KENT. 447 KENTON. 1707 he became Eecoider of Xew York City; a jear later he was appointed a justice of the State .Supreme Court by Governor Jay. In 1804 he was promoted to the Chief-Justiceship, and in 1814 to the position of Chancellor. This office he held until 1823, when his age reached the con- stitutional limit of sixtj- years, and compelled his retirement from tlie bench. He had won a hiyh reputation both as a common-law and equity judge; and his judicial opinions, printed mainly in Caines's and .Johnson's reijorts, are still re- garded as valuable and authoritative expositions of legal and equitable principles. Upon his re- tirement from the bencli he was reappointed to the professorship of law at Columbia, which had remained unoccupied since his resignation in 1708. lie entered upon his academic duties with great enthusiasm, remodeled and expanded the lectures which he had delivered under his pre- vious appointment, and attracted a considerable number of students. Tiring of these duties, as he wrote at a later period, he abandoned them in 1S2H, and published a portion of his lectures in the form of volumes first and second of liis fa- mous Commentaries Vjiun American Law. A third volume was added in 1828, and the foiirth appeared in 1830. It has been said of these com- mentaries, with entire justice, that they have had a deeper and more lasting influence in the formation of our national character than any other secular book of the last century. They have passed through fourteen editions and continue to rank as a legal classic. He died in Xcw York City December 12, 1847. Consult: Memoirs and Let- ters of Chancellor Kent, by William Kent (Bos- ton, 1808). KENT, ViLLi.A.M (1084-1748). An English painter, sculptor, architect, and landscape gar- dener, born in the North Kiding of Yorkshire. He was apprenticed to a coach-painter, but after- wards studied in London, and finally found patrons, who sent him to Italy. While in Rome he met the Earl of Birlington, with whom he lived after he returned to England. He had little success as a painter. Hogarth considered liim a 'contemptible dauber,' and Walpole disliked his pictures and decorations, but styled him the ■father of modern gardening.' Kent greatly dis- tinguished himself as the founder of a new kind of landscape gardening, the main feature of which was the restoration of nature, which previous art- ists had long banished from their designs. He was very popular in society, and his taste in art influenced the clothes, decorations, and furniture of the day. As a sculptor he made the mediocre statue of Shakespeare in the 'Poets' Corner' at Westminster Abbey. He is now best known as an architect. He designed the palace of the Earl of Leicester at Holkham, the country houses of Stowe and Houghton, and Devonshire House, Piccadilly, the Horse Guards. Whitehall, and .some iinprovement in Kensington Palace, London. With the Earl of Burlington he published The Designs of Inigo Jones (1727). KENT, William Charles Makk (1S23— ). An English poet, biographer, and journalist, born in Lonilon. After coni]deting his education at Prior Park and Oscott, he became editor of the ffiin (184.5-70), studied law at the same time and was called to the bar in 1850, but devoted himself thereafter to literature. He edited the Weekly Regtster (1874-81), and published the Vision of Cagliostro (1847); Aletheia, or the Doom of Mythology, and Other I'ocms (1850); Dreamland, or Poets in Their Haunts (1862); Footprints on the Road (18G4) ; Poems (1870) ; Mytliological Dictionary (1870); Corona Catho- i lica (in fifty languages, 1880) ; Modern Seven Wonders of the World (1800) ; besides critiques, memoirs, or editions of Dickens (1872 and 1884), Burns (1874), Lamb (1875 and 1803), Moore (1870), Father Prout (1881), Lord Lytton (1875, 1883, and 1808), and Leigh Hunt 1888). KENTIGEKN, Saint. See Mu^jgo, Saint. KENTISH PLOVER. A plover (JEgialo- pliilus Caiilianiis} , resembling the ringed plover, and widely distributed in Europe and Asia. It is well known on the south coast of England, where it sometimes breeds. See Ploveb. KENT ISLAND. The largest island in Chesa- peake Bay, situated east of Annapolis (Map: Maryland, Mo). It belongs to Queen Anne Comity, Md., is 15 miles long b}' 5 miles wide, and is the centre of important oyster fisheries. Population, in 1000, 2525. Kent Island was col- onized in 1031 by adventurers from Virginia, and is the site of the earliest settlement in Hilary- land. See Cl.iboi!xe, William. KEN'TON. A city and the county-seat of Hardin County, Ohio, 70 miles northwest of Columbus ; on the Scioto River, and on the Cleve- land, Cincinnati, Chicago and Saint Louis, the Erie, and the Toledo and Ohio Central railroads (Map: Ohio, C 4). It has fanning and lumbering interests, and manufactures of iron, hardware, tools, etc. There is a public libraiy. Among the more prominent structures may be nientionc(i the court-house, city buildings, county jail and armory. In Kenton is found the highest point of the dividing ridge from which the waters on the north side flow into Lake Erie, and on the south into the Gulf of ilexico. Settled in 1833, Kenton was incorporated in 1885, the charter of that year now operating, and providing for a government vested in a mayor, elected every two years, and a unicameral council. The city owns and operates its water-works. Population, in 1800. 55.57; in 1900, 6852. KENTON, Simon (1755-1830). An American pioneer and Indian fighter, bom in Fauquier County, Va.. of Scotch-Irish parentage. He re- ceived a scanty education, and in 1771, after having, as he supposed, killed a companion in a fight, crossed the Allcghanies to the headwaters of the Ohio, where he assumed for a time the name of Simon Butler, and became an Indian trader. Here he was associated with Simon Girty (q.v. ), the renegade. During Lord Dunmore's War (q.v.) he served as a scout. Later in the frontier warfare that raged throughout the States of Ohio and Kentucky during the Revolution, Kenton served with great distinction under Boone and Clark, his fame as a frontier hero being sec- ond only to that of Boone himself. In 1778 he joined Clark at the Falls of the Ohio (Louis- ville), and went with him on his expedition to Kaskaskia. Later he was taken prisoner by the Indians, suflfered indescribable tortures, and was twice saved from the stake by the intercessions of his old companion, Girty, and of Logan, the Jlingo chief. Handed over finally to the British at Detroit, he escaped from there and made his wav southward, where he continued active in the
