Author: Kennedy, George Blair
Biography:
KENNEDY, George Blair (c. 1802-65: ancestry.co.uk)
Little biographical information is available. A death notice identifes him as the second son of James Kennedy, Ancrum, near Jedburgh in Scotland. A James Kennedy of Ancrum married Margaret Oliver in Ancrum on 5 Mar. 1797; this may have been George's mother. The preface to his book (dedicated to the Marquis of Lothian) states that his only education was “at the school of his native village.” He married Eleanor Cowan in Edinburgh on 12 Feb. 1826 and they had three daughters and a son. In 1832 he was a bookkeeper in Edinburgh but by the time of the 1851 census the family was living at Shoreditch, London. The 1861 Census shows them living with the family of one of the daughters, Helen. He died from heart disease and hemoptysis at 27 Sherbourne St., Islington, on 21 Mar. 1865, aged 63, and was buried at Victoria Park cemetery, Hackney. (ancestry.co.uk 6 Sept 2019, 18 Aug. 2025; Teviotdale Record and Jedburgh Advertiser 8 Apr. 1865; death certificate) SR