OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Kennedy, John (1789-1833)

​KENNEDY, JOHN (1789–1833), Scottish poet, born in Kilmarnock in 1789, was the son of a prosperous handloom weaver. After a sound elementary education under a teacher named Thomson, whom he addresses in a poem, he began work with his father. While at his loom, however, during the day, he had his book conveniently placed for study, and his evenings were occupied with literature or in attending such meetings as those of an ‘essay club,’ to the members of which he inscribes his clever and witty, if somewhat irregular, ‘Thoughts on Horace.’ From 1807 to 1815 he was in the royal Ayrshire militia, serving both in Great Britain and Ireland. Settling again in Kilmarnock he was in frequent collision with the authorities through the vehemence of his political criticisms. At length he qualified himself as a teacher. After a short engagement in Kilmarnock, he was appointed schoolmaster at Chapel Green, near Kilsyth, Stirlingshire, settling there in July 1820 with his young wife, Janet Houston, whom he had married in June. He speedily made a favourable impression as a teacher; while, socially, his frankness of utterance both provoked keen opposition and secured for him much esteem. He died in 1833, leaving a widow and three daughters from a family of six.
Kennedy published in 1826 ‘Fancy's Tour with the Genius of Cruelty, and other Poems.’ In the leading piece he studies ‘what man has made of man,’ drawing upon sacred and profane history from the time of Cain to that of Claverhouse, and producing a series of bold and striking pictures. Several of the other poems are noteworthy: that on Horace for its reminiscences and its critical opinions, while that entitled ‘Andra the Bard’ is practically a defence of Lowland Scotch as a literary instrument. All display native good sense and satirical force rather than poetical grace. Similar characteristics appear in Kennedy's prose romance, ‘Geordie Chalmers, or the Law in Glenbuckie,’ published immediately after his death in 1833. Manifestly based on personal experience, this book is valuable as a vivid, if somewhat caustic, delineation of Scottish rural life as it was early in the century.
[Information from Mrs. Henderson, Kilsyth, Kennedy's eldest daughter, and the Rev. P. Anton, Kilsyth; Contemporaries of Burns.]
T. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Kennedy, Patrick

​KENNEDY, PATRICK (1801–1873), Irish miscellaneous writer, was born in the county of Wexford early in 1801. Having obtained a fair education through the philanthropy of the Carew family, he became in 1823 assistant in a training school in Kildare Place, Dublin, and a few years subsequently established a bookseller's shop and circulating library in Anglesea Place, where he carried on business till his death on 28 March 1873. He devoted much time to study, especially of popular Irish mythology and antiquities. His entertaining manual of Hibernian folklore, ‘Legendary Fictions of the Irish Celts,’ 1866, originated, like other of his published works, in contributions to the ‘Dublin University Magazine.’ ‘The greater part of the stories and legends in this volume,’ he says, ‘are given as they were received from the story-tellers with whom our youth is familiar.’ Passing under Kennedy's revision, the style has become somewhat too close to that of ordinary literary English, but they are nevertheless pithy and humorous. A new edition appeared in 1892. Kennedy also published ‘The Banks of the Boro, a Chronicle of the County of Wexford,’ 1867; ‘Evenings in the Duffrey,’ 1869; ‘The Bardic Stories of Ireland,’ 1871; and, under the pseudonym of Harry Whitney, ‘Legends of Mount Leinster,’ 1855. He was for many years a frequent contributor to the ‘Dublin University Magazine,’ and also wrote in the ‘Dublin Review.’ He seems to have been a most amiable and interesting man, with the one fault of excessive diffidence.
R. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Kennedy, John (1698-1782)

​KENNEDY, JOHN (1698–1782), divine, born in 1698, was in November 1732 presented to the rectory of All Saints, Bradley, near Ashbourne in Derbyshire, and died there 4 Feb. 1782. He is described on the tombstone in the churchyard as ‘a good and learned man,’ but seems to have been of a quarrelsome disposition, and engaged in much literary controversy. His works, which display ingenuity in misapplying learning, are:
* ‘A New Method of Stating and Explaining the Scriptures Chronologically upon Mosaic Astronomical Principles, Mediums, and Data, as laid down in the Pentateuch,’ London, 1751.
* ‘Examination of the Reverend Mr. Jackson's Chronological Antiquities, in which the errors and defects of that Elaborate Performance are demonstrated in a Letter to the Author,’ 1753.
* ‘A Complete System of Astronomical Chronology unfolding the Scriptures,’ 1762, with a dedication to George III, which, although signed by Kennedy, was the composition of Dr. Johnson. This work was severely handled in the ‘Critical Review’ for May 1763.
* ‘Some Important and Uncertain Points in Chronology,’ addressed to the Rev. Dr. Blair, prebendary of Westminster, in 1773.
* ‘Explanation and Proof of the Complete System of Astronomical Chronology unfolding the Scriptures, in which the Truth and Reality of the Original Luni-Solar Radix is clearly and fully ascertained,’ 1775, a series of letters addressed to his friend James Ferguson (1710–1776) [q. v.] the astronomer.
[Boswell's Life of Johnson, ed. Croker; Cox's Notes on the Churches of Derbyshire, iii. 29; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. viii. 545, ix. 67.]
W. C. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Kennedy, John (fl.1626)

