KEN, Thomas (1637-1711), the most eminent of the non-juring bishops, and one of the fathers of modern English hymnology, was born at Little Berkhampstead, Herts, in 1637. He was the son of Thomas Ken of FurnivaΓs Inn, who belonged to an ancient stock,—that of the Kens of Ken Place, in Somersetshire; his mother was a daughter of the now forgotten poet, John Chalkhill, who is called by Walton an “acquaintant and friend of Edmund Spenser.” It may be mentioned that Ken’s stepsister, Anne, was married to Izaak Walton in 1646, a connexion which brought Ken from his boyhood under the refining influence of this gentle and devout man. In 1652 he entered Winchester College, and in 1656 became a student of Hart Hall, Oxford. He gained a fellowship at New College in 1657, and proceeded B.A. in 1661 and M.A. in 1664. He was for some time tutor of his college; but the most characteristic reminiscence of his university life is the mention made by Anthony Wood that in the musical gatherings of the time “Thomas Ken of New College, a junior, would be sometimes among them, and sing his part.” Ordained in 1662, when he was twenty-five years old, he successively held the livings of Little Easton in Essex, Brighstone (sometimes called Brixton) in the Isle of Wight, and East Woodhay in Hampshire; in 1672 he resigned the last of these, and returned to Winchester, being by this time a prebendary of the cathedral, and chaplain to the bishop, as well as a fellow of Winchester College. He remained there for several years, acting as curate in one of the lowest districts, and fulfilling other duties in the city, but, above all, preparing his Manual of Prayers for the use of the Scholars of Winchester College, which was first published in 1674, and composing hymns. It was at this time ...

KENDAL, Kirkby-Kendal, or Kirkby-in-Kendal, a market-town and parliamentary and municipal borough of Westmoreland, is picturesquely situated in a pleasant valley on the east bank of the Kent or Ken, 44 miles south of Carlisle (50 by rail), and 241 miles from London. The town, which is the largest and most populous in the county, is very irregularly built, but the white-walled houses with their blue-slated roofs, and the numerous trees, give it a very attractive appearance. There are four leading streets, two of which together form a spacious thoroughfare a mile in length. The church of the Holy Trinity, whose oldest part dates from about 1200, is a Gothic edifice with five aisles and α square tower 72 feet high. Kendal contains numerous other churches, a town-hall, a mechanics’ institution, a literary and scientific institution, a museum, and a chamber of commerce. Its charities include a hospital (founded 1870), an old maids' hospital, α girls’ orphanage, almshouses, <fcc. The free grammar school is well endowed; and there are also in the town a well-endowed blue-coat school and hospital, a large national school, a school of science and art, and several Sunday schools, among which is the Greencoat Sunday school, founded in 1813. On an eminence to the east of the town are the ruins of Kendal Castle, attributed to the first barons of Kendal. It was the birthplace of Catherine Parr, Henry VIII.’s last queen. On the Castle-law-hill, an obelisk was raised in 1788 in memory of the revolution of 1688. The woollen manufactures of Kendal have been noted since the 14th century, when Edward III. established a colony of Flemish weavers in the town; and, although the coarse cloth known to Shakespeare as “Kendal green” is no longer made, its place is more than supplied ...

KENILWORTH, a small town of Warwickshire, is pleasantly situated on a tributary of the Avon, on the railway from Coventry to Leamington, 5 miles distant from both towns, and 99 miles north from London. The town is only of importance from its antiquarian interest and the magnificent ruins of its old castle. The most probable derivation of its name, which in Domesday is written Chinewrde, is from Cenundf, king of the Mercians, and werthe, a dwelling-place. The old royal residence of the Saxon kings was destroyed in the wars between Edward and Canute. The manor of Kenilworth was bestowed by Henry I on Geoffrey de Clinton, afterwards lord chiefjustice, who erected the earlier portion of the present castle. By his grandson Henry de Clinton it was given to King John, and it remained a royal residence until the time of Henry III., who granted it to Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester. After the battle of Evesham, 14th August 1265, at which Simon de Montfort was slain, the rebel forces rallied at the castle, when it sustained a siege of six months, but finally capitulated to Henry III., who bestowed it on his son Edmund. After being used as the prison of Edward II. previous to his removal to Berkeley, it came into the possession of John of Gaunt, by whom it was greatly enlarged. On his son becoming king as Henry IV., it was made a royal residence, and it remained in the possession of the crown until Queen Elizabeth in 1562 granted it to Robert Dudley, earl of Leicester, who spent a large sum in restoring it, and whose splendid entertainments there to Elizabeth are described in Scott’s novel of Kenilworth. During the civil war it was dismantled by the soldiers of Cromwell, and it was thenceforth abandoned to decay. Since the Restoration it has belonged to the house of ...

