White Kennett (10 August 1660 – 19 December 1728) was an English bishop andantiquarian. He was educated atWestminster School and atSt Edmund Hall, Oxford, where, while an undergraduate, he published several translations ofLatin works, includingErasmus'In Praise of Folly.[1]
Kennett wasvicar ofAmbrosden, Oxfordshire from 1685 until 1708. During his incumbency he returned to Oxford as tutor and vice-principal of St Edmund Hall, where he gave considerable impetus to the study of antiquities.George Hickes gave him lessons inOld English. In 1695 he publishedParochial Antiquities. In 1700 he became rector ofSt Botolph's Aldgate, London, and in 1701Archdeacon of Huntingdon.[1]
For a eulogisticsermon on the recently deceasedWilliam Cavendish, 1st Duke of Devonshire, Kennett was in 1707 recommended to thedeanery of Peterborough. He afterwards joined the Low Church party, strenuously opposed theSacheverell movement, and in theBangorian controversy supported with great zeal and considerable bitterness the side ofBishop Hoadly. His intimacy withCharles Trimnell,bishop of Norwich, who was high in favour withGeorge I of Great Britain, secured for him in 1718 thebishopric of Peterborough. He died at Westminster in December 1728. White Kennett Street, near St Botolph, Aldgate, is named after him.[1]
White Kennett was born in the parish ofSt Mary,Dover, on 10 August 1660, the son of Basil Kennett, M.A., rector ofDymchurch and vicar ofPostling, Kent, by his wife Mary, eldest daughter of Thomas White, a wealthy magistrate and master-shipwright of Dover. After receiving a preliminary education atElham andWye College, he was placed atWestminster School "above the curtain", or in the upper school; but as he was suffering from smallpox at the period of the election of scholars on the foundation, his father recalled him home. After his recovery he spent a year atBekesbourne, in the family of Mr Tolson, whose three sons he taught "with great content and success".[2] He was the older brother ofBasil Kennett, whose life and career he was considerably to influence.
He was entered abatteler or semi-commoner ofSt Edmund Hall, Oxford, in June 1678, being placed under the tuition ofAndrew Allam. According toHearne he "sometimes waited on Dr Wallis to church with his skarlett", and performed other menial offices, but, on the other hand, he associated with the gentlemen-commoners. While an undergraduate he began his career as a writer by publishing anonymously, just before the assembling of parliament at Oxford on 21 March 1680–1,A Letter from a Student at Oxford to a Friend in the Country, concerning the approaching Parliament, in vindication of his Majesty, the Church of England, and the University. TheWhig party endeavoured to discover the author, with a view to his punishment, but the sudden dissolution of the parliament put an end to the incident and occasioned the publication of Kennett's second piece,A Poem to Mr. E. L. on his Majesty's dissolving the late Parliament at Oxford, 28 March 1681.
About this period Kennett was introduced toAnthony Wood, who employed him in collecting epitaphs and notices of eminent Oxford men. In his diary, 2 March 1681–2, Wood notes that he had directed five shillings to be given to Kennett "for pains he hath taken for me in Kent". On 2 May 1682 Kennett graduatedBA, and next year published a version ofErasmus'sThe Praise of Folly (Moriæ Encomium), under the title ofWit against Wisdom: or a Panegyric upon Folly, 1683, 8vo. In the following year he contributed the life ofChabrias to the edition ofCornelius Nepos, "done into English by several hands". He commencedMA on 22 January 1684, and having taken holy orders he became curate and assistant to Samuel Blackwell, B.D., vicar and schoolmaster ofBicester, Oxfordshire.Sir William Glynne presented him in September 1685 to the neighbouring vicarage ofAmbrosden. Soon afterwards he publishedAn Address of Thanks to a good Prince; presented in the Panegyric of Pliny upon Trajan, the best of Roman Emperors, London, 1686, 8vo, with a high-flown preface expressing his loyalty to the throne.[2]
Kennett's political views were quickly modified by dislike of the ecclesiastical policy ofJames II. He preached a series of discourses against "popery", refused to read theDeclaration of Indulgence in 1688, and acted with the majority of the clergy in the diocese of Oxford when they rejected an address to the king recommended by Bishop Parker. Hearne relates that at the beginning of theGlorious Revolution Kennett lent Dodwell a manuscript treatise, composed by himself and never printed, offering arguments for taking the oaths of allegiance and supremacy to William and Mary. Subsequently, Kennett openly supported the cause of the revolution, and thereby exposed himself to much obloquy from his former friends, who called him "Weathercock Kennett". In January 1689, while shooting at Middleton Stoney, his gun burst and fractured his skull. The operation oftrepanning was successfully performed, but he was obliged to wear a large black patch of velvet on his forehead during the remainder of his life.[2]
