OpenLLM-France/wikimedia huggingface dataset:
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pilon, Frederick

​PILON, FREDERICK (1750–1788), actor and dramatist, was born in Cork in 1750. After receiving a fairly good education in his native city, he was sent to Edinburgh University to study medicine, but he took to the stage instead. He first appeared at the Edinburgh Theatre as Oroonoko, but with small success, and consequently joined an inferior strolling company, with which he remained for some years. He finally drifted to London, where Griffin the bookseller employed him on the ‘Morning Post.’ After Griffin's death had deprived him of this position, he seems to have worked as an obscure literary hack until he began to write for the stage. He was soon employed with some regularity at Covent Garden Theatre. There, on 4 Nov. 1778, ‘The Invasion, or a Trip to Brighthelmstone’—‘a moderate farce,’ according to Genest—was performed, with Lee Lewis in the chief part (Cameleon) on 4 Nov. 1778. It was repeated twenty-four times during the season, and was several times revived. ‘The Liverpool Prize’ followed at the same theatre on 22 Feb. 1779, with Quick in the chief part. ‘Illumination, or the Glazier's Conspiracy,’ a prelude, suggested by the illuminations on Admiral Keppel's acquittal, was acted on 12 April 1779 for Lee Lewis's benefit. ‘The Device, or the Deaf Doctor,’ when first produced on 27 Sept. 1779, met with great opposition, but, revived with alteration as ‘The Deaf Lover,’ on 2 Feb. 1780, it achieved some success; ‘The Siege of Gibraltar,’ a musical farce (25 April 1780), celebrated Rodney's victory; ‘The Humours of an Election,’ a farce (19 Oct. 1780), satirised electoral corruption; ‘Thelyphthora, or more Wives than One,’ a farce, satirising the work of the name by Martin Madan [q. v.], was produced on 8 March 1781, and was damned the second night; ‘Aerostation, or the Templar's Stratagem’ (29 Oct. 1784), dealt with the rage of the day for balloons; ‘Barataria, or Sancho turned Governor’ (29 March 1785), was adapted from D'Urfey. Meanwhile Pilon deserted Covent Garden for Drury Lane, where he produced, on 18 May 1782, ‘The Fair American,’ a comic opera, which was not very skilfully plagiarised from the ‘Adventures of Five Hours.’ Pilon's last piece, a comedy, ‘He would be a Soldier,’ after being rejected by Colman, was performed at Covent Garden on 18 Nov. 1786, and ​achieved considerable success. In 1787 Pilon married a Miss Drury of Kingston, Surrey; he died at Lambeth on 17 Jan. 1788. His pieces were clever, if of ephemeral interest.
Besides the plays mentioned, all of which he published, Pilon issued ‘The Drama,’ an anonymous poem, 1775, and ‘An Essay on the Character of Hamlet as performed by Mr. Henderson’ (anonymous), 8vo, London, 1785? An edition of G. A. Stevens's ‘Essay on Heads’ appeared in 1785, with additions by Pilon.
[Thespian Dict.; Gifford's Mæviad; Baker's Biogr. Dram.; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Allibone's Dict. of English Lit.; Genest's Account of the Stage.]
D. J. O'D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Kennedy, Charles Rann

