William Kennedy (1799–1871) was a Scottish poet, journalist and writer, known also as a diplomat.

Life

Kennedy was born on 26 December 1799, near

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

, where his father, an Ayrshire man, worked as a manufacturer. He was a student at the Belfast Academical Institution in 1819, and then studied at George Lawson's seminary for dissenting students at Selkirk. Subsequently he was in Paisley, assisting William Motherwell on the ''Paisley Magazine''. Kennedy left Paisley in 1828, and for a short time afterwards was probably a journalist in

Kingston upon Hull Kingston upon Hull, usually abbreviated to Hull, is a port city and unitary authority in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It lies upon the River Hull at its confluence with the Humber Estuary, inland from the North Sea and south-ea ...

, where he married his employer's daughter. In London in 1830 he was writing for a living, and collaborated with

Leitch Ritchie Leitch Ritchie (1800–1865) was a Scottish novelist and journalist. He was born at Greenock and worked as a clerk in Glasgow, but about 1820 adopted literature as his profession. Ritchie wrote four novels, of which the most successful was '' We ...

. There he met

Mary Howitt Mary Howitt (12 March 1799-30 January 1888) was an English poet, the author of the famous poem '' The Spider and the Fly''. She translated several tales by Hans Christian Andersen. Some of her works were written in conjunction with her husband, ...

, in a literary milieu described by Laetitia Elizabeth Landon in ''Romance and Reality''.spenserians.cath.vt.edu, ''William Kennedy: Mary Howitt, 1831 ca.; An Autobiography (1889) 1:218.''
/ref> Kennedy was appointed as secretary to

John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham John George Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, (12 April 1792 – 28 July 1840), also known as "Radical Jack" and commonly referred to in Canadian history texts simply as Lord Durham, was a British Whig statesman, colonial administrator, Governor G ...

when he went to Canada in 1838 as governor-general. The ailing Durham retired at the end of the year, and Kennedy travelled in America, sending to London a municipal report on Canadian institutions, which was printed for parliamentary use. He was for some months in the Republic of Texas, and returning to England at the end of 1839 became an advocate for its interests. He criticised

Daniel O'Connell Daniel O'Connell (I) ( ga, Dónall Ó Conaill; 6 August 1775 – 15 May 1847), hailed in his time as The Liberator, was the acknowledged political leader of Ireland's Roman Catholic majority in the first half of the 19th century. His mobilizat ...

's suggestion that the independent Texas should be recognised only with the consent of

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. In December 1841 he went as British consul to

Galveston Galveston ( ) is a coastal resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a population of 47,743 in 2010, is the county seat of surrounding Galvesto ...

. In 1847 Kennedy returned to the United Kingdom, in poor health. In 1849 he retired on a pension, first to the neighbourhood of London, and then to Paris, where he was an invalid until his death in 1871.

Works

After an early story ''My Early Days'', Kennedy won a reputation in 1827 with ''Fitful Fancies'',’ a collection of short poems. In 1830 appeared ''The Arrow and the Rose, and other Poems'', his best-known work. There followed ''The Continental Annual and Romantic Cabinet for 1832'', London, 1831, and ''The Siege of Antwerp, an historical play'', London, 1838. Many of Kennedy's lyrics are in '' Whistle Binkie''. In 1841 Kennedy published, in two volumes, with an autobiographical preface, ''The Rise, Progress, and Prospects of the Republic of Texas''.

Notes

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Kennedy, William 1799 births 1871 deaths Scottish poets Scottish journalists Scottish diplomats 19th-century poets