# A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Kennedy, Thomas Fortescue

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​KENNEDY. (Capt., 1813. f-p., 25; h-p., 32.)
Thomas Fortescue Kennedy was born 9 Nov. 1774, and died 15 May, 1846. He was son of the late Dr. Kennedy; Physician to George IV. when Prince of Wales, and Inspector-General of Army Hospitals, who died in April, 1795, from the effects of excessive fatigue in the performance of his duties on the Continent under the Duke of York, by the third daughter of the late Thos. Chamberlaine, Esq., of Wardington, co. Oxford. One of his brothers, a Captain in the 19th Foot, died at Ceylon in 1801; and another, Sir Robt. Hugh Kennedy, Kt,, was at the head of the Commissariat department of the Army Under the Duke of Wellington during the whole of the Peninsular war.
This officer entered the Navy, 12 Aug. 1789 (under the patronage of Lord Hood), as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Colossus 74, Capts. Hugh Cloberry Christian and Henry Harvey, guard-Ship at Portsmouth; and, on being lent to the Pomona frigate, Capt. Henry Savage, sailed on a voyage to Africa and the West Indies. He next, between Sept. 1790 and the commencement of the French revolutionary war, served on the Home and Newfoundland stations, as Midshipman, in the Crescent frigate, Capt. Wm. Young, Alcide 74, Capt. Sir Andrew Snape Douglas, and Bonetta sloop, Capts. Wm. Elliot and Graham Moore; , after which he joined the Terrible 74, Capts. Skeffington Lutwidge and Geo. Campbell, and proceeded to the Mediterranean, where he served off shore with the army during the occupation of Toulon, and obtained great praise from Sir Hyde Parker, the Captain of the fleet, for his exertions in embarking and bringing off more than 60 unfortunate emigrants, chiefly females, at the very moment When their blood-thirsty countrymen were rushing into the town. In 1794 Mr. Kennedy returned to England in La Sybille frigate, Capt. Edw. Cooke. He was then detached for a short period into the Lively 36, Capts. Lord Garlics and Geo. Burlton, at the expiration of which he rejoined La Sybille, and continued to serve in that frigate, as Lieutenant (commission dated 5 July, 1796), until April, 1798. In Jan. of the latter year he captured, with the ship’s barge and only 13 men, a gun-boat, in the Bay of Manilla, carrying 5 guns, besides swivels, and a complement of 50 men. He was in consequence invested with the command of his prize, which he retained until she was broken up subsequently to an attack made a few days afterwards by La Sybille, in company with the Fox frigate, on the settlement of Samboangon, in the island of Magindanao. His next appointment was, 16 Nov. 1798, to the Triumph 74, Capts. Wm. Essington, Thos. Seccombe, Elias Harvey, and Sir Robt. Barlow, under whom, and for some time under the flag of Rear-Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood, he served on the Channel and Mediterranean stations until Jan. 1803 – from 5 Oct. to 15 Nov. in which year he commanded the Eliza and Jane tender, employed in conveying impressed men from Dublin to Plymouth. He then, at the request of Capt. Elias Harvey, became that officer’s First-Lieutenant in the Téméraire 98, which ship was next astern of the Victory, and bore a most distinguished share, in the action off Cape Trafalgar 21 Oct. 1805. As a reward for the part he had taken in the battle Lieut. Kennedy was promoted to the rank of Commander by commission dated 24 Dec. in the same year. He did not, however, again go afloat until 29 Aug. 1808, from which period until posted, 4 Dec. 1813, he had command of the Cordelia 10. In that sloop, we understand, he accompanied the expedition to the Walcheren, effected the capture of three privateers and several merchantmen, and commanded a squadron of eight brigs at the blockade of two 40-gun frigates in the Port of Dunkerque, where he remained until the latter were dismantled and laid up. His last appointment was, 24 June, 1834, to the Superintendentship of Sheerness Dockyard, which he held, part of the time as Captain of the Téméraire 104, until March, 1838.
Capt. Kennedy married, first, 2 Sept. 1806, Louisa, second daughter of Colonel Adlam, R.M.; and secondly, 2 Oct. 1834, Hannah Sarah, now deceased, daughter of Dr. Hope, and relict of Dr. Kennedy, M.D., of Gillingham, Kent. By his former wife he has left issue two sons, George, a Captain in the R.A., and Hugh, a Lieutenant in the R.M. Agent – J. Hinxman.