​KENNEDY, CHARLES RANN (1808–1867), lawyer and scholar, born in 1808, was son of Rann Kennedy [q. v.], and brother of Benjamin Hall Kennedy [q. v.] He was educated at Shrewsbury and at King Edward VI School, Birmingham, and proceeded from the latter as an exhibitioner to Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1828 he was elected a Bell scholar; in 1829 he became a scholar of the college. In 1829 and 1830 he obtained the Porson prize; in 1829 he won the Browne medal for a Greek ode, and in 1830 that for a Latin ode; he obtained the Pitt university scholarship in 1830. In 1831 he graduated B.A. as senior classic, and was elected fellow of his college; he proceeded M.A. in 1834. Kennedy entered at Lincoln's Inn, and was called to the bar 19 Nov. 1835. At first he went the home circuit, and took part in the great case of Stockdale v. Hansard, but having been in the autumn of 1849 elected professor of law in Queen's College, Birmingham, he sent in the usual request to be allowed to join the midland circuit. To this the mess declined to assent, and the matter formed the subject of a pamphlet by Kennedy entitled ‘A Letter to the Lord Chancellor on Circuit Leagues’ (1850). In May 1856 Kennedy became the professional adviser of Mrs. Swinfen, the plaintiff in the famous will case of Swinfen v. Swinfen, and carried the litigation to a successful issue. A dispute, however, arose as to his remuneration, and on 26 March 1862 he brought an action against her for 20,000l. for the services rendered her. He obtained a verdict at the Warwick assizes, but it was overruled in the court of common pleas, the judges holding that a barrister could not sue for his fees, and a deed which Kennedy had obtained from Mrs. Swinfen, giving him a reversion to the Swinfen Hall estates in Staffordshire, was ordered to be delivered up by a judgment of the master of the rolls on 31 July 1863. Kennedy died at Birmingham 17 Dec. 1867. He was married and left a family.
Kennedy was a fine scholar and linguist. His classical publications include, in addition to pamphlets: 1. ‘Select Speeches of Demosthenes,’ Cambridge, 1841; a translation with notes suggested by Sir William Jones's translation of Isæus. 2. ‘Poems Original and Translated,’ 1843; a new edition 1859. 3. ‘The Works of Demosthenes,’ a translation for Bohn's Classical Library, London, 1848, 5 vols. ‘The Oration on the Crown’ was issued separately as part of Bohn's shilling series in 1888. 4. ‘The Works of Vir​gil,’ 1849, a translation into English begun by his father, in which he undertook the last six pastorals and last eight books of the ‘Æneid.’ 5. ‘Specimens of Greek and Latin Verse,’ 1853. 6. ‘The Works of Virgil,’ a complete translation, 1861. He also wrote: 7. ‘New Rules for Pleading,’ 1838; 2nd edit. 1841. 8. ‘The Privileges of the House of Commons,’ 2nd edit. 1841; a publication connected with the case of Stockdale v. Hansard. 9. ‘Ode on the Birth of the Prince of Wales,’ 1842. 10. ‘A Treatise on Annuities,’ 1846. 11. ‘Hannibal, a Poem,’ pt. i. London, 1866. He supplied an analysis to Burchall's ‘Joint-Stock Companies Registration Act,’ 1844.
W. A. J. A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Kennedy, Gilbert (1678-1745)

​KENNEDY, GILBERT (1678–1745), Irish divine, son of Gilbert Kennedy, who was successively minister of Girvan, Ayrshire, and Dundonald, co. Down, as born at Dundonald in 1678. In 1697 he entered Glasgow College, where he remained till 1702. On 23 March 1703–4 he was ordained by the presbytery of Armagh as minister of the united charges of Donacloney and Tullylish, and soon became one of the most prominent men on the orthodox side in the synod of Ulster. In 1720 he was elected its moderator. He is believed to have been the author of ‘New Light set in a Clear Light’ (pp. 22, Belfast, 1721), a very able pamphlet, published anonymously, which was intended as a reply to the ‘Religious Obedience founded on Personal Persuasion’ of John Abernethy (1680–1740) [q. v.], and Kirkpatrick's ‘Vindication of the Presbyterian Ministers in the North of Ireland.’ In 1724 was published ‘A Defence of the Principles and Conduct of the General Synod of Ulster’ (Belfast). It was a reply to Haliday's ‘Reasons against the Imposition of Subscription to the Westminster Confession of Faith,’ and appears to have been the work of several hands, but Kennedy's name alone appears on the title-page. In 1727 he issued ‘A Daily Directory enlarged’ (Belfast), of which he was for a long time supposed to have been the author, but which is now believed to have been the work of Sir William Waller, the parliamentary general. It has been several times republished. ‘The Narrative of the Non-subscribers examined,’ Dublin, 1731, has also been attributed to Kennedy, but on insufficient evidence. A long correspondence between him and John Abernethy (1680–1740) [q. v.] is among Wodrow's papers in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh. He married Elizabeth, daughter of the Rev. George Lang of Newry, by whom he had four sons and three daughters. He died on 8 July 1745, and was buried at Tullylish.
T. H.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Kennaway, John

