Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 31.djvu/124

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
Kilmarnock
118
Kilvert

was Jennings, at eleven years of age to France, and took the name of Kilmaine from a village in Mayo where a branch of the Jennings family had resided. He entered the army as a cavalry officer in 1774, serving in the American war of independence under Rochambeau, and in Senegal under Biron. In August 1791, as a retired captain, he took the civic oath and, being recalled to active service, became brigadier-general in March 1793 and lieutenant-general in the following May. He commanded the vanguard in the Ardennes and Flanders, distinguished himself at Jemappes, and was reported by the convention commissaries as brave, active, and dashing, though they did not think it prudent to allow an Irishman a command-in-chief. ‘He is a foreigner,’ they said; ‘he is Irish; republicanism does not easily penetrate such skulls.’ He was, however, recommended by Dubois-Dubay, though unsuccessfully, for the command in Vendée, as the only general whose ability and energy could be relied on. In August 1793 he temporarily succeeded Custine, against whom he gave evidence before the revolutionary tribunal; but being forced to retreat before the superior forces of the Duke of York, he was superseded, and was imprisoned for eighteen months. Susan Kilmaine, who was also imprisoned, was apparently his wife. In 1795 he helped to defend the convention against the Prairial insurgents. In 1796 he served in Italy under Bonaparte, and by establishing a second blockade contributed to the reduction of Mantua. Summoned to Paris to discuss a descent on Ireland, he was appointed, in the absence of Desaix, to the temporary command of the so-called army of England. On this expedition being abandoned, he had, in June 1798, the command of the territorial (inland) troops, and was for a time general-in-chief in Switzerland, but, not giving satisfaction in that capacity, was superseded by Masséna. He returned to Paris, where he died 15 Dec. 1799. His great failing was rapacity.

[Moniteur, 28 Nov. 1799; Webb's Compendium of Irish Biography; Fieffé's Hist. des Troupes Etrangères, ii. 62, Paris, 1854; Alger's Englishmen in French Revolution, pp. 152–3.]

J. G. A.

KILMARNOCK, fourth Earl of. [See Boyd, William, 1704–1746.]

KILMOREY, first Eari of. [See Needham, Francis Jack, 1748–1832.]

KILMOREY, fourth Viscount. [See Needham, Charles, d. 1660.]

KILSYTH, first Viscount. [See Livingstone, James, 1616–1661.]

KILVERT, FRANCIS (1793–1863), antiquary, born at Westgate Street, Bath, on Good Friday 1793, was the eldest son of Francis Kilvert, coachmaker, and of Anna his wife. His uncle was Richard Kilvert, domestic chaplain to Bishop Hurd [q. v.] and rector of Hartlebury. His parents died while he was young, and, as the eldest of seven sons, he became guardian and instructor to his brothers. For a time he was educated under Dr. Michael Rowlandson at Hungerford. He afterwards proceeded to the grammar school at Bath, where he became head-boy; his attainments induced the then chief master, Nathaniel Morgan, to engage him as an assistant even before he entered at Oxford. He matriculated at Worcester College, Oxford, on 6 Nov. 1811, and graduated B.A. in 1819 and M.A. in 1824. Kilvert was ordained deacon by Beadon, bishop of Bath and Wells, in 1816 and priest in 1817; his first curacy was that of Claverton, near Bath. He loved his native city; no one knew its history better, and in order to dwell there he declined the post of principal of Queen's College, Birmingham. At Bath he filled in turn several small offices, including those of minister of St. Mary Magdalen's Chapel, chaplain of the General Hospital, and evening lecturer at St. Mary's, Bathwick, but his chief source of income lay in keeping pupils. His success in that direction led him to purchase in 1837 Claverton Lodge, on the southern slope of Bathwick Hill, where he took scholars until his death. Kilvert was one of the earliest members of the Bath Literary Club, and read before its members many papers on the literary associations of the city, some of which have not been printed. He died at Claverton Lodge on 16 Sept. 1863, and was buried in Old Widcombe churchyard, near the grave of his father and two of his brothers. A brass tablet to his memory is on the walls of St. Mary, Bathwick. He married at the close of 1822 Adelaide Sophia de Chièvre, a refugee of French extraction, then living at Clapham, near London. Their issue was three daughters.

Kilvert wrote:

  1. ‘Sermons at Christ Church, Bath, before the National Schools,’ 1827.
  2. ‘Sermons at St. Mary's Church, Bathwick,’ 1837.
  3. ‘Sermon preached at Wrington,’ 1840.
  4. ‘Selections from unpublished Papers of Bishop Warburton,’ 1841; also issued in same year as vol. xiv., supplemental, of Warburton's ‘Works.’
  5. ‘Pinacothecæ Historicæ specimen. Auctore F.K., A.M.,’ 1848; pt. ii., with name in full, 1850.

A series of inscriptions on illustrious men, which have been much praised for hap-