and the want of sufficient assistance from the gentlemen with whom he consulted concerning his design, prevented him from carrying it into execution. At his first settling in his diocese, he found so much deplorable ignorance among the adult poor, that he had but little hope of their improvement; but he said that he would try whether he could not lay a foundation to make the next generation better. With this view he established many schools in all the great towns of his diocese, in which poor children were taught to read, and say their catechism; and for this purpose he wrote and published his "Exposition on the Church Catechism." By this means he engaged his clergy to be more diligent in instructing the lower orders; and he at the same time furnished them with the necessary books for the children, and also established numerous parochial libraries. These patriotic and humane exertions soon produced good effects, which were seen and felt in the more regular manners, and the moral and religious improvement of the objects of them, and deserve to be recorded in honour of the bishop. To such, and other benevolent purposes, after supplying the wants of his necessitous relations, did Dr. Ken devote the income of his see. His charity indeed was so extensive, that, not long before the revolution, having received from his bishopric a fine of four thousand pounds, he gave a great part of it for the relief of the French Protestants; and so little did he take anxious thought for the morrow, that on his subsequent deprivation, the sale of all his effects, his books excepted, did not produce more than seven hundred pounds..

Upon the accession of king James II. our prelate possessed, to all appearance, the same degree of favour at court as in the preceding reign; and attempts were made to gain him over to the interest of the popish party. They failed, however, of success, and had the contrary effect of stimulating his zeal in defence of the protestantre ligion, and the establishment of which he was a member. It is true that he sustained no part in the celebrated popish controversy of the day; but in the pulpit, where his popular talents secured to him crowded audiences, he frequently took the opportunity to point out and confute the errors of Popery. One circumstance which recommended him to king James's favour, was his being a warm advocate for the doctrine of passive obedience and non resistance: but, when the king claimed a power of dispensing with the penal laws, and commanded his declaration of indulgence to

be read by the clergy, he found it expedient to renounce that principle, and to act on more constitutional grounds. On this occasion, he was one of the seven bishops who openly opposed the reading of the declaration, suppressed those copies of it which were sent to them to be read in their dioceses, and petitioned his majesty not to insist on their compliance with a command which was illegal, and to which they could not in honour or conscience submit. The consequences of this resistance to the king's pleasure were, his imprisonment with his petitioning brethren in the Tower, and their acquittal, on a charge of treason, by the verdict of their country. Our prelate's conscience, however, would not permit him to transfer his allegiance to another sovereign on the abdication of king James. When, therefore, William and Mary were seated on the throne, and the new oath of allegiance was required, for refusing it he was deprived of his bishopric. After his deprivation he resided chiefly at Long-leat, a seat of lord viscount Weymouth in Wiltshire, occupied in his studies, and the composition of pious works, in prose and verse. The latter afford greater evidence of his devotional spirit, than of his poetical genius, and served to divert his mind while suffering under the attacks of a painful disorder. In his retirement, he appears to have taken no share in any of the disputes, or political intrigues of his party, and not to have excited any jealousy in the existing government. He differed also from those of his nonjuring brethren, who were for continuing a separation from the established church by private consecrations among themselves; yet he looked upon his spiritual relation to his diocese to be in full force during the life of his first successor, Dr. Kidder. Upon his death, and the nomination of Dr. Hooper to the diocese by queen Anne, he requested that gentleman to accept it, and afterwards subscribed himself, "late bishop of Bath and Wells;" from which time the queen settled on him a pension of two hundred pounds a year, which he enjoyed as long as he lived. For several years he had been afflicted with severe colicky pains, and in 1710 discovered symptoms which were ascribed to an ulcer in his kidneys. Having spent the summer at Bristol, in the hope of receiving benefit from the hot well, he removed to a seat belonging to the hon. Mrs. Thynne, at Leweston in Dorsetshire, where an attack of the palsy confined, him to his chamber for some months. He died on a journey from thence to Bath, at Long-leat, March 19, 1710-11, in the seventy