​KENNAWAY, Sir JOHN (1758–1836), soldier and diplomatist, born 6 March 1758, third son of William Kennaway of Exeter, by Frances, daughter of Aaron Tozer, was educated at the Exeter grammar school. At the age of fourteen he entered the military service of the East India Company, and was wrecked at the mouth of the Ganges on his first voyage to India in 1772. His first experiences of Indian life were extremely distasteful to him, and it was only on the urgent advice of an older friend that he remained in the country. In 1780 he was raised to the rank of captain, and served under Sir Eyre Coote [q. v.] in his campaign in the Carnatic against Hyder, who, after making himself rajah of Mysore, invaded that territory and threatened Madras. Through all the arduous campaign up to the peace of 1786, including the battle near Porto Novo, the capture of Tripassoon, Parambakam, and other places, Kennaway played his part. On his return to Bengal in 1786 he was appointed aide-de-camp to the Marquis Cornwallis, the governor-general. Cornwallis soon discovered Kennaway's high diplomatic abilities, and gave him an opportunity for their employment. By a treaty made with the East India Company in 1768 the nizam of Hyderabad had agreed to cede the Guntoor circar to the company, but under various pretexts he had evaded this obligation, and the company had not enforced it. In 1788, however, Cornwallis sent Kennaway, ‘in whose prudence and ability,’ he wrote, ‘I could confide,’ to demand the full execution of the treaty. Kennaway not only carried out this mission with success, but also induced the nizam, whose confidence and friendship he completely won, to make a treaty of alliance with the company against Tippoo Sultan. For these services Kennaway was created a baronet on 25 Feb. 1791, and in the following year he was appointed by Cornwallis to conclude a treaty with Tippoo Sultan in concert with the agents of the nizam and the Mahrattas. By the terms of this treaty Tippoo Sultan agreed to cede half his dominion, to pay three crores and six lacs (3,600,000l.) to the allies, to release all his prisoners, and to deliver up two of his sons as hostages for the due fulfilment of the treaty. The arrangement of the details was entirely in the hands of Kennaway, who with untiring patience brought the negotiations to a successful issue [see under Cornwallis, Charles, first Marquis]. He settled at Hyderabad as the first English resident there, but in 1794 failing health compelled him to return to England. He bought the estate of Escot in Devonshire, and resided there till his death on 1 Jan. 1836. During the last few years of his life he was afflicted with blindness. He married in 1797 Charlotte, daughter of James Amyatt, esq., M.P., by whom he had seven sons and five daughters.
R. K. D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Kennedy, Arthur Edward

​KENNEDY, Sir ARTHUR EDWARD (1810–1883), colonial governor, born on 9 April 1810, was fourth son of Hugh Kennedy of Cultra, co. Down, by Grace Dora, daughter of John Hughes. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, entered the army in 1827 as ensign in the 27th foot, became captain of the 68th regiment in 1840, and retired from the army in 1848. He had previously, in 1846, been appointed poor-law inspector for Ireland, and during the subsequent Irish famine (1847) he served on Sir John Burgoyne's relief committee. He received his first appointment in the colonial service as governor of Gambia in 1851, and in the following year exchanged that post for the governorship of Sierra Leone. He served in the same capacity in Western Australia from 1854 to 1862, when the companionship of the Bath was conferred upon him. Transferred to Vancouver's Island in 1863, and thence to the West African settlements in 1867, he was knighted in 1868, and in 1872 ​became governor and commander-in-chief of Hong Kong. His tenure of this office determined in 1877, when he was made governor of Queensland. He left Australia for England in 1883, but died during the voyage off Aden, in the Red Sea, 13 June 1883.
Kennedy married in 1839 Georgina Mildred, daughter of Joseph Macartney of St. Helen's, co. Dublin. She died 3 Oct. 1874, leaving one son, Arthur Herbert William, who entered the army, and two daughters.
T. S.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Kennedy, David

​KENNEDY, DAVID (1825–1886), Scottish singer, born in Perth 15 April 1825, was son of a weaver, who was also precentor of a united secession church there. At sixteen he was apprenticed to a painter; but he was trained by his father in music, and in 1845 became precentor of the South Kirk, Perth. During 1848 he worked at his trade in Edinburgh and London, and returned to Perth to set up in business. Subsequently he obtained a precentorship in Edinburgh, and in 1859 began there a series of weekly concerts. Short concert tours in Scotland followed in 1860 and 1861, and in 1862 he made his first appearance in London, at the Hanover Square Rooms. Between December 1862 and May 1863 he gave a hundred concerts in the Egyptian Hall; and in 1864 and 1865 he was again in London, singing and reading parts of ‘Waverley.’ In 1866–8 he made a professional tour through Canada and the eastern sections of the United States, with his eldest daughter as his accompanist. In 1869 he went to San Francisco, by way of the Isthmus of Panama. The first railway across the continent was opened while Kennedy was at San Francisco, and he sang ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ at the inaugural ceremony. After spending three years at home, in 1872–6 he made a tour round the world with his family, visiting Australia and New Zealand, the United States, Canada, and Newfoundland. From 1876 to 1879 he was engaged in tours in England, Scotland, and Ireland, including two seasons in London; in 1879 he visited South Africa, and in 1879–80 India. On his way home he spent several months in Italy, where some of his children were studying. In 1881 one of his sons and two of his daughters perished in the burning of a theatre at Nice. In 1881–2 he was again in Canada and the United States, in 1883–4 in Australia and New Zealand. In March 1886 he appeared in London for the last time, and then left for Canada. He died at Stratford, Ontario, 12 Oct. 1886. He was twice married. Kennedy possessed a rich tenor voice and good dramatic powers, along with a fund of humour, sometimes ‘pawky,’ sometimes broad. He was of kindly nature and marked religious feeling. In 1887 a movement was started by the Edinburgh Burns Club to raise funds for a monument to the three Scottish vocalists, Templeton, Wilson, and Kennedy.
W. D. W.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Kennedy, Edmund B.

