# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Kem, Samuel

​KEM or KEME, SAMUEL (1604–1670), puritan divine, born in London in 1604, was son of a cooper. He matriculated at Oxford as a commoner of Magdalen Hall on 23 June 1621, was elected to a demyship at Magdalen College in 1624, and graduated B.A. on 19 Feb. 1624–5. He resigned his demyship in 1626, on being presented to a college living. On 13 Aug. he was created B.D., and shortly afterwards became rector of Albury, Oxfordshire, and chaplain to Edward Wray of Ricot in the same county, the patron of the church. On 11 Aug. 1640, being then rector of Little Chart, Kent, he preached a violent republican sermon to the captains and soldiers ‘exercising armes in ​the Martiall Garden’ at their general meeting in St. Mary Overy, Southwark, which he printed as ‘The Nevv Fort of trve honovr made impregnable. Or, The Martialists dignity and dutie,’ 4to, London, 1640. At the outbreak of the civil war he put a curate into his livings, sided with the parliament, took the covenant, and after acting as chaplain to the Earl of Essex, was made chaplain to, and captain in, a troop of horse in the regiment of Basil, earl of Denbigh (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1641–3 pp. 382, 398, 1644 p. 178). He is also said to have been ‘chaplain at sea’ to the Earl of Warwick when lord high admiral, and rector of Deal, Kent.
On the afternoon of Sunday, 20 Aug. 1643, he preached in the Tower church, in a buff coat and a scarf, on the righteousness of the parliamentary cause. He was then vicar of Low Leyton, Essex. At Reading, where he was stationed with his regiment in 1644, he is said to have preached in the morning and to have plundered in the afternoon, and was ‘looked upon as a saint in the pulpit and a devil out of it’ (Troubles of Laud, chap. xix. p. 210). He was noted for his funeral sermons, particularly for that on Major Pinkney in July 1644. In November he accompanied Lord Denbigh and the other parliamentary commissioners to treat with the king at Oxford, and on the morning before they presented the propositions, preached to them a discourse afterwards printed as ‘The Messengers Preparation for an Addresse to the King for a well-grounded Peace,’ 4to, London, 1644 and 1646. About this time he was made a major. Soon afterwards he was at Greenwich, Kent, associated with the puritan minister Edward Larkin (Davids, Evangelical Nonconformity in Essex, pp. 418–19). When Bristol was held by the parliament Kem took charge of the city regiment. There he delivered, on 26 Feb. 1645–6, an extraordinary sermon upon the choice of the new burgesses of that city, entitled ‘The King of Kings his privie marks for the Kingdoms choyce of new members; or, a Project for the Kingdoms or Cities speedy prosperity,’ 4to, London, 1646. The garrison was reduced in November following, and Kem preached a farewell sermon, called ‘Orders given out; the Word, Stand Fast,’ 4to, London, 1647 [1646]. He is said to have preached these sermons also in military dress, with pistols on the cushion.
Kem continued to serve under Lord Denbigh during his command of the associated counties. In the manuscripts of Lord Denbigh at Newnham Paddox, Warwickshire, there are several letters written by Kem to his colonel, relating principally to the movements of the parliamentary army, from 1645 to 1648. Those of the latter year are dated from Rotterdam, whither he was sent to act as a spy on the royalists (Hist. MSS. Comm. 4th Rep. pp. 273–5).
On 7 May 1649 the council of state issued a warrant for his protection in the transaction of some special business (Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1649–50, p. 531). On 18 Nov. 1650 he was arrested for corresponding with Major James Greenstreet, ‘a traitor’ (ib. 1650, p. 566). He was set at liberty on 28 Nov. on giving his recognisance in 200l. to appear before the council when summoned (ib. p. 445). In 1651 he resigned his living of Low Leyton and retired to Albury. He became loyal on the Restoration. In April 1660, the Sunday before the election of members for Gloucester, he there preached a sermon in favour of monarchy, entitled ‘King Solomon's infallible expedient for three Kingdoms settlement; or, better Men make better Times,’ 4to, London, 1660. He was allowed to keep his living of Albury, where he died on 22 Oct. 1670. He was buried in the chancel of the church, near an inscription which he had had painted on the wall to the memory of three of his wives: (1) Anne, only daughter of John Ball, citizen and skinner of London; (2) Jemima, eldest daughter of Herbert Pelham of Lincolnshire; (3) Mary, second daughter of Samuel Bridger of Dursley, Gloucestershire. He left a widow, Elizabeth, and two sons and two daughters (will, P. C. C. 167, Penn). Wood gives Kem a very bad character for gluttony, immorality, and extortion. His portrait was engraved in 1638 by G. Glover.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), iii. 907–9; Bloxam's Reg. of Magd. Coll. Oxford, v. 111–14; Evans's Cat. of Engraved Portraits; Granger's Biog. Hist. 5th edit. iii. 346.]
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