Benjamin Hall Kennedy (6 November 1804 – 6 April 1889) was an English scholar and schoolmaster, known for his work in the teaching of theLatin language. He was an active supporter ofNewnham College andGirton College as Cambridge University colleges for women.
He was born atSummer Hill, nearBirmingham, the eldest son ofRann Kennedy (1772–1851), of a branch of theAyrshire family which had settled inStaffordshire. Rann was a scholar and man of letters, several of whose sons rose to distinction. Benjamin was educated atKing Edward's School, Birmingham,Shrewsbury School, andSt John's College, Cambridge.[1] He took frequent part inCambridge Union debates and became president in 1825. In 1824 he was elected a member of the Cambridge Conversazione Society, better known as theCambridge Apostles, and was a winner of aBrowne medal. He was elected Fellow and lecturer inClassics at St John's College in 1828 and tookHoly Orders the following year. In 1830, he became an assistant master atHarrow.[2]
In 1836, he, his wife and his first childCharlotte Amy May Kennedy returned to Shrewsbury when he became headmaster. While they were there Charlotte was joined byMarion,Julia, Edith and Arthur.[3] In 1841 he becameprebendary ofLichfield, and after leaving Shrewsbury he was rector ofWest Felton, Shropshire, from 1866 to 1868. He remained as headmaster ofShrewsbury School until 1866, the 30 years being marked by successes for his pupils, chiefly in Classics. When he retired, a large collection was made, and this was used on new school buildings and on founding aLatinprofessorship at Cambridge. The first holders of theKennedy Professor of Latin chair were both former pupils of Kennedy,H. A. J. Munro andJ. E. B. Mayor.
In 1867, Kennedy was electedRegius Professor of Greek at Cambridge and canon ofEly Cathedral, serving in both posts until his death.From 1870 to 1880 he was a member of the committee for the revision of theNew Testament. In 1870 he also became a member of the University Council.
He supported the access of women to university education and took a prominent part in the establishment ofNewnham andGirton colleges. WhenMary Paley andAmy Bulley were among the first women to take tripos examinations they did it in the Kennedys' drawing room. Paley described him as excitable, but he would sometimes doze whilst nominally invigilating. He was nicknamed "the purple boy".[4] In politics, he had liberal sympathies. He died nearTorquay[2] and is buried inMill Road Cemetery, Cambridge.
F. D. How included Kennedy in the 1904 bookSix Great Schoolmasters.[5]
Kennedy wrote a number of classical and theological works, but he is most famous today for hisprimer of Latin grammar. This began as theElementary Latin Primer (1843), which became thePublic School Latin Primer (1866), thePublic School Latin Grammar (1871), and finally theRevised Latin Primer (1888).[6] The latter was further revised by J. F. Mountford in 1930.[7] Another revision was edited by Gerrish Gray (first edition, 2008; second edition 2019), one version for a US audience and another for a UK audience.[8] The medieval way of writing Latin noun tables, starting with the nominative and then proceeding to the genitive was used in England prior to Kennedy's Primer and is still widely used in America (e.g. in theWheelock's Latin course). Kennedy changed the order of writing the noun endings so that the nominative was always followed by the vocative and accusative, in order to bring out more effectively the similarities between these cases in many nouns. Kennedy'sPrimer was so widely used and was so influential that this led to a permanent change in the way that Latin is taught in the UK. Modern books such as theCambridge Latin Course still follow this approach.
In 1913, there was a problem with the copyright on theRevised Latin Primer[3] which had been published in 1888. His daughterMarion Kennedy, a Latin scholar, revealed that the book was written by herself, her sister Julia and two of her father's former students,G. H. Hallam andT. E. Page.[3] It is unlikely that Kennedy had any hand in the revision of 1888, and theShorter Latin Primer of the same year.[6] TheBBC Radio 4 programme in December 2018Amo, Amas, Amusical, presented byMary Beard, explained the background to the primer and the sisters' significant part in writing it, as well as the resistance to women's higher education at Cambridge and elsewhere during their lifetime.[9]
Other works include:
He contributed largely to the collection known asSabrinae Corolla (John Bell, London, 1850), and published a collection of verse inGreek, Latin and English under the title ofBetween Whiles (2nd ed., 1882), with many autobiographical details.[2]
His brotherCharles Rann Kennedy was a barrister and wrote original works as well as translating and editing classical works. His younger brother The Rev. William James Kennedy (1814-1891) was a prominent educator, and the father of Lord Justice SirWilliam Rann Kennedy (1846–1915), a distinguished Cambridge scholar.
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Kennedy, Benjamin Hall".Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