After a few years' absence at Ambrosden he returned to Oxford as tutor and vice-principal ofSt Edmund Hall, and in September 1691 was chosen lecturer ofSt Martin's, commonly called Carfax, Oxford. He was also appointed a public lecturer in the schools, and filled the office of pro-proctor for two successive years. He proceededBD on 5 May 1694. In February 1694–5 he was presented by William Cherry to the rectory ofShottesbrooke, Berkshire. He was createdDD at Oxford on 19 July 1700, and in the same year was presented to the rectory ofSt Botolph's Aldgate. He resigned the vicarage of Ambrosden, and did not obtain possession of St Botolph's without a lawsuit. On 15 February 1701 he was installed in theprebend of Combe and Harnham, in the church of Salisbury.[2]
Kennett's historical and antiquarian researches had meanwhile procured him some reputation. FromDr George Hickes (afterwardsnonjuring bishop of Thetford), who lived for a time in seclusion with him at Ambrosden, he received instruction in the Anglo-Saxon and other northern tongues. For several years the two scholars were on the most friendly terms, but eventually there was an open rupture between them, owing to religious and political differences. Kennett contributed a life ofWilliam Somner to theJames Brome's edition of that antiquary'sTreatise of the Roman Ports and Forts in Kent (1693), and the biography was enlarged and reissued in Somner'sTreatise of Gavelkind, 2nd edition 1726. His reputation as atopographer andphilologist was enhanced by hisParochial Antiquities attempted in the History of Ambrosden, Burcester, and other adjacent parts in the counties of Oxford and Bucks, with a Glossary of Obsolete Terms, Oxford, 1695, 4to, dedicated to his patron, Sir W. Glynne. A new edition, greatly enlarged from the author's manuscript notes, was issued at Oxford (2 volumes 1818, 4to) under the editorship ofBulkeley Bandinel. While engaged on this work the question of lay impropriations had come much under his notice, and he published "for the terror of evil-doers" theHistory and Fate of Sacrilege, discovered by examples of Scripture, of Heathens, of Christians, London, 1698, 8vo, written bySir Henry Spelman in 1632, but omitted from the edition of that author'sPosthumous Works.[2]
Kennett was now chaplain toBishop Gardiner of Lincoln, and on 15 May 1701 became archdeacon of Huntingdon. Thereupon he entered into a controversy withFrancis Atterbury about the rights ofConvocation, and ably supportedDr Wake andEdmund Gibson in their contention that convocation had few inherent rights of independent action. In Warburton's view, Kennett's arguments were based on precedents, while Atterbury's rested on principles. OnArchbishop Tenison's recommendation he was appointed in 1701 one of the original members of theSociety for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. In a sermon preached in his parish church of Aldgate on 31 January 1703–4, the fast day for the martyrdom ofCharles I, Kennett acknowledged that there had been some errors in his reign, owing to a 'popish' queen and a corrupt ministry, whose policy tended in the direction of an absolute tyranny. To correct exaggerated statements made about this sermon, Kennett printed it under the title ofA Compassionate Enquiry into the Causes of the Civil War, London (three editions), 1704, 4to. It elicited many angry replies from his high-church opponents.[2]
In 1704 he publishedThe Case of Impropriations, and of the Augmentation of Vicarages, and other insufficient Cures, stated by History and Law, from the first Usurpations of the Popes and Monks, to her Majesty's Royal Bounty lately extended to the poorer Clergy of the Church of England. A copy of this work, bound in two vols., with copious additions by the author, was formerly in the possession ofRichard Gough, and is now in theBodleian Library. In 1705 some booksellers undertook a collection of the best works on English history down to the reign ofCharles II, and induced Kennett to write a continuation to the time ofQueen Anne. Although it appeared anonymously as the third volume of theCompleat History of England, 1706, fol., the author's name soon became known, and he was exposed to renewed attacks from hisJacobite enemies. A new edition, with corrections, was published in 1719, but it was not until 1740 that there appearedRoger North'sExamen, or an Inquiry into the Credit and Veracity of a pretended Complete History, viz. Dr. White Kennett's "History of England". His popularity at court was increased by the published denunciations of his views, and he was appointed chaplain in ordinary to her majesty. He was installed in the deanery of Peterborough 21 February 1707–8. A few days previously he had been collated to the prebend of Marston St Laurence, in the church of Lincoln.[2]
A sermon which he preached at the funeral of the firstDuke of Devonshire on 5 September 1707, and which laid him open to the charge of encouraging a deathbed repentance, was published by Henry Hills, without a dedication, in 1707. To a second edition, published by John Churchill in 1708, with a dedication toWilliam, second duke of Devonshire, was appendedMemoirs of the Family of Cavendish, a separate edition of which was published by Hills in the same year. A new edition of the sermon, with the author's manuscript corrections, was published byJohn Nichols in 1797, but very few copies were sold, and the remainder were destroyed by fire. The imputation against Kennett was fresh in the memory ofAlexander Pope when in theEssay on Criticism he wrote:[2]
Then unbelieving priests reformed the nation,
And taught more pleasing methods of salvation.