​KENNEDY or KENNEDIE, JOHN (fl. 1626), poet, a Scotsman, published two small volumes at Edinburgh in the early part of the seventeenth century. His first work was a love tale interspersed with songs and relations in different metres, and entitled ‘The History of Calanthrop and Lucilla, conspicuously demonstrating the various mutabilities of Fortune in their loves, with every several circumstance of joyes and crosses, fortunate exploites and hazardous adventures, which either of them sustained before they could attaine the prosperous event of their wished aimes. Edinburgh, printed by John Wrettoun, and are to be sold at his shop a little below the Salt Trone,’ 1626. From the dedication to Sir Donald Mackay, afterwards Lord Reay of Stranever, it appears that this was the author's first production. It was reprinted with an altered title at London in 1631 as ‘The Ladies' Delight.’ Both editions are only extant in unique exemplars. The unique copy of the earlier edition passed from the hands of J. Chalmers, F.R.S., into the British Museum, while that of the later is in the Huth Library. Kennedy also wrote ‘A Theological Epitome or Divine Compend, apparently manifesting Gods great Love and Mercie towards Man,’ Edinburgh, 1629, of which a copy, believed to be unique, is in the Huth Library.
T. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Kennedy, John (d.1760)

Patrick Kennedy in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 1904 Errata appended.
​KENNEDY, JOHN (d. 1760), numismatist, was a native of Scotland, graduated M.D., and resided for some time in Smyrna. He was a collector of Greek and Roman coins, and, according to George Ballard [q. v.], his Roman collection was the best private cabinet of that series in Great Britain (Nichols, Lit. Illustr. iv. 209). Dr. Mead sold him a portion of his Greek regal coins (Nichols, Lit. Anecd. vi. 219). He is stated to have died at ‘an advanced age’ on 26 Feb. 1760, in the Strand, London (ib. v. 451; Gent. Mag. 1760, xxx. 102). Kennedy's coin collection was sold by auction by Prestage in Savile Row, London, on 8 and 9 May 1760 (Sale Catalogue, pp. 3–18, 4to, in department of coins, British Museum). It included 256 coins of Carausius and 89 of Allectus, which were purchased by P. C. Webb for 86l. 10s., and afterwards passed into the Hunter collection. Kennedy's collection of about two hundred pictures, including two heads of himself, was also sold by auction in 1760. He published: 1. ‘A Dissertation upon Oriuna,’ 1751, 4to (illustrated with coins of Carausius). 2. ‘Further Observations on Carausius … and Oriuna,’ &c., 1756, 4to. 3. ‘A Letter to Dr. Stukeley,’ ​a sixpenny 4to pamphlet [1759?]. In these publications he maintained that Oriuna was the guardian-goddess of Carausius, against Stukeley, who maintained that she was his wife (Stukeley, Palæographia Brit. No. iii. 1752; Medallic Hist. of Carausius, 1757–9). ‘Oriuna’ was really a misreading of the word ‘Fortuna,’ which accompanies the figure of Fortune on a coin of Carausius. Kennedy also published ‘Numismata selectiora,’ a plate, engraved by Perry, of coins of Carausius and Allectus in Kennedy's collection, with a quarto leaf of explanation (Lit. Anecd. ii. 283).
[Authorities cited above.]
W. W.
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.171 N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 427 | ii | 84 | Kennedy, John (d. 1760): for John read Patrick (cf. MS. Egerton 22, ff. 85-87; Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, ix. 409) |
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Kennedy, Mrs.

