Charles's house in St. Paul's Square, Birmingham, on 2 Jan. 1851.
In 1802 he married Julia, daughter of John Hall (1739–1797) [q. v.], historical engraver, by Mary de Gilles, a French Huguenot. His wife's brother, Dr. George William Hall, was master of Pembroke College, Oxford (1809–43), and canon of Gloucester. Kennedy's sons Benjamin Hall [q. v.] and Charles Rann [q. v.] are noticed separately. A third son, George John (d. 1847), was master at Rugby (see Between Whiles, 1st edition, pp. 378–9); the fourth son, William James Kennedy (1814–1891), educated at Birmingham grammar school and St. John's College, Cambridge (B.A. 1837), was ordained in 1838, became first secretary of the National Society for the Promotion of Education, was from 1848 to 1878 H.M. inspector of schools, and was vicar of Barnwood, Gloucestershire, from 1878 till his death. The sons had very distinguished careers at Cambridge. All won the Porson prize, and the three elder were senior classics (1827, 1831, 1834).
Kennedy was earnest and enthusiastic, and a determined enemy of intolerance and bigotry. His literary attainments were high, his knowledge of the English poets singularly wide, and he came into personal relations with many eminent men of letters, including, besides Coleridge and Washington Irving, Wordsworth, James Montgomery, Cary, the translator of Dante, Charles Kemble, and Mrs. Siddons. His own lyric poem entitled ‘The Reign of Youth’ exhibits rare qualities of imagination and expression. A poem which he published in 1817 on the death of the Princess Charlotte received the highest praise from Washington Irving, who quotes from it in his ‘Sketch-Book.’
Kennedy published: 1. ‘A Poem on the Death of the Princess Charlotte of Wales,’ London, 1817, 8vo. 2. ‘A Church of England Psalm-Book, or portions of the Psalter adapted … to the Services of the Established Church,’ 1821, 8vo. 3. ‘Thoughts on the Music and Words of Psalmody as at present in use among the Members of the Church of England,’ Birmingham, 1821, 8vo; 2nd edition, London, 1822; 6th edition, 1827. 4. ‘A Tribute in Verse to the Character of George Canning,’ London, 1827, 8vo. 5. ‘Britain's Genius: a Mask, on occasion of the Marriage of Victoria, Queen of Great Britain. … To which is added “The Reign of Youth, a Lyrical Poem,”’ London, 1840, 8vo. He also contributed notes to the Italian edition of Byron's poems published in 1842, and assisted his son, Charles Rann Kennedy, in the translation of ‘Virgil,’ published in 1849, he undertaking the first four Pastorals, the Georgics, and the first four Æneids. Some pieces by him will be found in the volume of poems issued by Charles Rann Kennedy in 1857. ‘The Reign of Youth,’ with a masterly rendering of it into Pindarics by Professor Jebb, the verses on Princess Charlotte, an address to Edmund Kean, and an unfinished poem, ‘Haughmond Hill,’ in the style of Goldsmith's ‘Deserted Village,’ were published by Benjamin Hall Kennedy in his ‘Between Whiles;’ 2nd edition, 1882.
[B. H. Kennedy's Between Whiles, 2nd edition, 1882; Gent. Mag. 1852, pt. i. p. 206; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
KENNEDY, THOMAS (d. 1754), Scottish judge, son of Sir Thomas Kennedy of Kirkhill, Ayrshire, provost of Edinburgh 1685–7, was called to the Scottish bar in 1698, and acquired a considerable practice and a high reputation for forensic eloquence and ingenuity. He held with distinction the office of lord advocate during the temporary disgrace of Sir David Dalrymple, June–November 1714. On the accession of George I he was raised to a seat on the exchequer bench, which he held until his death, 19 April 1754.
He was an able judge and a man of refined tastes and various knowledge, and his house was a centre of reunion for the cultivated society of Edinburgh. His modesty and courtesy were as remarkable as his ability. He married in 1714 Grizel Kynynmound, relict of Sir Alexander Murray.
[Fountainhall's Hist. Notices (Bannatyne Club), ii. 666, 716, 834; Gent. Mag. 1754, p. 244; Ramsay's Scotland and Scotsmen in the Eighteenth Century (from the Ochtertyre MSS.); private information.]
KENNEDY, THOMAS FRANCIS (1788–1879), politician, born at Greenan, near Ayr, on 11 Nov. 1788, was only son of Thomas Kennedy of Dunure and Dalquharran Castle, Ayrshire, and grand-nephew of Thomas Kennedy (d. 1754) [q. v.], Scottish judge. His mother was Jane, daughter of John Adam of Blair Adam, Kinrosshire, architect (see Adam, Robert, 1728–1792; Burns, The Brigs of Ayr). Kennedy was educated, first under James Pillans [q. v.], afterwards professor of humanity at Edinburgh, then at Harrow, where he was a contemporary of Byron, and subsequently at the university of Edinburgh, where he attended Dugald Stewart's lectures and studied law, but took no degree. He was called to the Scottish bar in 1811, and in 1818 he entered parliament as member for the Ayr burghs, which he continued to represent until his retirement from political life in 1834. A strong whig, he took from the first a prominent position in the House