Kennett's subsequent preferment was naturally connected by his enemies with the strain of adulatory reference to the second duke with which the sermon concludes.[2]
In 1707, desiring more leisure for study, he resigned the rectory of St Botolph, Aldgate, and obtained the less remunerative rectory ofSt Mary Aldermary, London. During this period he published numerous sermons, and his pen was actively engaged in support of his party. He zealously opposed the doctrine of the invalidity of lay baptism, and his answer toHenry Sacheverell's sermon preached before the lord mayor on 5 November 1709 raised a storm of indignation. In 1710 he was severely censured for not joining in the congratulatory address of the London clergy to the queen, which was drawn up on the accession of the tories to office after Sacheverell's trial. Kennett and others who declined to subscribe it were represented as enemies to the crown and ministry.
Richard Welton, rector ofSt Mary Matfelon, Whitechapel, introduced into an altar-piece in his church a portrait of Kennett to representJudas Iscariot. It was stated that the rector had caused Kennett's figure to be substituted for that ofGilbert Burnet at the suggestion of the painter, who feared an action ofscandalum magnatum if Burnet were introduced. A print of the picture in the library of theSociety of Antiquaries is accompanied with these manuscript lines byMichel Maittaire:
To say the picture does to him belong,
Kennett does Judas and the Painter wrong.
False is the image, the resemblance faint:
Judas compared to Kennett is a Saint.
Multitudes of people visited the church daily to see the painting, butHenry Compton, bishop of London, soon ordered its removal. For many years afterwards it is said to have ornamented the high altar atSt Albans Cathedral.[2]
To advance the interests of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, Kennett made a collection of books, charts, maps, and documents, with the intention of composing aHistory of the Propagation of Christianity in the English-American Colonies, and on the relinquishment of that project he presented his collections to the corporation, and printed a catalogue entitledBibliothecæ Americanæ Primordia, London, 1713, 4to, afterwards republished with additions byHenry Homer the elder, 1789, 4to. He also founded an antiquarian and historical library at Peterborough, and enriched the library of that church with some scarce books, including an abstract of the manuscript collections made by Dr John Cosens, bishop of that see, and a copiously annotated copy ofGunton'sHistory of Peterborough. The collection, consisting of about fifteen hundred books and tracts, was placed in a private room at Peterborough, and a manuscript catalogue was drawn up and subscribedIndex librorum aliquot vetustorum quos in commune bonum congessit W. K., Decan. Petriburg. MDCCXII.[2]
On 25 July 1713 Kennett was installed prebendary of Farrendon-cum-Balderton at Lincoln. He preached vehemently against theJacobite rising of 1715, and in the two following years warmly advocated the repeal of the acts againstoccasional conformity. In theBangorian controversy he opposed the proceedings of convocation againstBishop Hoadly. By the influence of his friendDr Charles Trimnell, bishop of Norwich and afterwards of Winchester, he was appointed bishop of Peterborough; he was consecrated atLambeth on 9 November 1718, and had permission to hold the archdeaconry of Huntingdon and a prebend in Salisbury in commendam. He died ten years later at his house inSt James's Street Westminster, on 19 December 1728. He was buried inPeterborough Cathedral, where a marble monument with a brief Latin inscription was erected to his memory.[2]
He married first, on 6 June 1693, Sarah, only daughter of Robert and Mary Carver of Bicester (she died on 2 March 1693–4, sine prole); secondly, on 6 June 1695, Sarah, sister of Richard Smith, M.D., of London and Aylesbury (she died in August 1702); thirdly, in 1703, Dorcas, daughter of Thomas Fuller, D.D., rector of Wellinghale, Essex, and widow of Clopton Havers, M.D. (she died 9 July 1743). His second wife bore him a son, White Kennett, rector of Burton-le-Coggles, Lincolnshire, and prebendary of Peterborough, Lincoln, and London, who died on 6 May 1740; and a daughter Sarah, who married John Newman of Shottesbrook, Berkshire, and died on 22 February 1756. Hearne, writing on 26 April 1707, says that Kennett's 'present [his third] wife wears the breeches, as his haughty, insolent temper deserves'.[2]