Margaret Kennedy in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
​KENNEDY, Mrs., or Farrell, Mrs. (d. 1793), actress and vocalist, a native of Ireland, is said to have been a waiting-woman at an inn in the neighbourhood of St. Giles's, London, where she sang to the guests. The fine quality of her contralto voice so much pleased Dr. Arne, who had been brought by some musicians to hear her, that he undertook her musical education (Parke, Musical Memoirs, p. 27). Mrs. Farrell, as she was then called, first appeared on the stage in the part of the third bard in ‘Caractacus,’ with Arne's music, on 6 Dec. 1776, at Covent Garden. The enthusiasm aroused by the exceptional quality and deep compass of her voice, her intelligence, and her excellent enunciation, was proof against her plain features and clumsy figure. But when she appeared as Ariel, the ‘Morning Post’ remarked that Ariel ‘was a full head and shoulders taller and some few inches wider in the girth than Prospero,’ played by Hull. Mrs. Farrell's ​chief successes were gained in male parts: Artaxerxes (to Miss Catley's Mandane, 25 Jan. 1777), Belford in ‘Love Finds the Way,’ Colin in Dibdin's ‘Rose and Colin,’ and other musical farces, and especially as Captain Macheath in the ‘Beggar's Opera’ in October 1777, when protests were raised against the personation of the hero by a woman, and the introduction by her of Arne's ‘A-hunting we will go.’
Mrs. Farrell married Dr. Kennedy on 24 Jan. 1779. She sang Young Meadows in ‘Love in a Village,’ and Don Carlos in the ‘Duenna’ in that year. Mrs. Kennedy's other parts, which were all performed at Covent Garden, were Don Alphonso, with Sestini as Lorenza (‘Castle of Andalusia,’ 2 Nov. 1782), William (‘Rosina,’ 31 Dec. 1782), Pat (‘Poor Soldier,’ 4 Nov. 1783), Margaret (17 April) and Allen-a-Dale (‘Robin Hood,’ 13 Oct. 1784), a Jockey (‘Fontainebleau,’ 16 Nov. 1784), Oediddee (‘Omai,’ 20 Dec. 1785), Saib (‘Love and War,’ 12 March 1787), Peggy (‘Marian,’ 22 May 1788), Huncamunca (‘Tom Thumb,’ 3 June 1788), and Mrs. Casey in ‘Fontainebleau,’ for Mrs. Billington's benefit, 20 May 1789.
Mrs. Kennedy also sang at concerts, Vauxhall Gardens, the Drury Lane oratorios (1778–84), the Handel commemorations of 1784, 1786, and 1791, and the fête at Frogmore in 1791 (Parke; Papendiek). She died at Bayswater House on 23 Jan. 1793.
L. M. M.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Kennedy, John (1769-1855)

​KENNEDY, JOHN (1769–1855), cotton-spinner and inventor, third son of Robert Kennedy, was born at Knocknalling, Kirkcudbrightshire, on 4 July 1769. He was educated at the village school of Dalry, and he also had the advantage of an occasional tutor during the winter months. He lost his father early, and at the age of fourteen was sent by his mother to Chowbent, Lancashire, and apprenticed to William Cannan, the son of a ​neighbour, who had established himself there as a machine-maker. The machinery made at that time was limited to carding-frames, Hargreaves's jennies, and Arkwright's water-frames, all employed in cotton-manufacture. At the end of his apprenticeship in February 1791 he removed to Manchester, as partner with Benjamin and William Sandford and James m'Connel, machine-makers and mule-spinners, and the firm for many years were the sole makers of Crompton's ‘mule.’ Kennedy introduced several ingenious improvements for the spinning of fine yarns, including the ‘jack frame.’ As a spinner he was successful, and realised a considerable fortune. He was a friend of James Watt and many other scientific men of his day, and was a cordial supporter of every improvement in mechanical science. He was an active member of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, which he joined in 1803, and contributed four papers to its ‘Memoirs:’ 1. ‘On the Rise and Progress of the Cotton Trade,’ 1815. 2. ‘On the Poor Laws,’ 1819. 3. ‘Observations on the Influence of Machinery on the Working Classes,’ 1826. 4. ‘Memoir of Samuel Crompton,’ 1830. These papers he reprinted for private circulation in 1849, with an appendix containing autobiographical particulars of his early life, and notes of a tour on the continent.
He married Mary, daughter of John Stuart of Manchester, and died at Ardwick Hall, Manchester, on 30 Oct. 1855, aged 86, leaving one son, John Lawson Kennedy, and several daughters, and was buried at Rusholme Road cemetery, Ardwick, Manchester.
C. W. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Draycot, Anthony

