Rann Kennedy (1772 – 2 January 1851) was an English schoolteacher, church minister and poet, acquainted with many notable literary people of the day.
Kennedy was baptised on 28 August 1772 atSt Philip's Church, Birmingham. His father Benjamin Kennedy was of Scottish origin, being descended from a branch of the Ayrshire Kennedys, which settled atShenstone, Staffordshire, early in the eighteenth century. His mother Damaris was the daughter of Illedge Maddox, from a Welsh family. Benjamin Kennedy was a surgeon; he went about 1773 to America to introduce the then fashionable remedy ofinoculation, and settled atAnnapolis, Maryland with his family. On his death in 1784, Rann returned with his mother to her family's home inWithington, near Shrewsbury, and was brought up there.[1][2]
In 1791 he went toSt John's College, Cambridge, and there he formed a lasting friendship withSamuel Taylor Coleridge. After obtaining his degree (B.A. 1795 and M.A. 1798) he took holy orders, and accepted a mastership inKing Edward's School, Birmingham, becoming second master in 1807. From 1797 to 1817 he was also curate ofSt Paul's Church, Birmingham, and from 1817 until about 1847 was the incumbent, his congregation having purchased for him the next presentation. He gave up his school work about 1836 on inheriting from his cousin, John Kennedy, a small property called the Fox Hollies, near Birmingham, where he lived until his death.John Johnstone andSamuel Parr were important friends. He died at his son Charles's house inSt Paul's Square, Birmingham, on 2 January 1851.[1]
In 1802 he married Julia, daughter of the engraverJohn Hall, and Mary de Gilles, a French Huguenot. His wife's brother,George William Hall, was master ofPembroke College, Oxford and canon of Gloucester. Their sons wereBenjamin Hall Kennedy andCharles Rann Kennedy; a third son, George John (died 1847), was master atRugby School; the fourth son, William James Kennedy (1814–1891), educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham and St John's College, Cambridge (B.A. 1837), was ordained in 1838, became first secretary of theNational Society for the Promotion of Education, was from 1848 to 1878 H.M. inspector of schools, and was vicar ofBarnwood, Gloucestershire, from 1878 until his death. The sons had very distinguished careers at Cambridge; all won thePorson Prize, and the three elder were senior classics (1827, 1831, 1834).[1]
His biographerThomas Ethelbert Page wrote: "Kennedy was earnest and enthusiastic, and a determined enemy of intolerance and bigotry. His literary attainments were high, his knowledge of the English poets singularly wide, and he came into personal relations with many eminent men of letters, including, besides Coleridge andWashington Irving,William Wordsworth,James Montgomery,Henry Francis Cary,Charles Kemble andSarah Siddons.[1]
"His own lyric poem entitledThe Reign of Youth exhibits rare qualities of imagination and expression. A poem which he published in 1817 on the death ofthe Princess Charlotte received the highest praise from Washington Irving, who quotes from it in hisSketch-Book."[1]
Kennedy published:[1]
He also contributed notes to the Italian edition ofByron's poems published in 1842, and assisted his son Charles Rann Kennedy in the translation ofVirgil, published in 1849, he undertaking the first fourEclogues, theGeorgics, and the first four books of theAeneid. Some pieces by him will be found in the volume of poems issued by Charles Rann Kennedy in 1857. "The Reign of Youth", with a rendering intopindarics byRichard Claverhouse Jebb, the verses on Princess Charlotte, an address toEdmund Kean, and an unfinished poem, "Haughmond Hill", in the style of Goldsmith'sThe Deserted Village, were published by Benjamin Hall Kennedy in hisBetween Whiles; 2nd edition, 1882.[1]
Attribution
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Page, Thomas Ethelbert (1892). "Kennedy, Rann". InLee, Sidney (ed.).Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 30. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 433–434.