fourth year of his age. It is reported of him, that he had travelled for many years with his shroud in his portmanteau; and that he put it on as soon as he came to Long-leat, of which he gave notice on the day before his death, in order to prevent his body from being stripped. He published, "A Manual of Prayers for the Use of the Scholars of Winchester College," 1681, 12mo.; "An Exposition of the Church Catechism, or, Practice of Divine Love, composed for the Diocese of Bath and Wells," 1685, 8vo., to which were afterwards added "Directions for Prayer, taken out of the Church Catechism;" "A Pastoral Letter to the Clergy of the Diocese of Bath and Wells, concerning their Behaviour during Lent," 1688, quarto; some single "Sermons," preached on public occasions; and he left behind him numerous poems, which were printed in 1721, in four volumes 8vo., under the title of "The Works of the right reverend, learned, and pious Thomas Ken, D.D. &c." Biog. Britan. Gen. Dict. Wood's Ath. Ovon. Vol. II.-M. KENNETT, WHITE, a learned English prelate and antiquarian in the seventeenth, and early part of the eighteenth century, was the son of the rev. Basil Kennett, rector of Dimchurch in Kent, and was born at Dover, in the year 1660. He had the first part of his education at Eleham and Wye, two country schools in the neighbourhood; where he made such good progress in classical learning, that upon his being removed to Westminster, with the view of obtaining a place on the foundation, he was admitted into the upper school. At the time of the election, however, he unfortunately fell sick of the small pox; when his father, who thought it not adviseable that he should wait another year, accepted of an offer which was made him of becoming tutor for twelve months to the sons of a gentleman in his neighbourhood. He acquitted himself in this post greatly to the satisfaction of the family, till his removal to Oxford in 1678, when he was recommended by his countryman the learned Dr. Wallis to Edmund-hall, where he was placed under the care of Mr. Allam, a celebrated tutor at that time. In this society, by the diligence of his application to his studies, and his rapid improvement, he gained the warm esteem of his tutor, who took a particular delight in imposing tasks and exercises upon him, which he would often read in the common room, before the masters and gentlemen commoners, in order to furnish himself with opportunities of commending his pupil. The same gentleman also introduced him very early,

while he was an under graduate, to the acquaintance of Anthony Wood, who employed him in collecting epitaphs, and other notices of eminent and learned men who had been members of the university of Oxford. And though Mr. Kennett's condition was only that of a battler or semi-commoner, the lowest of those who were supported at their own expence, yet his character and manners recommended him to the conversation and friendship of those in the highest, of which he reaped the benefit in future life. The studies to which he was chiefly attached, were the different branches of polite literature; but with a particular genius and inclination for the study of antiquities and history. His career as an author, however, commenced in the publication of a political tract, while he was an undergraduate, and entitled, "A Letter from a Student at Oxford to a Friend in the Country, concerning the approaching Parliament, in Vindication of his Majesty, the Church of England, and the University," 1680, 8vo. was written in defence of the court measures, and supported notions which he renounced in his maturer years. The Whig party in parliament, as it was then begun to be called, were so much offended with it, that enquiries were made after the author, in order to have him punished: but the sudden dissolution of parliament preserved him from the effects of their resentment On this event he printed, in the same party spirit, "A Poem (or Ballad) to Mr. E L. on his Majesty's dissolving the late Parliament at Oxford," 1681.

Mr. Kennett was admitted to the degree of B. A. in 1682; and in the following year he published an English translation of Erasmus's

Moria Encomium," entitled, "Wit against Wisdom, or a Panegyric upon Folly." This was one of the exercises which had been prescribed to him by his tutor; as was also "The Life of Chabrias," printed among the translations of the lives of illustrious men by "Cornelius Nepos," by several hands, and published at Oxford in 1684, 8vo. About this time he entered into holy orders, and became curate and assistant to Mr. Samuel Blackwell, vicar and schoolmaster of Burcester in Oxfordshire. In 1685, he proceeded M. A. and in the same year was presented by sir William Glynne, bart. the father of one of his friends and fellowcollegians at Oxford, to the vicarage of Amersden, or Ambrosden, in Oxfordshire. To this patron he dedicated, " An Address of Thanks to a good Prince, presented in the Panegyric of Pliny upon Trajan, the best of the Roman

Emperors," which translation had been another of his college exercises, and was published in 1686, 8vo. Mr. Kennett was too young a divine to take a part in the famous popish controversy; but he distinguished himself by preaching against Popery. In the same spirit he afterwards refused to read king James's declaration of indulgence in 1688, and concurred with the body of the clergy in the diocese of Oxford, in rejecting an address to his majesty which had been recommended by bishop Parker in the same year. In 1689, while engaged in the exercise of shooting, his gun burst, and he received a dangerous wound in the forehead by a splinter from it, which fractured his skull, and rendered it necessary for him to undergo the severe operation of trepanning. During the sleepless hours which followed his mind was calm and active, and as he lay on his bed he composed some Latin verses, which he dictated to a friend, and which good judges pronounced "to be no reproach to the author." In the autumn of the present year he was chosen lecturer of St. Martin's, commonly called Carfax, in Oxford, having for some time returned to that city, on being invited to become tutor and vice-principal at Edmundhall, where he lived in friendship with the principal, the learned Dr. John Mill, who was at this time employed in preparing for the press his celebrated edition of the New Testament. Our author's character now stood so high in the university, that he was first appointed a public lecturer in the schools, and afterwards chosen proproctor two years successively. The next piece which he sent to the press was "The Life of Mr. William Somner," which was prefixed to Mr. Brome's edition of that famous antiquary's "Treatise of the Roman Ports and Forts in Kent," and published with it in 1693. In that year he was presented, by the father of another of his fellow-collegians, to the rectory of Shottesbrook, in Berkshire; but he still continued to reside at Oxford, where the study of antiquities particularly flourished under the influence of his example, and by the advantage of his instructions. A striking testimony of the high opinion entertained of his proficiency in this branch of knowledge, may be seen in the elegant Latin dedication to him of Mr., afterwards bishop, Gibson's translation of Somner's treatise in answer to Chifflet, "concerning the Situation of the Portus Iccius," on the coast of France, where Cæsar embarked for the invasion of this island.