​DRAYCOT, ANTHONY (d. 1571), divine, belonged to an old family of that name and place in Staffordshire. He was principal of White Hall (afterwards included in Jesus College), Oxford, and of Pirye Hall adjoining. On 23 June 1522 he was admitted , bachelor of canon law, taking his doctor's degree on 21 July following (Reg. of Univ. of Oxford, Oxf. Hist. Soc., i. 72). He held the family rectory of Draycot. On 11 Dec.1527 he was instituted to the vicarage of Hitchin, Hertfordshire (Clutterbuck, Hertfordshire, iii. 36), which he exchanged on 5 March 1531 for the rectory of Cottingham, Northamptonshire (Bridges, Northamptonshire, ii. 299). He became prebendary of Bedford Major in the church of Lincoln, 11 Feb. 1538-9 (Le Neve, Fasti, ed. Hardy, ii. 107), was archdeacon of Stow, 15 Jan. 1542-3 (ib. ii. 80), and archdeacon of Huntingdon, 27 July 1543 (ib. ii. 52), both in the same church of Lincoln. On 2 Dec. 1547 he was appointed by convocation head of a committee to draw up a form of a statute for paying tithes in cities (Strype, Memorials of Cranmer, 8vo ed., i. 221). He was chancellor for a time to Longland, bishop of Lincoln, and to Baine, bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, in which offices he acted with, the greatest cruelty against the protestants (Foxe, Acts and Monuments, ed. Townsend, v. 453, vii. 400-1, viii. 247-50, 255, 630, 638, 745, 764). In 1553 he was one of the committee for the restitution of Bishop Bonner (Strype, Memorials, 8vo ed., vol. iii. pt. i., p. 36). On 8 Sept. 1556 he was admitted prebendary of Longdon in the church of Lichfield (Le Neve, Fasti, ed. Hardy, i. 614). At Elizabeth's accession he refused to take the oath of supremacy, and was accordingly stripped of all his preferments, except the rectory of Draycot, which he contrived to keep. In 1560 he was a prisoner in the Fleet (Cal. State Papers, Dom.. Addenda 1547-65, p. 524). From 'An Ancient Editor's Notebook,' printed in Morris's 'Troubles of our Catholic Forefathers' (3rd series, p. 35), where, however, there is some confusion of dates, we learn that 'Dr. Draycott, long a prisoner, at length getting a little liberty, went to Draycot and there died,' 20 Jan. 1570-1 (monumental inscription preserved in Dodd, Church Hist., 1737, i. 516).
[Erdeswicke's Survey of Staffordshire (Harwood), p. 252; Wood's Fasti Oxon. (Bliss), i. 59, 61, 106; Gillow's English Catholics, ii. 105; General Index to Strype's Works (8vo), i. 239; Lansd. MS. 980, f. 282.]
G. G.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Drayton, Nicholas de

​DRAYTON, NICHOLAS de (fl. 1376), ecclesiastic and judge, was appointed warden of King's College, Cambridge, on 1 Dec. 1363, with a salary of fourpence a day, and an allowance of eight marcs per annum for robes. In 1369 he was suspected of heresy, and the Bishop of London was authorised to commit him to prison (20 March). In 1376 he was appointed a baron of the exchequer. The date of his death is uncertain. He is commonly described as ‘magister.’
J. M. R.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Drelincourt, Peter

​DRELINCOURT, PETER (1644–1722), dean of Armagh, born in Paris 22 July 1644, was the sixth son of Charles Drelincourt (1595–1629), minister of the reformed church in Paris, and author of ‘Les Consolations de l'Ame contre les Frayeurs de la Mort’ (Geneva, 1669), translated by Marius D'Assigny [q. v.] as the ‘Christian's Defence against the Fear of Death,’ 1675. To the fourth edition of the translation (1706) Defoe added his ‘Apparition of Mrs. Veal.’ Peter graduated M.A. in Trinity College, Dublin, 1681, and LL.D. 1691. Having been appointed chaplain to the Duke of Ormonde, lord-lieutenant of Ireland, he became in 1681 precentor of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin; in 1683 archdeacon of Leighlin; and 28 Feb. 1690–1 dean of Armagh, retaining his archdeaconry, and holding at the same time the rectory of Armagh. He died there 7 March 1721–2, and was buried in the cathedral, where a fine monument by Rysbrach was erected by his widow to his memory. On a mural tablet, in Latin, is a minute account of his origin and promotions, and on the front of the sarcophagus an inscription in English verse. It alludes to the erection in Armagh of the ‘Drelincourt Charity School’ by the dean's widow, who endowed it with 90l. per annum. To their daughter, Viscountess Primrose, the citizens of Armagh are chiefly indebted for a plentiful supply of water. Drelincourt's only publication is ‘A Speech made to … the Duke of Ormonde, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and to the … Privy Council. To return the humble thanks of the French Protestants lately arriv'd in this kingdom; and graciously reliev'd by them,’ 4to, Dublin, 1682.
B. H. B.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Grenville

​GRENVILLE. [See also Granville.]
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Manson, David

