Chapter III: Part 3

KENNEDY, THOMAS FRANCIS (1788-1879), Scottish politician, was born near Ayr in 1788. He studied for the bar and became advocate in 1811. Having been elected M.P. for the Ayr burghs in 1818, he devoted the greater part of his life to the promotion of Liberal reforms. In 1820 he married the only daughter of Sir Samuel Romilly. He was greatly assisted by Lord Cockburn, then Mr Henry Cockburn, and a volume of correspondence published by Kennedy in 1874 forms a curious and interesting record of the consultations of the two friends on measures which they regarded as requisite for the political regeneration of their native country. One of the first measures to which he directed his attention was the withdrawal of the power of nominating juries from the judges, and the imparting of a right of peremptory challenge to prisoners. Among other subjects were the improvement of the parish schools, of pauper administration, and of several of the corrupt forms of legal procedure which then prevailed. In the construction of the Scottish Reform Act Kennedy took a prominent part; indeed he and Lord Cockburn may almost be regarded as its authors. After the accession of the Whigs to office in 1832 he held various important offices in the ministry, and most of the measures of reform for Scotland, such as burgh reform, the improvements in the law of entail, and the reform of the sheriff courts, owed much to his sagacity and energy. In 1837 he went to Ireland as paymaster of civil services, and set himself to the promotion of various measures of reform. Kennedy retired from office in 1854, but continued to take keen interest in political affairs, and up to his death in 1879 took a great part in both county and parish business. He had a stern love of justice, and a determined hatred of everything savouring of jobbery or dishonesty.

KENNEDY, WALTER (c. 1460-c. 1508), Scottish poet, was the third son of Gilbert, 1st Lord Kennedy. He matriculated at Glasgow University in 1475 and took his M.A. degree in 1478. In 1481 he was one of four examiners in his university, and in 1492 he acted as depute for his nephew, the hereditary bailie of Carrick. He is best known for his share in the _Flyting_ with Dunbar (q.v.). In this coarse combat of wits Dunbar taunts his rival with his Highland speech (the poem is an expression of Gaelic and "Inglis," i.e. English, antagonism); and implies that he had been involved in treason, and had disguised himself as a beggar in Galloway. With the exception of this share in the _Flyting_ Kennedy's poems are chiefly religious in character. They include _The Praise of Aige_, _Ane Agit Manis Invective against Mouth Thankless_, _Ane Ballat in Praise of Our Lady_, _The Passion of Christ_ and _Pious Counsale_. They are printed in the rare supplement to David Laing's edition of _William Dunbar_ (1834), and they have been re-edited by Dr J. Schipper in the proceedings of the Kais. Akad. der Wissenschaften (Vienna).

See also the prolegomena in the Scottish Text Society's edition of
Dunbar; and (for the life) Pitcairn's edition of the _Historie of the
Kennedies_ (1830).

KENNEL, a small hut or shelter for a dog, also extended to a group of buildings for a pack of hounds (see DOG). The word is apparently from a Norman-French _kenil_ (this form does not occur, but is seen in the Norman _kinet_, a little dog), modern French _chenil_, from popular Latin _canile_, place for a dog, _canis_, cf. _ovile_, sheep-cote. The word "kennel," a gutter, a drain in a street or road, is a corruption of the Middle English _canel, cannel_, in modern English "channel," from Latin _canalis_, canal.

KENNETH, the name of two kings of the Scots.

KENNETH I., MacAlpin (d. c. 860), often described as the first king of Scotland (kingdom of Scone), was the son of the Alpin, called king of the Scots, who had been slain by the Picts in 832 or 834, whilst endeavouring to assert his claim to the Pictish throne. On the death of his father, Kenneth is said to have succeeded him in the kingdom of the Scots. The region of his rule is matter of conjecture, though Galloway seems the most probable suggestion, in which case he probably led a piratic host against the Picts. On the father's side he was descended from the Conall Gabhrain of the old Dalriadic Scottish kingdom, and the claims of father and son to the Pictish throne were probably through female descent. Their chief support seems to have been found in Fife. In the seventh year of his reign (839 or 841) he took advantage of the effects of a Danish invasion of the Pictish kingdom to attack the remaining Picts, whom he finally subdued in 844 or 846. In 846 or 848 he transported the relics of St Columba to a church which he had constructed at Scone. He is said also to have carried out six invasions of Northumbria, in the course of which he burnt Dunbar and took Melrose. According to the _Scalacronica_ of Sir Thomas Gray he drove the Angles and Britons over the Tweed, reduced the land as far as that river, and first called his kingdom Scotland. In his reign there appears to have been a serious invasion by Danish pirates, in which Cluny and Dunkeld were burnt. He died in 860 or 862, after a reign of twenty-eight years, at Forteviot and was buried at Iona. The double dates are due to a contest of authorities. Twenty-eight years is the accepted length of his reign, and according to the chronicle of Henry of Huntingdon it began in 832. The Pictish Chronicle, however, gives Tuesday, the 13th of February as the day, and this suits 862 only, in which case his reign would begin in 834.

