Author: Kennedy, William
Biography:
KENNEDY, William (1799-1871: ODNB)
He was born on 26 Dec. 1799 in Scotland to James Kennedy and his wife, Ann (Davis) Kennedy. His father became a cotton manufacturer in Dublin, but both parents died before William was an adult. He was educated at the Belfast Academical Institution before studying theology at Dr Lawson’s Seminary, Selkirk, and being licensed to preach in 1822 (his father’s will stipulated that he could inherit only if he became a clergyman). He left the ministry after a year and by 1826 was living in Paisley where he met William Motherwell (q.v.). His first publication, My Early Days—a fictional work for children—was issued that year and went to numerous reprints. Thereafter, Kennedy enjoyed a peripatetic life with a range of occupations, including magazine editing with Motherwell, legal studies in London where he was admitted to the Inner Temple on 4 Oct. 1828, government employment looking at municipal institutions of Lower Canada, and political work on the slave trade treaty in Texas. He met and married his wife in Hull in the 1830s but her identity is unknown. He was appointed Texan consul-general in London in 1842 but resigned later the same year to become British consul to Galveston TX—a post he held until 1847 when he returned to England in poor health. In 1849 he retired on a government pension, living in London and then in Paris where he died in Spring 1871. (ODNB 9 Sept 2019; Texas State Historical Association; Records of the Inner Temple) SR