Rann Kennedy

Kennedy was baptised on 28 August 1772 at St Philip's Church, Birmingham. His father Benjamin Kennedy was of Scottish origin, being descended from a branch of the Ayrshire Kennedys, which settled at Shenstone, 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 of inoculation, and settled at Annapolis, Maryland with his family. On his death in 1784, Rann returned with his mother to her family's home in Withington, near Shrewsbury, and was brought up there.^[1][2]

In 1791 he went to St John's College, Cambridge, and there he formed a lasting friendship with Samuel Taylor Coleridge. After obtaining his degree (B.A. 1795 and M.A. 1798) he took holy orders, and accepted a mastership in King Edward's School, Birmingham, becoming second master in 1807. From 1797 to 1817 he was also curate of St 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 and Samuel Parr were important friends. He died at his son Charles's house in St Paul's Square, Birmingham, on 2 January 1851.^[1]

In 1802 he married Julia, daughter of the engraver John Hall, and Mary de Gilles, a French Huguenot. His wife's brother, George William Hall, was master of Pembroke College, Oxford and canon of Gloucester. Their sons were Benjamin Hall Kennedy and Charles Rann Kennedy; a third son, George John (died 1847), was master at Rugby 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 the National Society for the Promotion of Education, was from 1848 to 1878 H.M. inspector of schools, and was vicar of Barnwood, Gloucestershire, from 1878 until his death. The sons had very distinguished careers at Cambridge; all won the Porson Prize, and the three elder were senior classics (1827, 1831, 1834).^[1]