KENNETH II. (d. 995), son of Malcolm I., king of Alban, succeeded Cuilean, son of Indulph, who had been slain by the Britons of Strathclyde in 971 in Lothian. Kenneth began his reign by ravaging the British kingdom, but he lost a large part of his force on the river Cornag. Soon afterwards he attacked Eadulf, earl of the northern half of Northumbria, and ravaged the whole of his territory. He fortified the fords of the Forth as a defence against the Britons and again invaded Northumbria, carrying off the earl's son. About this time he gave the city of Brechin to the church. In 977 he is said to have slain Amlaiph or Olaf, son of Indulph, king of Alban, perhaps a rival claimant to the throne. According to the English chroniclers, Kenneth paid homage to King Edgar for the cession of Lothian, but these statements are probably due to the controversy as to the position of Scotland. The _mormaers_, or chiefs, of Kenneth were engaged throughout his reign in a contest with Sigurd the Norwegian, earl of Orkney, for the possession of Caithness and the northern district of Scotland as far south as the Spey. In this struggle the Scots attained no permanent success. In 995 Kenneth, whose strength like that of the other kings of his branch of the house of Kenneth MacAlpin lay chiefly north of the Tay, was slain treacherously by his own subjects, according to the later chroniclers at Fettercairn in the Mearns through an intrigue of Einvela, daughter of the earl of Angus. He was buried at Iona.

See _Chronicles of the Picts and Scots_, ed. W. F. Skene (Edinburgh,
1867), and W. F. Skene, _Celtic Scotland_ (Edinburgh, 1876).

KENNETT, WHITE (1660-1728), English bishop and antiquary, was born at Dover in August 1660. He was educated at Westminster school and at St Edmund's Hall, Oxford, where, while an undergraduate, he published several translations of Latin works, including Erasmus _In Praise of Folly_. In 1685 he became vicar of Ambrosden, Oxfordshire. A few years afterwards he returned to Oxford as tutor and vice-principal of St Edmund's Hall, where he gave considerable impetus to the study of antiquities. George Hickes gave him lessons in Old English. In 1695 he published _Parochial Antiquities_. In 1700 he became rector of St Botolph's, Aldgate, London, and in 1701 archdeacon of Huntingdon. For a eulogistic sermon on the first duke of Devonshire he was in 1707 recommended to the deanery of Peterborough. He afterwards joined the Low Church party, strenuously opposed the Sacheverel movement, and in the Bangorian controversy supported with great zeal and considerable bitterness the side of Bishop Hoadly. His intimacy with Charles Trimnell, bishop of Norwich, who was high in favour with the king, secured for him in 1718 the bishopric of Peterborough. He died at Westminster in December 1728.

Kennett published in 1698 an edition of Sir Henry Spelman's _History
of Sacrilege_, and he was the author of fifty-seven printed works,
chiefly tracts and sermons. He wrote the third volume (Charles
I.-Anne) of the composite _Compleat History of England_ (1706), and a
more detailed and valuable _Register and Chronicle_ of the
Restoration. He was much interested in the Society for the Propagation
of the Gospel.

The _Life of Bishop White Kennett_, by the Rev. William Newton
(anonymous), appeared in 1730. See also Nichols's _Literary
Anecdotes_, and I. Disraeli's _Calamities of Authors_.

KENNEY, JAMES (1780-1849), English dramatist, was the son of James Kenney, one of the founders of Boodles' Club in London. His first play, a farce called _Raising the Wind_ (1803), was a success owing to the popularity of the character of "Jeremy Diddler." Kenney produced more than forty dramas and operas between 1803 and 1845, and many of his pieces, in which Mrs Siddons, Madame Vestris, Foote, Lewis, Liston and other leading players appeared from time to time, enjoyed a considerable vogue. His most popular play was _Sweethearts and Wives_, produced at the Haymarket theatre in 1823, and several times afterwards revived; and among the most successful of his other works were: _False Alarms_ (1807), a comic opera with music by Braham; _Love, Law and Physic_ (1812); _Spring and Autumn_ (1827); _The Illustrious Stranger, or Married and Buried_ (1827); _Masaniello_ (1829); _The Sicilian Vespers_, a tragedy (1840). Kenney, who numbered Charles Lamb and Samuel Rogers among his friends, died in London on the 25th of July 1849. He married the widow of the dramatist Thomas Holcroft, by whom he had two sons and two daughters.

His second son, CHARLES LAMB KENNEY (1823-1881), made a name as a journalist, dramatist and miscellaneous writer. Commencing life as a clerk in the General Post Office in London, he joined the staff of _The Times_, to which paper he contributed dramatic criticism. In 1856, having been called to the bar, he became secretary to Ferdinand de Lesseps, and in 1857 he published _The Gates of the East_ in support of the projected construction of the Suez Canal. Kenney wrote the words for a number of light operas, and was the author of several popular songs, the best known of which were "Soft and Low" (1865) and "The Vagabond" (1871). He also published a _Memoir of M. W. Balfe_ (1875), and translated the _Correspondence_ of Balzac. He included Thackeray and Dickens among his friends in a literary coterie in which he enjoyed the reputation of a wit and an accomplished writer of _vers de société_. He died in London on the 25th of August 1881.

See John Genest, _Some Account of the English Stage, 1660-1830_, vols.
vii. and viii. (10 vols., London, 1832); P. W. Clayden, _Rogers and
his Contemporaries_ (2 vols., London, 1889); _Dict. National Biog_.

KENNGOTT, GUSTAV ADOLPH (1818-1897), German mineralogist, was born at Breslau on the 6th of January 1818. After being employed in the Hofmineralien Cabinet at Vienna, he became professor of mineralogy in the university of Zürich. He was distinguished for his researches on mineralogy, crystallography and petrology. He died at Lugano, on the 7th of March 1897.

