Part 6
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.