In October, 1066, occurred the battle of Hastings, which resulted in seating William the Conqueror on the throne as first king of England. Ranulph the Norman, whose father was the first authentic Kingsley ancestor, was one of the knights and companion in arms who came to England with the Conqueror, and was rewarded for signal bravery at the battle of Hastings with various lordships.  His identity is fully established.

Omitting the record of several centuries, the first American ancestors of the Kingsley family were-two brothers, Stephen and John Kingsley, whose-names appear in Massachusetts records about the same date that they disappear in the English records.

in 1632-33, Stephen and John Kingsley are admitted by the General Court of Massachusetts as Freemen of Dorchester.

Stephen, born 1594-95 was about thirty-five years old when he and John came in 1630, in the fleet of Winthrop. The line of Stephen Kingsley was the first in Vermont.

Passing over a few generations we come to Daniel Kingsley of the original Stephen.

DANIEL KINGSLEY

Born in Bridgewater, Mass., in 1712, he removed to Charlemont, and in 1770 was the second largest taxpayer in the town.

The champion patriot of Revolutionary Bennington, VT. was Pop Kingsley, who, on the approach of the British, grabbed his flintlock and insisted upon joining Capt. Elijah Dewey's Bennington company as an extra volunteer in the ranks, although sixty-five years of age.  He was an ardent and active patriot.  He was so incensed at the king and the tyrannous policy of his ministry, at the outbreak of the Revolutionary  War, that he 'dropped the "g" from his name;  and in the muster rolls and other records of time, the name appears, as a rule, "Kinsley," and but twice after the incident does the name appear as "Kingsley."  This led to constant confusion in recording those, of this family name, and has also confused the lines of descent.

At the battle of Bennington in 1777 he was one of the most conspicuous figures, and the contemporary records have frequent mention of his reckless bravery, daring, and bitter animosity toward the English hirelings.

The grand total of Kingsley of the thirteen colonies In the War of the Revolution is 103. Daniel of Bidgewater was at the battle of Bunker Hill, and was Successively promoted until, at the close of the war, he had attained the rank of captain. In Vermont Revolutionary rolls he is mentioned a sergeant in Captain Dewey's company.

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