PUBLICATIONS.--_Lehrbuch der reinen Krystallographie_ (1846);
_Lehrbuch der Mineralogie_ (1852 and 1857; 5th ed., 1880); _Übersicht
der Resultate mineralogischer Forschungen in den Jahren 1844-1865_ (7
vols., 1852-1868); _Die Minerale der Schweiz_ (1866); _Elemente der
Petrographie_ (1868).

KENNICOTT, BENJAMIN (1718-1783), English divine and Hebrew scholar, was born at Totnes, Devonshire, on the 4th of April 1718. He succeeded his father as master of a charity school, but by the liberality of friends he was enabled to go to Wadham College, Oxford, in 1744, where he distinguished himself in Hebrew and divinity. While an undergraduate he published two dissertations, _On the Tree of Life in Paradise, with some Observations on the Fall of Man_, and _On the Oblations of Cain and Abel_ (2nd ed., 1747), which procured him the honour of a bachelor's degree before the statutory time. In 1747 he was elected fellow of Exeter College, and in 1750 he took his degree of M.A. In 1764 he was made a fellow of the Royal Society, and in 1767 keeper of the Radcliffe Library. He was also canon of Christ Church (1770) and rector of Culham (1753), in Oxfordshire, and was subsequently presented to the living of Menheniot, Cornwall, which he was unable to visit and resigned two years before his death. He died at Oxford, on the 18th of September 1783.

His chief work is the _Vetus Testamentum hebraicum cum variis
lectionibus_ (2 vols. fol., Oxford, 1776-1780). Before this appeared
he had written two dissertations entitled _The State of the Printed
Hebrew Text of the Old Testament considered_, published respectively
in 1753 and 1759, which were designed to combat the then current ideas
as to the "absolute integrity" of the received Hebrew text. The first
contains "a comparison of 1 Chron. xi. with 2 Sam. v. and xxiii. and
observations on seventy MSS., with an extract of mistakes and various
readings"; the second defends the claims of the Samaritan Pentateuch,
assails the correctness of the printed copies of the Chaldee
paraphrase, gives an account of Hebrew MSS. of the Bible known to be
extant, and catalogues one hundred MSS. preserved in the British
Museum and in the libraries of Oxford and Cambridge. In 1760 he issued
his proposals for collating all Hebrew MSS. of date prior to the
invention of printing. Subscriptions to the amount of nearly £10,000
were obtained, and many learned men addressed themselves to the work
of collation, Bruns of Helmstadt making himself specially useful as
regarded MSS. in Germany, Switzerland and Italy. Between 1760 and 1769
ten "annual accounts" of the progress of the work were given; in its
course 615 Hebrew MSS. and 52 printed editions of the Bible were
either wholly or partially collated, and use was also made (but often
very perfunctorily) of the quotations in the Talmud. The materials
thus collected, when properly arranged and made ready for the press,
extended to 30 vols. fol. The text finally followed in printing was
that of Van der Hooght--unpointed however, the points having been
disregarded in collation--and the various readings were printed at the
foot of the page. The Samaritan Pentateuch stands alongside the Hebrew
in parallel columns. The _Dissertatio generalis_, appended to the
second volume, contains an account of the MSS. and other authorities
collated, and also a review of the Hebrew text, divided into periods,
and beginning with the formation of the Hebrew canon after the return
of the Jews from the exile. Kennicott's great work was in one sense a
failure. It yielded no materials of value for the emendation of the
received text, and by disregarding the vowel points overlooked the one
thing in which some result (grammatical if not critical) might have
been derived from collation of Massoretic MSS. But the negative result
of the publication and of the _Variæ lectiones_ of De Rossi,
published some years later, was important. It showed that the Hebrew
text can be emended only by the use of the versions aided by
conjecture.

Kennicott's work was perpetuated by his widow, who founded two
university scholarships at Oxford for the study of Hebrew. The fund
yields an income of £200 per annum.

KENNINGTON, a district in the south of London, England, within the municipal borough of Lambeth. There was a royal palace here until the reign of Henry VII. Kennington Common, now represented by Kennington Park, was the site of a gallows until the end of the 18th century, and was the meeting-place appointed for the great Chartist demonstration of the 10th of April 1848. Kennington Oval is the ground of the Surrey County Cricket Club. (See LAMBETH.)

KENORA (formerly RAT PORTAGE), a town and port of entry in Ontario, Canada, and the chief town of Rainy River district, situated at an altitude of 1087 ft. above the sea. Pop. (1891), 1806; (1901) 5222. It is 133 m. by rail east of Winnipeg, on the Canadian Pacific railway, and at the outlet of the Lake of the Woods. The Winnipeg river has at this point a fall of 16 ft., which, with the lake as a reservoir, furnishes an abundant and unfailing water-power. The industrial establishments comprise reduction works, saw-mills and flour-mills, one of the latter being the largest in Canada. It is the distributing point for the gold mines of the district, and during the summer months steamboat communication is maintained on the lake. There is important sturgeon fishing.

