.
12 Facts About John Kyrle
1. 2.
John Kyrle was educated at Balliol College, Oxford, matriculating in 1654.
3.
John Kyrle then entered to study law at the Middle Temple in 1657, but was not called to the bar.
4.
John Kyrle inherited the family estate including a house overlooking the market at Ross, where he lived, following his father's death in 1650.
5.
John Kyrle planted trees in and around the town, with two or three workmen to assist with the manual work.
6.
John Kyrle delighted in mediating between those who had quarrelled and in preventing costly lawsuits between prominent townspeople.
7.
John Kyrle was generous to the poor and spent all he had in good works.
8.
John Kyrle was behind the establishment of 'The Prospect' in Ross in 1700.
9.
John Kyrle lived a great deal in the open air, working with the labourers on his farm and taking exercise to stay healthy.
10.
John Kyrle's name is commemorated throughout Ross-on-Wye, not only in The Prospect but in the 'Man of Ross' public house on Wye Street and his market square townhouse.
11.
John Kyrle's memory was preserved by the Kyrle Society, founded in 1876 by Miranda and Octavia Hill, to better the life of working people, by laying out parks, encouraging house decoration, window gardening and flower growing.
12.
Ross and John Kyrle were eulogised by Alexander Pope in the third of his Moral Essays "Of the Use of Riches" ;.