college (St. Edmund's Hall), he addressed in 1692 to Brome—the editor of Somner's Treatise of the Roman Ports and Forts in Kent—a letter which was afterwards published and prefixed to that eminent Saxonist's History of Gavelkind. It is not only an interesting biography of Somner, but sketches instructively the history of the cultivation of Anglo-Saxon literature and antiquities in England. His reputation as an antiquary was now so great, that in 1694 Gibson's translation of Somner's treatise on the locality of the Portus Iccius was dedicated to Kennet. The following year he published his "Parochial Antiquities attempted in the history of Ambrosden, Burcester, and other adjacent parts in the counties of Oxford and Bucks," written in the form of annals, and with a useful glossary of mediæval, &c., terms affixed. A new edition of it was published in 1815 by Dr. Bandinel of the Bodleian. In 1700 he removed to the metropolis, where he had been appointed minister of St. Botolph Aldgate; and the following year, attacking Atterbury in a controversy respecting convocation, he became a prominent member of the anti-high-church party. Later he took part against Sacheverell, and afterwards again with Hoadley. In 1706 appeared the "Complete History of England," which goes under his name, but his only connection with which was his contribution to it of volume iii., from Charles I. to the accession of Queen Anne. It is a work of some merit, but is chiefly remarkable as having provoked Roger North's Examen. At the opening of the century Kennet had been appointed archdeacon of Huntingdon, and his funeral sermon on the first duke of Devonshire, preached in 1707 (a "Memoir of the Family of Cavendish" is one of the many productions of his untiring pen), procured him, at the second duke's recommendation, the deanery of Peterborough. In the intervals of controversy he did not neglect more important interests than those involved in the quarrels of the day. In 1713 he made a large collection of books, charts, &c., with the view of writing a history of the propagation of Christianity in the colonies. The design was never carried out; but he presented the collection to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and published a catalogue of it, "Bibliothecæ Americanæ Primordia," a curious and interesting work of a wider scope than its title indicates, including notices of printed books, &c., relative not only to missionary enterprise, but to voyages and travels in both hemispheres, and to the history of discovery and commerce. An indefatigable collector, he founded about this time an antiquarian and historical library at Peterborough, of which, as of its subsequent history, less is known than could be wished. In spite of his support of Hoadley, he was made in 1718 bishop of Peterborough, and went on collecting and writing to the end of his life. His last work was his "Register and Chronicle," one volume of which was published in 1728, forming a sort of chronology of the first years of the reign of Charles II., and containing some curious information, especially respecting the authorship of works published anonymously. He had prepared a second volume of it, embracing the period between 1672 and 1682, when he died on the 19th December, 1728. More than a hundred volumes of his collections are preserved among the Lansdowne MSS. in the British Museum. His printed works are nearly sixty in number. An anonymous biography of him, known to be the composition of the Rev. William Newton, rector of Wingham, Kent, was published in 1730.—F. E.
KENNETH MACALPIN, surnamed the Hardy, King of the Scots, ascended the throne in 836. He was the son of Alpin, and grandson of Eocha IV., the Achaius of the Latin annalists. On the death of Uven, king of the Picts, in 839, Kenneth claimed the throne in right of his grandmother Urgusia; and after a war which lasted three years he succeeded in making good his claims, and united the two crowns in his own person. Kenneth was an able and warlike prince, and vigorously repelled the aggressions of the Saxons and Danes on his newly-acquired territories. He died at his capital of Forteviot or Abernethy in 859, having governed the Scots seven years, and the Scots and Picts jointly sixteen years.—J. T.