KENOSHA, a city and the county-seat of Kenosha county, Wisconsin, U.S.A., on the S.W. shore of Lake Michigan, 35 m. S. of Milwaukee and 50 m. N. of Chicago. Pop. (1900), 11,606, of whom 3333 were foreign-born; (1910), 21,371. It is served by the Chicago & North-Western railway, by interurban electric lines connecting with Chicago and Milwaukee, and by freight and passenger steamship lines on Lake Michigan. It has a good harbour and a considerable lake commerce. The city is finely situated on high bluffs above the lake, and is widely known for its healthiness. At Kenosha is the Gilbert M. Simmons library, with 19,300 volumes in 1908. Just south of the city is Kemper Hall, a Protestant Episcopal school for girls, under the charge of the Sisters of St Mary, opened in 1870 as a memorial to Jackson Kemper (1789-1870), the first missionary bishop (1835-1859), and the first bishop of Wisconsin (1854-1870) of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Among Kenosha's manufactures are brass and iron beds (the Simmons Manufacturing Co.), mattresses, typewriters, leather and brass goods, wagons, and automobiles--the "Rambler" automobile being made at Kenosha by Thomas B. Jeffery and Co. There is an extensive sole-leather tannery. The total value of the factory product in 1905 was $12,362,600, the city ranking third in product value among the cities of the state. Kenosha, originally known as Southport, was settled about 1832, organized as the village of Southport in 1842, and chartered in 1850 as a city under its present name.

KENSETT, JOHN FREDERICK (1818-1872), American artist, was born in Cheshire, Connecticut, on the 22nd of March 1818. After studying engraving he went abroad, took up painting, and exhibited at the Royal Academy, London, in 1845. In 1849 he was elected to the National Academy of Design, New York, and in 1859 he was appointed a member of the committee to superintend the decoration of the United States Capitol at Washington, D.C. After his death the contents of his studio realized at public auction over $150,000. He painted landscapes more or less in the manner of the Hudson River School.

KENSINGTON, a western metropolitan borough of London, England, bounded N.E. by Paddington, and the city of Westminster, S.E. by Chelsea, S.W. by Fulham, N.W. by Hammersmith, and extending N. to the boundary of the county of London. Pop. (1901), 176,628. It includes the districts of Kensal Green (partly) in the north, Notting Hill in the north-central portion, Earl's Court in the south-west, and Brompton in the south-east. A considerable but indefinite area adjoining Brompton is commonly called South Kensington; but the area known as West Kensington is within the borough of Fulham.

The name appears in early forms as _Chenesitun_ and _Kenesitune_. Its origin is obscure, and has been variously connected with a Saxon royal residence (King's town), a family of the name of Chenesi, and the word _caen_, meaning wood, from the forest which originally covered the district and was still traceable in Tudor times. The most probable derivation, however, finds in the name a connection with the Saxon tribe or family of Kensings. The history of the manor is traceable from the time of Edward the Confessor, and after the Conquest it was held of the Bishop of Coutances by Aubrey de Vere. Soon after this it became the absolute property of the de Veres, who were subsequently created Earls of Oxford. The place of the manorial courts is preserved in the name of the modern district of Earl's Court. With a few short intervals the manor continued in the direct line until Tudor times. There were also three sub-manors, one given by the first Aubrey de Vere early in the 12th century to the Abbot of Abingdon, whence the present parish church is called St Mary Abbots; while in another, Knotting Barnes, the origin of the name Notting Hill is found.

The brilliant period of history for which Kensington is famous may be dated from the settlement of the Court here by William III. The village, as it was then, had a reputation for healthiness through its gravel soil and pure atmosphere. A mansion standing on the western flank of the present Kensington Gardens had been the seat of Heneage Finch, Lord Chancellor and afterwards Earl of Nottingham. It was known as Nottingham House, but when bought from the second earl by William, who was desirous of avoiding residence in London as he suffered from asthma, it became known as Kensington Palace. The extensive additions and alterations made by Wren according to the taste of the King resulted in a severely plain edifice of brick; the orangery, added in Queen Anne's time, is a better example of the same architect's work. In the palace died Mary, William's consort, William himself, Anne and George II., whose wife Caroline did much to beautify Kensington Gardens, and formed the beautiful lake called the Serpentine (1733). But a higher interest attaches to the palace as the birthplace of Queen Victoria in 1819; and here her accession was announced to her. By her order, towards the close of her life, the palace became open to the public.

Modern influences, one of the most marked of which is the widespread erection of vast blocks of residential flats, have swept away much that was reminiscent of the historical connexions of the "old court suburb." Kensington Square, however, lying south of High Street in the vicinity of St Mary Abbots church, still preserves some of its picturesque houses, nearly all of which were formerly inhabited by those attached to the court; it numbered among its residents Addison, Talleyrand, John Stuart Mill, and Green the historian. In Young Street, opening from the Square, Thackeray lived for many years. His house here, still standing, is most commonly associated with his work, though he subsequently moved to Onslow Square and to Palace Green. Another link with the past is found in Holland House, hidden in its beautiful park north of Kensington Road. It was built by Sir Walter Cope, lord of the manor, in 1607, and obtained its present name on coming into the possession of Henry Rich, earl of Holland, through his marriage with Cope's daughter. He extended and beautified the mansion. General Fairfax and General Lambert are mentioned as occupants after his death, and later the property was let, William Penn of Pennsylvania being among those who leased it. Addison, marrying the widow of the 6th earl, lived here until his death in 1719. During the tenancy of Henry Fox, third Lord Holland (1773-1840), the house gained a European reputation as a meeting-place of statesmen and men of letters. The formal gardens of Holland House are finely laid out, and the rooms of the house are both beautiful in themselves and enriched with collections of pictures, china and tapestries. Famous houses no longer standing were Campden House, in the district north-west of the parish church, formerly known as the Gravel Pits; and Gore House, on the site of the present Albert Hall, the residence of William Wilberforce, and later of the countess of Blessington.