​KENNEDY, EDMUND B. (d. 1848), Australian explorer, was appointed a government surveyor in New South Wales in August 1840. He was second in command of the last exploring expedition conducted by Sir Thomas Livingstone Mitchell [q. v.] in 1846 in search of a route from Sydney to the Gulf of Carpentaria (cf. Mitchell, Journal of an Expedition in Tropical Australia, 1848). In March 1847 Kennedy was sent to trace the Victoria river, which was the furthest point touched by Mitchell's expedition. Starting from Sydney with eight mounted men with led horses, and two carts with eight months' provisions, he reached Mitchell's furthest point during an exceptionally dry season, descended the Thomson, and followed the Victoria until it lost itself in the ‘stony desert’ of Sturt. Kennedy then turned back and reached Sydney before the end of the year. Another stream having been named the Victoria, Kennedy called Mitchell's Victoria by its native name, the Barcoo, under which it now appears in most maps. The narrative of this journey was published in the ‘Journal of the Royal Geographical Society,’ London, for 1852, xxii. 228–80. In January 1848 Kennedy started on his last expedition for the exploration of Cape York peninsula. The party, consisting of nine men, with horses, and a native called Jackey Jackey, set out from Rockingham Bay, and by skirting the mountainous river-intersected coast-line nearly succeeded in turning the northernmost point in Torres Straits. Kennedy had to leave six of his men sick at Weymouth Bay. On the subsequent journey one white man shot himself accidentally, and the two others had to be left to tend him. Kennedy continued his journey with Jackey, hoping to reach a vessel in Albany Bay. He was attacked and speared by natives on the ​way. He died 13 Dec. 1848 in the arms of the faithful Jackey, who thirteen days afterwards brought the tidings to the steamer Ariel in Albany Bay. Of the other members of the expedition three only survived to return to Sydney. A narrative of the journey by one of them, Mr. Carron, was published in Sydney as a pamphlet, now very scarce. It has been reprinted in John Macgillivray's ‘Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake,’ ii. 119–276, London, 1852. A monument to Kennedy is in St. James's Church, Sydney.
H. M. C.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Kennedy, Alexander

​KENNEDY, ALEXANDER (1695?–1785?), founder of a family of eminent violin-makers, was born in Scotland about 1695. He came to London early in the eighteenth century, and his place of business between 1740 and 1750 is variously described on the labels placed in his instruments as ‘Oxford Market’ and ‘Market Street, Oxford Road.’ He made nothing but violins, which he built on the high German, or ‘Stainer’ model, and varnished them with a brownish-yellow spirit-varnish. He died about 1785 or 1786. His nephew, John Kennedy (1730?–1816), born about 1730, was apprenticed to him, and subsequently worked by himself in Cooper's Gardens, near Shoreditch Church, in Houghton Street, in Clement's Lane, Clare Market, and in Long Alley, Sun Street, Moorfields, where he died in poor circumstances in 1816, aged 86. He was buried in Shoreditch churchyard. At one time he was prosperous, and employed several assistants; but they made only violins and tenors of the high German model, no violoncellos of his make being known. His instruments were of careful second-rate manufacture, and were made principally for the music-shops. He was married three times, and by his third wife had a son, Thomas Kennedy (1784–1870?), the best-known maker of the family. He was born in Houghton Street, Clare Market, 21 Jan. 1784, and after being some time engaged in his father's shop was apprenticed to Thomas Powell (17 June 1795). At the beginning of this century he worked sometimes for William Forster, jun. (whose son was subsequently apprenticed to him), but soon set up on his own account in Princes Street, Westminster. Thence he moved to 364 Oxford Street, where he worked for thirty-three years. Like his father, he worked a great deal for the music-trade, and, being a rapid and neat workman, was one of the most prolific of English makers. In 1864 he told his biographer that ‘he must have made at least three hundred violoncellos, and the other instruments in proportion—perhaps not quite so many.’ In June 1849 he retired from business, and in 1864 was living in Cumming Place, Pentonville, where he died about 1870. He was married, but had no family. He instructed in violin-making an old Spitalfields silk-weaver, named James Brown (d. 1830), who, like his son and pupil, James Brown the younger (1786–1860), was a good second-rate workman.
E. H.-A.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mill, Humphrey