people who dwelt westward of the Dead Sea, and extended themselves pretty far into Arabia Petræa; for Jethro, the priest of Midian, and father-in-law to Moses, was a Kenite, Judges i, 16; 1 Chron. ii, 55; 1 Sam. xv, 6. When Saul was sent to destroy the Amalekites, the Kenites, who had joined them, perhaps by compulsion, were ordered to depart from them, that they might not share in their fate; and the reason assigned was, that they “showed kindness to the children of Israel when they came up out of Egypt,” 1 Sam. xv, 6. Which, according to the margin of our Bible, is to be understood of the father-in-law of Moses and his family. From the story of Jethro, who is expressly said to be a Midianite, they appear to have retained the worship of the true God among them; for which, and their kindness to the Israelites when passing their country, they were spared in the general destruction of the nations bordering on Canaan. Of these Kenites were the Rechabites, the Tirathites, the Shimeathites, and the Suchathites, mentioned in 1 Chron. ii, 55, whose chief office was that of scribes. (See _Rechabites_.) Balaam, when invited by Balak, king of Moab, to curse Israel, stood upon a mountain, whence he addressed the Kenites, and said, “Strong is thy dwelling place, and thou puttest thy nest in a rock; nevertheless, the Kenite shall be wasted until Ashur shall carry thee away captive,” Num. xxiv, 21, 22. The Kenites dwelt in mountains and rocks almost inaccessible. They were conquered and carried into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar. After Saul the Kenites are not mentioned; but they subsisted, being mingled among the Edomites and other nations of Arabia Petræa.

an ancient people of Canaan, whose land God promised to the descendants of Abraham, Gen. xv, 19. It is thought that this people dwelt in the mountains south of Judea.

KENNEDY, Thomas Francis (1788-1879), a distinguished Scottish Liberal politician, was born near Ayr in 1788. He studied for the bar and passed advocate in 1811. But, having been elected M.P. for the Ayr burghs in 1818, he devoted the greater part of his life to the promotion of those political reforms which the long misgovernment of Scotland by the Tory party had rendered necessary. In this patriotic work he was greatly assisted by Lord Cockbum, then Mr Henry Cockbum, 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 of improvement 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. It cost Kennedy several years of persistent urgency upon the legislature before this most reasonable demand was conceded, but at length his energy and perseverance succeeded. Among other subjects he directed his attention to the improvement of the parish schools, of pauper administration, and of several of the corrupt forms of legal procedure which then prevailed. To him also was in a great measure due the freedom which the Scottish people obtained from the domination of certain aristocratic families which had long proved a dead weight on the progress of Liberal principles in Scotland. In the construction of the Scottish Reform Act Kennedy took a very prominent part, and 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 ...

KENNET, White (1660-1728), bishop of Peterborough, a theological writer and learned antiquarian, was born at Dover in 1660. He was educated at Westminster school and at Oxford, where, while still an undergraduate, he published several translations of Latin works, including Erasmus On Folly, Pliny’s Trajan, and Cornelius Nepos. About the year 1685 he became vicar of Amersden. 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. In 1695 he published Parochial Antiquities. In 1700 he resigned the vicarage of Amersden to take charge of the parish of St Botolph, Aidgate, Loudon, and in the following year he was preferred to the archdeaconry of Huntingdon. On account of his eulogistic sermon on the duke of Devonshire he was in 1707 recommended to the deanery of Peterborough. Although he afterwards changed to the Low Church party, strenuously opposed the Sacheverel movement, and in the Bangorian controversy supported with great zeal and considerable bittemess the side of Bishop Hoadly, his intimacy with the bishop of Norwich, who was high in favour with the king, secured him in 1718 promotion to the bishopric of Peterborough. He died at Westminster in September 1728. Kennet published in 1698 an edition of Sir Henry Spelman’s History of Sacrilege, and he was the author of as many as fifty-seven printed works, chiefly tracts and sermons. His principal publication was a Compleat History of England, 3 vola, 1706 (enlarged edition, 3 vola, 1719), chiefly a compilation from other authors, but the part from Charles I. to Queen Anne was written by himself....

KENNICOTT, Benjamin (1718-1783), an eminent Hebraist, was born at Totnes, Devonshire, on April 4, 1718. His father was parish clerk and master of a charity school, in which latter situation Benjamin was chosen to succeed him at an early age. His talents and acquirements interested some rich friends in his behalf, and by their liberality he was provided with the means of studying at Oxford. Entering himself of Wadham College in 1744, he soon distinguished himself in Hebrew and divinity; and while still an undergraduate published two dissertations, On the Tree of Life in Paradise, with some Observations on the Pall of Man, and On the Oblations of Cain and Abel, which came to a second edition in 1747, and procured him the honour of a bachelor’s degree before the statutable time. Shortly afterwards he was elected fellow of Exeter College, and in 1750 he took his degree of M.A. In 1767 he was appointed keeper of the Radcliffe library, and made D.D. He was also canon of Christ Church and rector of Culham in Oxfordshire, and was subsequently presented to the living of Mynhenyote, Cornwall, which however, being unable to visit it, he resigned two years before his death. He died of a lingering illness at Oxford, on September 18, 1783....