The parish church of St Mary Abbots, High Street, occupies an ancient site, but was built from the designs of Sir Gilbert Scott in 1869. It is in Decorated style, and has one of the loftiest spires in England. In the north the borough includes the cemetery of Kensal Green (with the exception of the Roman Catholic portion, which is in the borough of Hammersmith); it was opened in 1838, and great numbers of eminent persons are buried here. The Roman Catholic church of Our Lady of Victories lies close to Kensington Road, and in Brompton Road is the Oratory of St Philip Neri, a fine building with richly decorated interior, noted for the beauty of its musical services, as is the Carmelite Church in Church Street. St Charles's Roman Catholic College (for boys), near the north end of Ladbroke Grove, was founded by Cardinal Manning in 1863; the buildings are now used as a training centre for Catholic school mistresses. Of secular institutions the principal are the museums in South Kensington. The Victoria and Albert, commonly called the South Kensington, Museum contains various exhibits divided into sections, and includes the buildings of the Royal College of Science. Close by is the Natural History Museum, in a great building by Alfred Waterhouse, opened as a branch of the British Museum in 1880. Near this stood Cromwell House, erroneously considered to have been the residence of Oliver Cromwell, the name of which survives in the adjacent Cromwell Road. In Kensington Gardens, near the upper end of Exhibition Road, which separates the two museums, was held the Great Exhibition of 1851, the hall of which is preserved as the Crystal Palace at Sydenham. The greater part of the gardens, however, with the Albert Memorial, erected by Queen Victoria in memory of Albert, prince consort, the Albert Hall, opposite to it, one of the principal concert-halls in London, and the Imperial Institute to the south, are actually within the city of Westminster, though commonly connected with Kensington. The gardens (275 acres) were laid out in the time of Queen Anne, and have always been a popular and fashionable place of recreation. Extensive grounds at Earl's Court are open from time to time for various exhibitions. Further notable buildings in Kensington are the town-hall and free library in High Street, which is also much frequented for its excellent shops, and the Brompton Consumption Hospital, Fulham Road. In Holland Park Road is the house of Lord Leighton (d. 1896), given to the nation, and open, with its art collection, to the public.

Kensington is a suffragan bishopric in the diocese of London. The parliamentary borough of Kensington has north and south divisions, each returning one member. The borough council consists of a mayor, 10 aldermen and 60 councillors. Area, 2291.1 acres.

KENT, EARLS AND DUKES OF. The first holder of the English earldom of Kent was probably Odo, bishop of Bayeux, and the second a certain William de Ypres (d. 1162), both of whom were deprived of the dignity. The regent Hubert de Burgh obtained this honour in 1227, and in 1321 it was granted to Edmund Plantagenet, the youngest brother of Edward II. Edmund (1301-1330), who was born at Woodstock on the 5th of August 1301, received many marks of favour from his brother the king, whom he steadily supported until the last act in Edward's life opened in 1326. He fought in Scotland and then in France, and was a member of the council when Edward III. became king in 1327. Soon at variance with Queen Isabella and her lover, Roger Mortimer, Edmund was involved in a conspiracy to restore Edward II., who he was led to believe was still alive; he was arrested, and beheaded on the 19th of March 1330. Although he had been condemned as a traitor his elder son Edmund (c. 1327-1333) was recognized as earl of Kent, the title passing on his death to his brother John (c. 1330-1352).

After John's childless death the earldom appears to have been held by his sister Joan, "the fair maid of Kent," and in 1360 Joan's husband, Sir Thomas de Holand, or Holland, was summoned to parliament as earl of Kent. Holand, who was a soldier of some repute, died in Normandy on the 28th of December 1360, and his widow married Edward the Black Prince, by whom she was the mother of Richard II. The next earl was Holand's eldest son Thomas (1350-1397), who was marshal of England from 1380 to 1385, and was in high favour with his half-brother, Richard II. The 3rd earl of Kent of the Holand family was his son Thomas (1374-1400). In September 1397, a few months after becoming earl of Kent, Thomas was made duke of Surrey as a reward for assisting Richard II. against the lords appellant; but he was degraded from his dukedom in 1399, and was beheaded in January of the following year for conspiring against Henry IV. However, his brother Edmund (1384-1408) was allowed to succeed to the earldom, which became extinct on his death in Brittany in September 1408.

In the same century the title was revived in favour of William, a younger son of Ralph Neville, 1st earl of Westmorland, and through his mother Joan Beaufort a grandson of John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster. William (c. 1405-1463), who held the barony of Fauconberg in right of his wife, Joan, gained fame during the wars in France and fought for the Yorkists during the Wars of the Roses. His prowess is said to have been chiefly responsible for the victory of Edward IV. at Towton in March 1461, and soon after this event he was created earl of Kent and admiral of England. He died in January 1463, and, as his only legitimate issue were three daughters, the title of earl of Kent again became extinct. Neville's natural son Thomas, "the bastard of Fauconberg" (d. 1471), was a follower of Warwick, the "Kingmaker."