​MANSON, DAVID (1726–1792), school-master, son of John Manson and Agnes Jamieson, was probably born in the parish of Cairncastle, co. Antrim, in 1726. His parents being poor, he began life as a farmer's servantboy, but was allowed by his employer to attend a school kept by the Rev. Robert White in the neighbouring town of Lame. There he made such good progress that in a short time he himself opened a school in his native parish, tradition says in a cowhouse. By-and-by he became tutor to the Shaw family of Ballygally Castle, and later on taught a school in Ballycastle. In 1752 he removed to Belfast, where he started a brewery, and in 1765 announced in the 'Belfast Newsletter' that 'at the request of his customers' he had opened an evening school in his house in Clugston's Entry, where he would teach, 'by way of amusement,' English grammar, reading, and spelling. His school increased, so that in 1760 he removed to larger premises in High Street, and employed three assistants. In 1768 he built a still larger school-house in Donegall Street, where he had fuller scope for developing his system of instruction, 'without the discipline of the rod,' as he described it. For the amusement of his pupils he devised various machines, one a primitive kind of velocipede. To carry out his ideals of education he wrote and published a number of school-books, which long enjoyed a high reputation in the north of Ireland and elsewhere. These were 'Manson's Spelling Book;' an 'English Dictionary,' Belfast, 1762; a 'New Primer,' Belfast, 1762; a 'Pronouncing Dictionary,' Belfast, 1774. He also published a small treatise in which he urged hand-loom weavers, of whom there were then many in Ireland, to live in the country, where they could relieve their sedentary task by cultivating the soil, appending directions as to the most profitable methods of doing so. He invented an improved machine for spinning yarn. In 1775 he was among the seatholaers in the First Presbyterian Church, Belfast, and in 1779 he was admitted a freeman of the borough (Town Book of Belfast, p. 300). He died on 2 March 1792 at Lillyput, a house which he had built near Belfast, and was buried at night by torch-light, in the churchyard at the foot of High Street, the graves in which have all long since been levelled. Manson married a Miss Lynn of Ballycastle, but had no children. An oil-painting of him hangs in the board-room of the Royal Academical Institution, Belfast.
[Ulster Biog. Sketches, 2nd ser. by Classon Porter; Belfast Newsletter, 1755, 1760, 1768; Benn's History of Belfast.]
T. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mante, Thomas

​MANTE, THOMAS (fl. 1772), military writer, describes himself as having served as an assistant engineer at the siege of Havana in 1762, and as major of brigade to Colonel Dudley Bradstreet in the campaigns against the Indians in 1764. His name does not appear in any British 'Army List,' nor in Porter's 'History of the Royal Engineers.' Mante wrote several military works, the most important being his 'History of the late War in America, including the Campaigns against His Majesty's Indian Enemies,' London, 1772, a handsome quarto, praised by the American historians Sparks and Bancroft, and now scarce (cf. Lowndes, Bibl. Manual, Bohn; Winsor, Hist. of America, v. 616, footnote). Mante obtained, but did not take out, a license to print and vend the work for a term of fourteen years (Home Office Warrant Book, vol. xxxiv. f. 195). The book was published in the ordinary way. Mante also wrote a 'Treatise on the Use of Defensive Arms, translated from the French of Joly de Maizeray, with Remarks,' London. 1771; 'System of Tactics, translated from the French of Joly de Maizeray,' and dedicated to Guy Carleton, lord Dorchester, London, 1781; and 'Naval and Military History of the Wars of England, including those of Scotland and Ireland,' London, 1795?-1807. The last two volumes are described as ' completed by an impartial hand,' presumably after the author's death.
H. M. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mantell, Joshua

​MANTELL, JOSHUA (1795–1865), surgeon and writer on horticulture, born in 1795, was younger brother of Gideon Algernon Mantell [q. v.] He adopted the medical profession, was admitted a licentiate of the Apothecaries' Company, London, in 1828 (Med. Direct. 1845), and practised as a surgeon at Newick in Sussex.
He was devoted to floriculture, and founded the Newick Horticultural Society. About 1834 he was thrown from his horse, and received an injury to his brain which necessitated his removal to an asylum at Ticehurst, where he died in 1865.
Mantell was the author of an article on 'Floriculture,' issued both separately and in Baxter's ' Library of Agricultural and Horticultural Knowledge,' 2nd edit. 8vo, Lewes, 1832 (4th edit. 1846), of which work and 'The Farmer's Annual' he is said to have been the principal editor.
[Brit. Mas. Cat.; Gent. Mag. 1865, pt. i. p. 800.]
B. B. W.