KENNETH III., King of Scotland, was the son of Malcolm I., and succeeded to the crown in 970. He was an able and daring, but unscrupulous prince. He waged a successful war against the Britons of Strathclyd, and after a fierce and prolonged struggle incorporated their territories with his own dominions. He also defeated the Danish marauders at Luncarty, near Perth. He abrogated the old Scottish mode of succession to the throne, and is said to have put to death his nephew Malcolm, who had already, according to the old law, been recognized as next heir to the throne. According to some English chroniclers, Lothian was ceded to Kenneth by the Season King Edgar. Kenneth was assassinated near Fettercairn in the year 994 by Fenella, mother of a young chief of Mearns, whom the Scottish king had put to death.—J. T.
KENNEY, James, a very successful dramatic writer, was born in Ireland in 1780, of which country his family were natives. His father settled in London, and was part proprietor and manager of Boodle's Club. James was placed in the bank of Herries & Co., where, however, he courted the muses and played in private theatricals. In 1803 he published a volume of poetry, which was not without merit, and in November of the same year his first farce, "Raising the Wind," was brought out in Covent Garden. It was enthusiastically received, had a run of thirty-eight nights, and still retains its place on the acting list as one of the best pieces of its class in the language. In the following November his operetta of "Matrimony" was played at Covent Garden with nearly equal success. "False Alarms" had a good run in 1807, and its attractions were increased by the music of Braham and King. In the same year was performed at Drury Lane one of the most agreeable and successful melodramas ever put on the English stage, "Ella Rosenberg." It had a run of over forty nights, and still holds its ground. "The World," which came out the following year, is ingenious and amusing: it was deservedly successful and has much merit, notwithstanding the immature and unjust disparagement of Byron's youthful muse. From that period till 1845 Kenney continued to produce dramas, farces, melodramas, and operettas with wonderful facility and various success—some of them of high merit, as "Spring and Autumn," 1827; "The Illustrious Stranger," the same year; "Masaniello," 1829; and "The Sicilian Vespers," 1840; not a few of them below his reputation and talents, and some of them failures. It could scarcely be otherwise with one who, under the pressure of straitened circumstances, had to supply the constant demands of managers, which led him often to waste his talents on subjects unworthy and unfitting his genius. His health at last broke down; he suffered from a complication of diseases, not the least distressing of which was a severe nervous affection, but to the last he retained his mental powers unimpaired, and died on the 1st of August, 1849.—J. F. W.
KENNICOTT, Benjamin, D.D., was born at Totnes, April 4, 1718, and at an early age was appointed master of a charity school in his native place. In this situation he exhibited talents which created an interest in his favour, and he was sent to Oxford. While at college he published two dissertations, "On the Tree of Life in Paradise," and "On the Oblations of Cain and Abel," which procured for him the degree of B.A. a year before the usual time. He distinguished himself as a Hebrew scholar, and in 1750 took his degree of M.A. He published some sermons, which were well received; and continued at Oxford till his death, September 18, 1783. In 1767 he was appointed Radcliffe librarian, and made a D.D. He was also canon of Christ Church and rector of Culham. He devoted more than thirty years to the study of the Hebrew text of the Old Testament. In 1753 he published his first volume, "On the state of the printed Text of the Old Testament," which was translated into Latin, and published at Leipsic in 1756 by Teller. In 1760 he produced a second volume on the same subject, which was translated by Teller, with additions, in 1765. In these works he pointed out various discrepancies in the Hebrew text, and proposed an extensive collation of manuscripts. This proposition was repeated, and in consequence subscriptions were obtained and arrangements made for carrying it out. The work was warmly encouraged by Dr. Seeker, then bishop of Oxford and soon after archbishop of Canterbury, whose example was extensively followed, so that from 1760 to 1769 no less than £9117 7s. 6d. was raised for the undertaking. The project, says Kennicott, was precisely this, "to collate all the MSS. of the Hebrew bible in Great Britain and Ireland; and whilst this work was carrying on, that collations of as many of the best foreign MSS. should be procured as time and expense would allow." The progress of the work was made known by ten "annual accounts," which were afterwards collected and published, with an introduction, in 1770. To aid in the work persons were employed to collate the MSS. in other parts of Europe. Each of these received a copy of instructions in Latin,