The long connexion of the family of Grey with this title began in 1465, when Edmund, Lord Grey of Ruthin, was created earl of Kent. Edmund (c. 1420-1489) was the eldest son of Sir John Grey, while his mother, Constance, was a daughter of John Holand, duke of Exeter. During the earlier part of the Wars of the Roses Grey fought for Henry VI.; but by deserting the Lancastrians during the battle of Northampton in 1460 he gave the victory to the Yorkists. He was treasurer of England and held other high offices under Edward IV. and Richard III. His son and successor, George, 2nd earl of Kent (c. 1455-1503), also a soldier, married Anne Woodville, a sister of Edward IV.'s queen, Elizabeth, and was succeeded by his son Richard (1481-1524). After Richard's death without issue, his half-brother and heir, Henry (c. 1495-1562), did not assume the title of earl of Kent on account of his poverty; but in 1572 Henry's grandson Reginald (d. 1573), who had been member of parliament for Weymouth, was recognized as earl; he was followed by his brother Henry (1541-1615), and then by another brother, Charles (c. 1545-1623). Charles's son, Henry, the 8th earl (c. 1583-1639), married Elizabeth (1581-1651), daughter of Gilbert Talbot, 7th earl of Shrewsbury. This lady, who was an authoress, took for her second husband the jurist John Selden. Henry died without children in November 1639, when the earldom of Kent, separated from the barony of Ruthin, passed to his cousin Anthony (1557-1643), a clergyman, who was succeeded by his son Henry (1594-1651), Lord Grey of Ruthin. Henry had been a member of parliament from 1640 to 1643, and as a supporter of the popular party was speaker of the House of Lords until its abolition. The 11th earl was his son Anthony (1645-1702), whose son Henry became 12th earl in August 1702, lord chamberlain of the royal household from 1704 to 1710, and in 1706 was created earl of Harold and marquess of Kent, becoming duke of Kent four years later. All his sons predeceased their father, and when the duke died in June 1740, his titles of earl, marquess and duke of Kent became extinct.

In 1799 Edward Augustus, fourth son of George III., was created duke of Kent and Strathearn by his father. Born on the 2nd of November 1767, Edward served in the British army in North America and elsewhere, becoming a field marshal in 1805. To quote Sir Spencer Walpole, Kent, a stern disciplinarian, "was unpopular among his troops; and the storm which was created by his well-intentioned effort at Gibraltar to check the licentiousness and drunkenness of the garrison compelled him finally to retire from the governorship of this colony." Owing to pecuniary difficulties his later years were mainly passed on the continent of Europe. He died at Sidmouth on the 23rd of January 1820. In 1818 the duke married Maria Louisa Victoria (1786-1861), widow of Emich Charles, prince of Leiningen (d. 1814), and sister of Leopold I., king of the Belgians; and his only child was Queen Victoria (q.v.).

KENT, JAMES (1763-1847), American jurist, was born at Philippi in New York State on the 31st of July 1763. He graduated at Yale College in 1781, and began to practise law at Poughkeepsie, in 1785 as an attorney, and in 1787 at the bar. In 1791 and 1702-93 Kent was a representative of Dutchess county in the state Assembly. In 1793 he removed to New York, where Governor Jay, to whom the young lawyer's Federalist sympathies were a strong recommendation, appointed him a master in chancery for the city. He was professor of law in Columbia College in 1793-98 and again served in the Assembly in 1796-97. In 1797 he became recorder of New York, in 1798 judge of the supreme court of the state, in 1804 chief justice, and in 1814 chancellor of New York. In 1822 he became a member of the convention to revise the state constitution. Next year, Chancellor Kent resigned his office and was re-elected to his former chair. Out of the lectures he now delivered grew the _Commentaries on American Law_ (4 vols., 1826-1830), which by their learning, range and lucidity of style won for him a high and permanent place in the estimation of both English and American jurists. Kent rendered most essential service to American jurisprudence while serving as chancellor. Chancery law had been very unpopular during the colonial period, and had received little development, and no decisions had been published. His judgments of this class (see Johnson's _Chancery Reports_, 7 vols., 1816-1824) cover a wide range of topics, and are so thoroughly considered and developed as unquestionably to form the basis of American equity jurisprudence. Kent was a man of great purity of character and of singular simplicity and guilelessness. He died in New York on the 12th of December 1847.

To Kent we owe several other works (including a _Commentary on
International Law_) of less importance than the _Commentaries_. See J.
Duer's _Discourse on the Life, Character and Public Services of James
Kent_ (1848); _The National Portrait Gallery of Distinguished
Americans_, vol. ii. (1852); W. Kent, _Memoirs and Letters of
Chancellor Kent_ (Boston, 1898).

KENT, WILLIAM (1685-1748), English "painter, architect, and the father of modern gardening," as Horace Walpole in his _Anecdotes of Painting_ describes him, was born in Yorkshire in 1685. Apprenticed to a coach-painter, his ambition soon led him to London, where he began life as a portrait and historical painter. He found patrons, who sent him in 1710 to study in Italy; and at Rome he made other friends, among them Lord Burlington, with whom he returned to England in 1719. Under that nobleman's roof Kent chiefly resided till his death on the 12th of April 1748--obtaining abundant commissions in all departments of his art, as well as various court appointments which brought him an income of £600 a year. Walpole says that Kent was below mediocrity in painting. He had some little taste and skill in architecture, of which Holkham palace is perhaps the most favourable example. The mediocre statue of Shakespeare in Westminster Abbey sufficiently stamps his powers as a sculptor. His merit in landscape gardening is greater. In Walpole's language, Kent "was painter enough to taste the charms of landscape, bold and opinionative enough to dare and to dictate, and born with a genius to strike out a great system from the twilight of imperfect essays." In short, he was the first in English gardening to vindicate the natural against the artificial. Banishing all the clipped monstrosities of the topiary art in yew, box or holly, releasing the streams from the conventional canal and marble basin, and rejecting the mathematical symmetry of ground plan then in vogue for gardens, Kent endeavoured to imitate the variety of nature, with due regard to the principles of light and shade and perspective. Sometimes he carried his imitation too far, as when he planted dead trees in Kensington gardens to give a greater air of truth to the scene, though he himself was one of the first to detect the folly of such an extreme. Kent's plans were designed rather with a view to immediate effect over a comparatively small area than with regard to any broader or subsequent results.