Mr. Kennett was admitted to the degree of bachelor of divinity in 1694; and in the fol

lowing year he published his very learned and accurate work, entitled "Parochial Antiquities attempted in the History of Ambrosden, Burcester, and other adjacent Parishes in the Counties of Oxford and Bucks," quarto. While he was drawing up this work, he was frequently led to take into consideration the subject of impropriations; and as he had this part of the revenue of the church much at heart, in 1698 he published sir Henry Spelman's "History and Fate of Sacriledge," with additional authorities and facts collected by himself. That he might be the better qualified to pursue these antiquarian researches with success, he now set about improving himself in the Saxon and northern tongues, and, particularly, the derivation of our oldest English words from the Gothic, and other Norman dialects, under the instruction of the celebrated Dr. Hickes; with whom he had been for some time intimately acquainted, and who had taken shelter in the parsonage house at Ambrosden, when under prosecution for his proceedings on his deprivation from the deanery of Worcester. To divert his friend's attention from political controversy, Mr. Kennett engaged him to review his Saxon and Icelandic grammars, and to embellish them with notes and observations which might revive and improve the knowledge of our antiquities, in the origin and conveyance of our laws, customs, tenures, and other national rights. His conversation and importunity also succeeded in persuading Dr. Hickes to undertake, and in that asylum to lay the foundation of his learned and valuable work, entitled, "Antiquæ Literaturæ Septentrionalis, Lib. II. ;" as the author acknowledges in the preface, when he observes, "that if it shall be found to be of any advantage to the learned world, it was certainly owing to him, as the encourager and promoter of it." About the year 1699, Mr. Kennett took the degree of doctor of divinity; and in 1700, without any solicitation on his part, he was appointed minister of St. Botolph, Aldgate, in the city of London. As this was a very extensive and populous parish, he immediately resigned the vicarage of Ambrosden, notwithstanding that he might have legally retained it together with his new preferment. In 1701, he embarked, in opposition to Dr. Atterbury and the high church party, in the controversy about the rights of the convocation; of which body he became a member about this time, as archdeacon of Huntingdon, to which dignity he was promoted by Dr. Gardiner, bishop of Lincoln, who had appointed him his chaplain some

time before. For the titles of his pieces in this dispute, we refer to our authorities.

Dr. Kennett had now grown into high esteem with the moderate party in the church, and particularly with Dr. Tenison, archbishop of Canterbury; at whose recommendation he was chosen, in 1701, a member of the society for propagating the Gospel in foreign parts: and he afterwards rendered it essential service by his zealous exertions in promoting its progress and success. In 1705, upon the advancement of Dr. Wake to the see of Lincoln, our archdeacon was appointed to preach his consecration sermon; which was published at the desire of the archbishop and bishops, and was so much admired by lord chief justice Holt, that he pronounced it to contain more to the purpose of the legal and Christian constitution of the church of England, than any volume of discourses. On the 30th of January following, he preached before the House of Commons, and was under the necessity of printing his discourse, to vindicate himself against the calumnies propagated concerning it. About this time, some booksellers undertook to publish a collection of the best writers of the lives and reigns of our several English princes from the time of the Norman invasion; but after having laid their plan, they found it necessary that some of the later reigns should be written by a new hand. Upon their application to Dr. Kennett, he consented to engage in the work; and the whole was published in 1706, in three volumes folio, under the title of "A complete History of England, &c." The first and second volumes were collected by Mr. John Hughes, who also wrote the general preface; and the third, containing the reigns of Charles I. Charles II. James II. and William III. was entirely written by our author. His name, indeed, was not prefixed to it; yet it was soon known that he was the writer, and much abuse was thrown out against him by the jacobite party, who thought it not sufficiently favourable to their principles of passive obedience, non-resistance, and divine hereditary right. Among others, his old friend Dr. Hickes was exceedingly incensed against him, and complained that he had not paid a due respect to his book "Jovian," and to the opinions contained in it. A second edition of this work made its appearance in 1719, with notes, said to be inserted by Mr. Strype, and various alterations and additions.

