Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Kenton, Nicholas
KENTON, NICHOLAS (d. 1468), Carmelite, born at Kenton, near Framlingham, Suffolk, became a Carmelite at Ipswich, and studied at Cambridge. On 2 March 1419, being then resident at Whitefriars, London, he was ordained sub-deacon, and on 1 Dec. 1420 priest. In 1444 he was chosen twenty-fifth provincial of his order in England in a council held at Stamford, and retained his office twelve years. He died in London 4 Sept. 1468, and was buried at Whitefriars. Weever quotes his epitaph (Funerall Monuments, p. 438). Leland wrongly gives the date of death as 1460.
Kenton is credited with a commentary on the ‘Song of Songs’ and a variety of theological treatises. He is also said to have written lives of saints belonging to his order; among them was a ‘Life of St. Cyril.’ The Bollandists suggest that this collection of lives may possibly be identical with an anonymous collection in their possession (Acta Sanctorum, January, iii. 688). Bale specifies a number of letters of Kenton's with some exactness, and in Brit. Mus. Harleian MS. 1819, f. 196 b, gives the purport of one. Kenton is also credited with ‘Carmen votivum ad dominum Albertum Carmelitam et dominum Andream episcopum’ (i.e. St. Andrew of Fiesole); St. Andrew is said to have worked a miracle for Kenton's benefit (ib. January, iii. 687).
[Leland's Comment. de Scriptt. p. 459; Bale, viii. 28; Harleian MS. 3838, ff. 91 a–92 a (Bale's Heliades); Pits, p. 658; Davy's Athenæ Suffolcienses in Addit. MS. 19165, ff. 75–6; C. de Villiers's Bibl. Carmelit. ii. 499–501.]