​MILL or MILLE, HUMPHREY (fl. 1646), verse writer, was probably a younger brother of Thomas Mill or Mille (1604–1650), the son of William Mille of ‘Grattam,’ Sussex, who matriculated at Queen's College, Oxford, 8 Dec. 1620 (Oxf. Univ. Reg., Oxf. Hist. Soc. ii. ii. 385; Foster, Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714, p. 1013). Humphrey published: 1. ‘Poems occasioned by a Melancholy Vision. Or a Melancholy Vision upon Divers Theames enlarged …,’ London, 1639, 8vo. This work, which the author describes as ‘the first fruits of his poore indeavours in this kinde,’ is dedicated to Thomas, earl of Winchelsea. It has an engraved title by Droeshout. 2. ‘A Nights Search. Discovering the Nature and Condition of all sorts of Night-Walkers; with their Associates. As also the Life and Death of many of them …’ London, 1640, 8vo. This is dedicated to the Earl of Essex and contains commendatory lines by the author's brother, Thomas Mill, M.A., Oxford, Thomas Heywood, Thomas Nabbs, Robert Chamberlain, Richard Broome, and others. It has also an engraved title in compartments. 3. ‘The Second Part of the Nights Search discovering the Condition of the various Fowles of Night. Or, the Second great Mystery of Iniquity exactly revealed …,’ London, 1646, 8vo. This is dedicated to Robert, earl of Warwick, and has an engraved title in compartments, one of which contains a portrait of the author, which is probably that mentioned by Granger (ii. 312).
[Corser's Collect. Anglo-Poet. pt. viii. p. 404.]
G. T. D.
# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Miles, Sibella Elizabeth

​MILES, SIBELLA ELIZABETH (1800–1882), poetess, born at Falmouth 28 Sept. 1800, was daughter of John Westby Hatfield, auctioneer in West Cornwall, who died at York 13 Jan. 1839, aged 72, by his wife Sibella, who died on 1 June 1832, aged 68. For some years previous to 1833 she kept a girls' boarding-school at Penzance, and occupied her leisure hours with the composition of poetry. On 13 Aug. 1833 she married, at Madron, Cornwall, Alfred Miles, a commander in the royal navy, who was afterwards an assistant in the hydrographic department of the admiralty, and edited two editions (1841 and 1852) of Horsburgh's ‘Indian Directory.’ He died at Lympston, Devonshire, 28 Nov. 1851, leaving one son, Frederick Arundel Miles, who died 3 June 1862, aged 26, and one daughter, Helen Jane Arundel Miles, a book illustrator. Mrs. Miles died at 54 South Lambeth Road on 29 March 1882.
She wrote: 1. ‘The Wanderer of Scandinavia, or Sweden delivered,’ in five cantos, 1826, 2 vols. 2. ‘Moments of Loneliness, or Prose and Poetic Efforts,’ 1829. 3. ‘Fruits of Solitude,’ 1831. This was dedicated to Sir R. T. Wilson, and a letter from him to her is printed in his ‘Essay on Canning's Administration.’ 4. ‘Essay on the Factory Question’ (anon.), 1844. 5. ‘Leisure Evenings, or Records of the Past,’ 1860. 6. ‘The Grotto of Neptune,’ 1864. Many of her contributions appeared in the ‘Forget-me-Not’ for 1825 and subsequent years, the ‘Selector or Cornish Magazine,’ 1826–8, the ‘Oriental Herald’ for 1827 and later volumes, and the ‘Nautical Magazine’ for 1833 onwards. Some poems in ‘Original Cornish Ballads,’ 1846 (pt. ii.), with the introductory essay, were by her, and she wrote the introduction to ‘Te Deum, with illustrations by Helen J. A. Miles’ (1877). Her lines on ‘St. Michael's Mount, Cornwall,’ are quoted in works on West Cornwall.
[Boase and Courtney's Bibl. Cornubiensis; O'Byrne's Naval Biog. Dict.; Ellen C. Clayton's English Female Artists, 1876, ii. 110–11.]
W. P. C.