He was born in Nottingham, the son of silk-hosier Robert Kippis. After attending Carre's Grammar School in Sleaford, Lincolnshire, he transferred at the age of 16 to the Dissenting Academy in Northampton, whose president at the time was Dr Philip Doddridge. From 1763 to 1784, he taught classical and philological subjects in the Coward Trust's academy in Hoxton, and afterwards at the New College in Hackney. Kippis was a prolific writer. He made significant contributions to The Gentleman's Magazine, The Monthly Review, and The Library, and he founded the New Annual Register. He wrote sermons and pamphlets, and he added a biography to Nathaniel Lardner's Works (1788). He contributed a biography to Philip Doddridge's Exposition of the New Testament (1792). His most important work is his edition of the Biographia Britannica, of which he only published five volumes (folio, 1778-1793). Joseph Towers, minister of Newington Green Unitarian Church, assisted him in this endeavor.
