Author: Kennedy, James
Biography:
by
Ragaz, Sharon (SR)
KENNEDY, James (1770-1862: ancestry.co.uk)
He was baptised on 8 Dec. 1770 at Dryfesdale, Dumfriesshire, the son of John Kennedy and his wife Janet Dobie. Kennedy became a teacher in Sanquhar, Dumfriesshire. Likely he was married several times; one poem records what may have been the death of his first wife in childbirth. The only record that can be linked to him with any certainty is for his marriage to Elizabeth Nivison on 4 Mar. 1831. The 1851 Census shows him as a visitor to another family of Kennedys; his occupation is given as poet. The 1861 Census records him as a retired teacher. He died in 1862. One of his poems in Poems and Songs is addressed to John Johnstone (q.v.); another is addressed to the shoes he wore while travelling the country seeking subscriptions for the first edition of the book. Kennedy published two more books: Miscellaneous Poems and Songs (Dumfries, 1843) and Tales, Poems and Songs (Dumfries, 1843; second edition as Poems and Prose Tales [Dumfries, 1849]). Some but by no means all of his poems are in Scots. (ancestry.co.uk 9 Sept 2019, 23 July 2026; Scotland's People; contribution by AA) SR