John Kinsey was born in 1693 in Burlington, New Jersey, United States, the son of John and Sarah (Stevens) Kinsey. His paternal grandfather was one of the commissioners sent out from England in 1677 by the West Jersey proprietors to buy land from the Indians and to lay out a town. His father was a prominent lawyer, member of the New Jersey legislature, for some time its speaker, and a Quaker preacher.
John had the advantages of a good school education, studied law and was admitted to the bar.
Kinsey practised the law for several years and was elected to the assembly, succeeding his father as speaker in 1730. Conspicuous there for his sound judgment and knowledge of law, he led the opposition to Governor William Burnet, and the movement for a separate governor for New Jersey, and was largely responsible for the acts establishing Quaker affirmation and biennial assemblies.
Kinsey first attracted attention in Philadelphia in 1725 as a lawyer in the court of Governor William Keith. Addressing the court with his hat on, he was ordered to take it off, but refused on conscientious grounds; whereupon the governor ordered the court officers to remove it. Quaker protests against this attack on their religious liberty moved Keith to issue an order allowing Friends thereafter to speak in court without uncovering.
In 1730 Kinsey moved to Philadelphia, apparently seeking wider political opportunities. The following year he was elected to the assembly, holding this post, with the exception of one year, until his death. After 1739 he was speaker. In the contests with the governor over defense appropriations, bills of credit, taxation of proprietary lands, and other questions, his shrewd political management and adroit arguments generally steered the Quaker party to success at the polls and in the legislature. Invariably he succeeded in defeating the requests of Governor Thomas (1739 - 1747) for appropriations for frontier defenses, and by withholding the governor's salary finally forced him to follow the assembly's suggestion that he raise a force of men personally. Although opposing direct war aid and compulsory military service, Kinsey sanctioned the voting of funds "for the King's use, " which usually went for military purposes. At this time he also served as a trustee of the loan office.
From 1738 to 1741 he was attorney-general of the province and from 1743 to 1750, chief justice of the supreme court of Pennsylvania. He was one of the commissioners appointed in 1737 with a view to improving the relations between Pennsylvania and Maryland. Anxious to preserve the friendship of the Indians but opposed to arming them, he was influential as a member of the commission sent to Albany by the colonies in 1745 to reach an agreement with the Six Nations in temporarily averting a war with the French.
Kinsey died suddenly from a stroke of apoplexy at Burlington where he had gone to plead a case in court.
John Kinsey was distinguished for his service in the state legislature and judicial system of Pennsylvania and was prominent in the Quaker social circle of Philadelphia. He played an important part in settling the boundary dispute between Pennsylvania and Maryland. While speaker of the New Jersey assembly Kinsey prepared for publication The Acts of the General Assembly of the Province of New Jersey (1732), the first compilation of New Jersey laws.
Kinsey was a member of the Society of Friends. He was influential in the yearly meeting of the Friends and for many years was clerk of the Philadelphia Meeting.
Kinsey was a stout defender of the system of raising money by issuing bills of credit rather than by direct taxes.
Kinsey was greatly esteemed for his great learning, professional skills, and probity, his agreeable disposition, generosity, and simplicity of life.
Kinsey married in Philadelphia in 1725, Mary, daughter of Philip Kearney. His first son John, a young lawyer of great promise, died at the young age. Another son, James, was a distinguished lawyer and chief justice of the supreme court of New Jersey.