KENT, one of the kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon Britain, the dimensions of which seem to have corresponded with those of the present county (see below). According to tradition it was the first part of the country occupied by the invaders, its founders, Hengest and Horsa, having been employed by the British king Vortigern against the Picts and Scots. Their landing, according to English tradition, took place between 450-455, though in the Welsh accounts the Saxons are said to have arrived in 428 (cf. _Hist. Britt._ 66). According to _The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_, which probably used some lost list of Kentish kings, Hengest reigned 455-488, and was succeeded by his son Aesc (Oisc), who reigned till 512; but little value can be attached to these dates. Documentary history begins with Aethelberht, the great-grandson of Aesc, who reigned probably 560-616. He married Berhta, daughter of the Frankish king Haribert, or Charibert, an event which no doubt was partly responsible for the success of the mission of Augustine, who landed in 597. Aethelberht was at this time supreme over all the English kings south of the Humber. On his death in 616 he was succeeded by his son Eadbald, who renounced Christianity and married his stepmother, but was shortly afterwards converted by Laurentius, the successor of Augustine. Eadbald was succeeded in 640 by his son Erconberht, who enforced the acceptance of Christianity throughout his kingdom, and was succeeded in 664 by his son Ecgbert, the latter again by his brother Hlothhere in 673. The early part of Hlothhere's reign was disturbed by an invasion of Aethelred of Mercia. He issued a code of laws, which is still extant, together with his nephew Eadric, the son of Ecgbert, but in 685 a quarrel broke out between them in which Eadric called in the South Saxons. Hlothhere died of his wounds, and was succeeded by Eadric, who, however, reigned under two years.

The death of Eadric was followed by a disturbed period, in which Kent was under kings whom Bede calls "_dubii vel externi_." An unsuccessful attempt at conquest seems to have been made by the West Saxons, one of whose princes, Mul, brother of Ceadwalla, is said to have been killed in 687. There is some evidence for a successful invasion by the East Saxon king Sigehere during the same year. A king named Oswine, who apparently belonged to the native dynasty, seems to have obtained part of the kingdom in 688. The other part came in 689 into the hands of Swefheard, probably a son of the East Saxon king Sebbe. Wihtred, a son of Ecgbert, succeeded Oswine about 690, and obtained possession of the whole kingdom before 694. From him also we have a code of laws. At Wihtred's death in 725 the kingdom was divided between his sons Aethelberht, Eadberht and Alric, the last of whom appears to have died soon afterwards. Aethelberht reigned till 762; Eadberht, according to the _Chronicle_, died in 748, but some doubtful charters speak of him as alive in 761-762. Eadberht was succeeded by his son Eardwulf, and he again by Eanmund, while Aethelberht was succeeded by a king named Sigered. From 764-779 we find a king named Ecgbert, who in the early part of his reign had a colleague named Heaberht. At this period Kentish history is very obscure. Another king named Aethelberht appears in 781, and a king Ealhmund in 784, but there is some reason for suspecting that Offa annexed Kent about this time. On his death (796) Eadberht Praen made himself king, but in 798 he was defeated and captured by Coenwulf, who made his own brother Cuthred king in his place. On Cuthred's death in 807 Coenwulf seems to have kept Kent in his own possession. His successors Ceolwulf and Beornwulf likewise appear to have held Kent, but in 825 we hear of a king Baldred who was expelled by Ecgbert king of Wessex. Under the West Saxon dynasty Kent, together with Essex, Sussex and Surrey, was sometimes given as a dependent kingdom to one of the royal family. During Ecgbert's reign it was entrusted to his son Aethelwulf, on whose accession to the throne of Wessex, in 839, it was given to Aethelstan, probably his son, who lived at least till 851. From 855 to 860 it was governed by Aethelberht son of Aethelwulf. During the last years of Alfred's reign it seems to have been entrusted by him to his son Edward. Throughout the 9th century we hear also of two earls, whose spheres of authority may have corresponded to those of the two kings whom we find in the 8th century. The last earls of whom we have any record were the two brothers Sigehelm and Sigewulf, who fell at the Holm in 905 when the Kentish army was cut off by the Danes, on Edward the Elder's return from his expedition into East Anglia. At a later period Kent appears to have been held, together with Sussex, by a single earl.

The internal organization of the kingdom of Kent seems to have been
somewhat peculiar. Besides the division into West Kent and East Kent,
which probably corresponds with the kingdoms of the 8th century, we
find a number of lathes, apparently administrative districts under
reeves, attached to royal villages. In East Kent there were four of
these, namely, Canterbury, Eastry, Wye and Lymne, which can be traced
back to the 9th century or earlier. In the 11th century we hear of two
lathes in West Kent, those of Sutton and Aylesford.

