Carteret. Gailhard sold it to lord Carteret for an annuity of 200l., and Kemp subsequently bought it. By his will (P. C. C. 171, Whitfield) he directed that the museum (with books) should be offered to Lord Oxford or his son for 2,000l. The proposal was declined. Robert Ainsworth [q. v.] drew up an elaborate account of Kemp's antiquities entitled ‘Monvmenta vetustatis Kempiana, ex vetustis scriptoribus illustrata, eosque vicissim illustrantia,’ &c., 2 pts. 8vo, London, 1719–20. Professor John Ward furnished him with the descriptions of the statues and lares, with the discourse ‘De Vasis et Lucernis, de Amuletis, de Annulis et Fibulis,’ and with the ‘Commentarius de Asse et partibus ejus,’ which had been printed in 1719.
The collection was eventually sold by auction at the Phœnix tavern in Pall Mall on 23, 24, 25, and 27 March 1721, in 293 lots, for 1,090l. 8s. 6d. Six ancient inscriptions, bought by Dr. Richard Rawlinson, are now at Oxford, and appear in the ‘Marmora Oxoniensia.’
[Nichols's Lit. Anecd. v. 249, 519; Gough's Brit. Topography, i. 671; Maty's Life of Mead; Thoresby's Diary, ii. 31, 112, 139.]
KEMP, JOHN (1763–1812), mathematician, was born at Auchlossen, Aberdeenshire, on 10 April 1763. He graduated M.A. at the university of Aberdeen in 1781, and was elected F.R.S. Edinb. in 1783. In the latter year he emigrated to America, and after making a brief stay in Virginia went to New York, where in 1785 he was appointed teacher, and in 1786 professor, of mathematics in Columbia College. In 1795 he was transferred to the chair of geography, history, and chronology. He received the degree of LL.D. from an American university. Kemp was an intimate friend of De Witt Clinton, mayor of New York, and was frequently consulted by him on municipal business. In 1810 he visited Lake Erie, and in advance of the surveys pronounced the projected canal to be entirely practicable. He died in New York on 15 Nov. 1812.
[Irving's Eminent Scotsmen, p. 252; Appleton's Cyclop. of Amer. Biog. iii. 511.]
KEMP, JOSEPH (1778–1824), musical composer and professor, was born in Exeter in 1778. He was the brother of James Kemp, the author of a poem, ‘Northernhay’ (1808). Kemp was a chorister of the cathedral, and Jackson's pupil. In 1802 he was appointed organist of Bristol Cathedral; in 1807 he settled in London until 1813, taking his musical degrees at Cambridge (Sidney Sussex College) in 1808 and 1809. In 1810, at the Russell Institution, Great Coram Street, Russell Square, London, Kemp began a series of lectures on musical education, in which he advocated the teaching of music in classes and the playing of exercises by pupils in concert. On account of failing health he returned with his wife and family to his native city, and resided there until 1824, with the interruption of a visit to France in 1818–21. He had founded a musical college at Exeter in 1814. A journey to London in April 1824 proved too fatiguing for Kemp, then in a weak state of health, and he died in his lodgings on 22 May. He had married in 1805 the daughter of Henry John of Cornwall, and left at his death his widow, two sons, and one daughter.
Kemp published: 1. Op. I., twelve songs, London, 1799, which show some originality, are somewhat pastoral in character, and are set to accompaniments of various stringed instruments. 2. Six glees, London, 1800. 3. War anthem, ‘A Sound of Battle is in the Land,’ London, 1803, which afterwards served as the exercise for his Mus.Bac. degree. 4. ‘Vocal Magazine of Canzonets, Madrigals, Songs,’ &c., Bristol, 1807. 5. ‘The Jubilee,’ 1809, written by Kemp and set to music by Kemp and Corri, brought out at the little theatre in the Haymarket 25 Oct. 1809. 6. ‘The Siege of Isca,’ melodrama, 1810. 7. Anthem, ‘The Crucifixion,’ the exercise for Mus. Doc. degree, 1810. 8. ‘Sonatas, or Lessons for the Pianoforte,’ a set of exercises, Exeter, 1814(?). 9. Four lessons for the pianoforte or harp. 10. Four lessons for harp. 11. Twenty double chants in score. 12. Twenty psalmodical melodies, dedicated to the Archbishop of Canterbury, London, 1818. 13. ‘New System of Musical Education,’ as explained in his ‘Lectures,’ part i., and ‘100 Cards, containing more than 500 points in Music, connected with the New System,’ &c., 1810–19. 14. Anthem, ‘I am Alpha and Omega.’ 15. ‘Beauties of Shakespeare.’ 16. ‘Beauties of the Lady of the Lake;’ and many songs.
[Annual Biography, ix. 431; Kemp's New System, Pref.; Grove's Dict. of Music, ii. 50; Gerber's Lexikon, 1813, pt. iii. col. 35; Dict. of Living Authors, 1816, p. 186; Grad. Cant.; European Mag. lvi. 385.]
KEMP, THOMAS READ (1781?–1844), founder of Kemp Town, was the only son of Thomas Kemp of Lewes Castle and Hurstmonceaux Park, M.P. for Lewes, by his wife Ann, daughter and heiress of Henry Read of Brookland. He was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A.