His biographer, the Rev. William Newton, admits that his zeal as a whig partisan sometimes carried him to extremes, but he was very charitable, and displayed great moderation in his relations with the dissenters. He is now remembered chiefly as a painstaking and laborious antiquary, especially in the department of ecclesiastical biography. The number of his works both in print and manuscript shows him to have been throughout his life a man of incredible diligence and application. He was always ready to communicate the results of his researches to fellow-students.[2]
Probably his best-known work, apart from hisCompleat History, was hisRegister and Chronicle, Ecclesiastical and Civil: containing Matters of Fact delivered in the words of the most Authentick Books, Papers, and Records; digested in exact order of time. With papers, notes, and references towards discovering and connecting the true History of England fromthe Restauration of King Charles II, volume 1 published in London in 1728. The materials for this are preserved in theBritish Library as part three of theLansdowne manuscripts (manuscripts 1002 to 1010). The published volume spans 1660 to December 1662; the rest of the work in manuscript runs to 1679.[2] Many other Kennett's manuscripts went intoJames West's library aspresident of the Royal Society, being purchased in 1773 by the1st Marquess of Lansdowne, ending up in the same national collection.
Kennett published more than twelve sermons preached on public occasions between 1694 and 1728, and others in support of charity schools (cited inThe Excellent Daughter, 1708; 11th edit. 1807) or of theSociety for the Propagation of the Gospel (relevant to his sermon of 1712). His addresses to his clergy at Peterborough on his first visitation were issued in 1720. Kennett was also the author of :[2]
Hearne inserted into a volume of his version of the visually stunning work in the Bodleian Library Leland'sItinerary[3] a critique or correction from Kennett "concerning a passage" Hearne produced in volume four. Some manuscript verses by Kennett onReligious and Moral Subjects, translated from some of the chief Italian Poets, belonged to S. W. Rix in 1855, and manuscript notes by Kennett, written in a Bible, were printed inNotes and Queries for 1885. Sir Walter Scott repeated, in hisLife of Swift, p. 137, how Kennett perceived Swift's attendance in Queen Anne's antechamber in November 1713.[2]
His manuscripts now number 935 to 1041 in the British Library Lansdowne collection as tabulated below. Chiefly:[2]
| Name | Lansdowne manuscript number(s) |
|---|---|
| Diptycha Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ; sive Tabulæ Sacræ in quibus facili ordine recensentur Archiepiscopi, Episcopi, eorumque Suffraganei, Vicarii Generales, et Cancellarii. Ecclesiarum insuper Cathedralium Priores, Decani, Thesaurarii, Præcentores, Cancellarii, Archidiaconi, et melioris notæ Canonici continua serie deducti a Gulielmi I conquæstu ad auspicata Gul. III tempora | 935 |
| Diaries and Accounts (chiefly commonplace books) | 936, 937 |
| An Alphabetical Catalogue of English Archbishops, Bishops, Deans, Archdeacons, &c., from the 12th to the 17th century | 962 |
| Biographical Memoranda, many of them relating to the English Clergy from 1500 to 1717 | 978–987 |
| Materials for an Ecclesiastical History of England from 1500 to 1717 | 1021–1024 |
| Collections for a History of the Diocese of Peterborough; with Particulars of all the Parishes in Northamptonshire | 1025–1029 |
| Notes and Memoranda of Proceedings in Parliament and Convocation | 1037 |
| Collections for the Life of Dr John Colet, Dean of St Paul's, with a Letter of Advice and Instruction toDr Samuel Knight, by whom they were Digested and Published | 1030 |
| Materials relating to the History of Convocations | 1031 |
| Etymological Collections of English Words and Provincial Expressions | 1033 |
| Letters to Bishop Kennett from Dorcas his wife, 1702–28 | 101 |
He also made copious annotations in an interleaved copy of the first edition of Wood'sAthenæ Oxonienses. This copy was purchased byRichard Gough, from the library of James West, and is now preserved in theBodleian Library. Kennett's notes are incorporated by Bliss in his edition of Wood. They consist chiefly of extracts from parish registers and from other ecclesiastical documents.[2]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Kennett, White".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 15 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 732. This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Kennett, White (1892). "Kennett, White". InLee, Sidney (ed.).Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 31. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
| Church of England titles | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Dean of Peterborough 1707–1718 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Bishop of Peterborough 1718–1728 | Succeeded by |