The social organization of the Kentish nation was wholly different
from that of Mercia and Wessex. Instead of two "noble" classes we find
only one, called at first eorlcund, later as in Wessex, gesithcund.
Again below the ordinary freeman we find three varieties of persons
called _laetas_, probably freedmen, to whom we have nothing analogous
in the other kingdoms. Moreover the wergeld of the ceorl, or ordinary
freeman, was two or three times as great as that of the same class in
Wessex and Mercia, and the same difference of treatment is found in
all the compensations and fines relating to them. It is not unlikely
that the peculiarities of Kentish custom observable in later times,
especially with reference to the tenure of land, are connected with
these characteristics. An explanation is probably to be obtained from
a statement of Bede--that the settlers in Kent belonged to a different
nationality from those who founded the other kingdoms, namely the
Jutes (q.v.).

See Bede, _Historiae ecclesiasticae_, edited by C. Plummer (Oxford,
1896); _Two of the Saxon Chronicles_, edited by J. Earle and C.
Plummer (Oxford, 1892-1899); W. de G. Birch, _Cartularium Saxonicum_
(London, 1885-1889); B. Seebohm, _Tribal Custom in Anglo-Saxon Law_
(London, 1902); H. M. Chadwick, _Studies on Anglo-Saxon Institutions_
(Cambridge, 1905); and T. W. Shore, _Origin of the Anglo-Saxon Race_
(London, 1906). (F. G. M. B.)

KENT, a south-eastern county of England, bounded N. by the Thames estuary, E. and S.E. by the English Channel, S.W. by Sussex, and W. by Surrey. In the north-west the administrative county of London encroaches upon the ancient county of Kent, the area of which is 1554.7 sq. m. The county is roughly triangular in form, London lying at the apex of the western angle, the North Foreland at that of the eastern and Dungeness at that of the southern. The county is divided centrally, from west to east, by the well-marked range of hills known as the North Downs, entering Kent from Surrey. In the west above Westerham these hills exceed 800 ft.; to the east the height is much less, but even in Kent (for in Surrey they are higher) the North Downs form a more striking physical feature than their height would indicate. They are intersected, especially on the north, by many deep valleys, well wooded. At three points such valleys cut completely through the main line of the hills. In the west the Darent, flowing north to the Thames below Dartford, pierces the hills north of Sevenoaks, but its waters are collected chiefly from a subsidiary ridge of the Downs running parallel to the main line and south of it, and known as the Ragstone Ridge, from 600 to 800 ft. in height. The Medway, however, cuts through the entire hill system, rising in the Forest Ridges of Sussex, flowing N.E. and E. past Tonbridge, collecting feeders from south and east (the Teise, Beult and others) near Yalding, and then flowing N.E. and N. through the hills, past Maidstone, joining the Thames at its mouth through a broad estuary. The rich lowlands, between the Downs and the Forest Ridges to the south (which themselves extend into Kent), watered by the upper Medway and its feeders, are called the Vale of Kent, and fall within the district well known under the name of the Weald. The easternmost penetration of the Downs is that effected by the Stour (Great Stour) which rises on their southern face, flows S.E. to Ashford, where it receives the East Stour, then turns N.E. past Wye and Canterbury, to meander through the lowlands representing the former channel which isolated the Isle of Thanet from the mainland. The channel was called the Wantsume, and its extent may be gathered from the position of the village of Fordwich near Canterbury, which had formerly a tidal harbour, and is a member of the Cinque Port of Sandwich. The Little Stour joins the Great Stour in these lowlands from a deep vale among the Downs.

About two-thirds of the boundary line of Kent is formed by tidal water. The estuary of the Thames may be said to stretch from London Bridge to Sheerness in the Isle of Sheppey, which is divided from the mainland by the narrow channel (bridged at Queensbridge) of the Swale. Sheerness lies at the mouth of the Medway, a narrow branch of which cuts off a tongue of land termed the Isle of Grain lying opposite Sheerness. Along the banks of the Thames the coast is generally low and marshy, embankments being in several places necessary to prevent inundation. At a few points, however, as at Gravesend, spurs of the North Downs descend directly upon the shore. In the estuary of the Medway there are a number of low marshy islands, but Sheppey presents to the sea a range of slight cliffs from 80 to 90 ft. in height. The marshes extend along the Swale to Whitstable, whence stretches a low line of clay and sandstone cliffs towards the Isle of Thanet, when they become lofty and grand, extending round the Foreland southward to Pegwell Bay. The coast from Sheppey round to the South Foreland is skirted by numerous flats and sands, the most extensive of which are the Goodwin Sands off Deal. From Pegwell Bay south to a point near Deal the coast is flat, and the drained marshes or levels of the lower Stour extend to the west; but thence the coast rises again into chalk cliffs, the eastward termination of the North Downs, the famous white cliffs which form the nearest point of England to continental Europe, overlooking the Strait of Dover. These cliffs continue round the South Foreland to Folkestone, where they fall away, and are succeeded west of Sandgate by a flat shingly shore. To the south of Hythe this shore borders the wide expanse of Romney Marsh, which, immediately west of Hythe, is overlooked by a line of abrupt hills, but for the rest is divided on the north from the drainage system of the Stour only by a slight uplift. The marsh, drained by many channels, seldom rises over a dozen feet above sea-level. At its south-eastern extremity, and at the extreme south of the county, is the shingly promontory of Dungeness. Within historic times much of this marsh was covered by the sea, and the valley of the river Rother, which forms part of the boundary of Kent with Sussex, entering the sea at Rye harbour, was represented by a tidal estuary for a considerable distance inland.