About the year 1707 Dr. Kennett was appointed chaplain in ordinary to her majesty; and in that year preached a funeral sermon on

the death of the first duke of Devonshire, which occasioned great clamours against him, and afforded plausible ground for his enemies to accuse him of encouraging a death-bed repentance, and to insinuate, that "he had built a bridge to heaven for men of wit and parts; but that the duller sort of mankind must not hope to pass that way." In the same year, Dr. Kennett was promoted by the queen to the deanery of Peterborough, and presented to the rectory of St. Mary Aldermary, in the city of London; for which last preferment he exchanged his benefice at Aldgate, that he might have more leisure for retirement and study, though by so doing he made a considerable pecuniary sacrifice. Soon after the appearance of the noted Dr. Sacheverell's sermon, which was preached before the lord mayor of London, on the 5th of November 1709, our author addressed a letter to an alderman of the city concerning that scandalous production, which was printed under the title of "A true Answer to Dr. Sacheverell's Sermon, &c.;" and in the same year he published, "A Vindication of the Church and Clergy of England, from some late Reproaches rudely and unjustly cast upon them," 8vo., written in answer to "An Appeal of the Clergy of the Church of England, to my Lords the Bishops, &c." the production of a violent and noisy high church clergyman, and afterwards a nonjuror. In the year 1710, he preached the Latin sermon at the opening of the convocation, which was immediately printed, as was soon afterwards an English translation of it, with a postscript, in vindication of himself against some reflections cast on him by the Tory party. To the manoeuvres of that party he steadily opposed himself when, in the same year, they procured an address from the majority of the London clergy to the queen, upon the change of the ministry, despising the threat that those who should refuse to subscribe it would be considered as enemies to the queen and her. government. One opinion, favourable to the extension of priestly power, for which some of the high church clergy were at this time advocates, was the necessity of private confession and sacerdotal absolution; and a sermon intended to advance that notion was published by a Dr. Brett, of which complaint was made in. the house of convocation, though the motions. for censuring it were suffered to drop, and the author was justified and commended by his party. To counteract the tendency of such principles, the dean published, in 1712, "A Letter to the reverend Thomas Brett, LL.D.

&c. about a Motion in Convocation ;" and in the same year he also published, with the same view, "A Memorial for Protestants on the Fifth of November, &c. in a Letter to a Peer of Great-Britain :" which was succeeded, in the following year, by an impression of a sermon of archbishop Whitgift, preached before queen Elizabeth, with a preface of his own, relative to the points in debate between him and his antagonists.

The zeal which dean Kennett thus displayed in opposition to the claims of the high-church clergy, and the sentiments of moderation which he discovered towards the dissenters, as well as his attachment to the protestant succession, and the interests of civil liberty, had rendered him so very obnoxious to the violent Tories, that very uncommon methods were taken to expose him; and an extraordinary one in particular, by Dr. Welton, rector of Whitechapel, who was afterwards deprived as a nonjuror. In a new altar-piece of that church, intended to represent Christ and his twelve apostles eating the last supper, Judas was drawn sitting in an elbow-chair, dressed in a black garment between a gown and a cloak, with a black scarf and a white band, a short wig, a mark on his forehead, resembling the black patch with which Dr. Kennett covered the place where he had formerly received his wound, and with so much of that gentleman's countenance, that under it, in effect, was written "the dean the traitor." Such an extraordinary painting drew crowds of people daily to view it but it was esteemed so insolent and profane a prostitution of what was intended for the most sacred use, that upon the complaints of others, without any remonstrance from the dean, who neither saw it, nor seemed to regard it, the bishop of London compelled those who set it up to take it down again. Such efforts of malignity to expose the character of the dean, instead of damping his ardour in the defence of that cause which he had espoused, served only to animate him to farther exertions: and, in the year last mentioned, upon the appearance of Mr. Bedford's "Hereditary Right, &c." he published an answer to it in "A Letter to the Lord Bishop of Carlisle, concerning one of his Predecessors, Bishop Merks, on Occasion of a new Volume for the Pretender, &c." which was followed, at subsequent periods, by two other letters from the dean to the same prelate, in the same controversy. In the mean time, he employed his leisure hours in promoting the designs of the society for propagating the Gospel in foreign parts. With this

view, having made a large collection of books, charts, maps, and papers, at his own expence, in subserviency to a design of writing "A full History of the Propagation of Christianity in the English American Colonies," he presented them to the society, and published a catalogue of them in quarto in the year 1713, entitled, "Bibliothecæ Americanæ Primordia: an Attempt towards laying the Foundation of an American Library, in several Books, Papers, and Writings, &c." This catalogue was published by him, to induce others to make donations to the society of such books as were not in it, and which might be serviceable to the institution. About the same time, he also founded an antiquarian and historical library at Peterborough, consisting of about fifteen hundred volumes and small tracts: among which are most of the printed legends of saints, the oldest rituals and liturgies, the first printed statutes and laws, the most ancient homilies and sermons, the first editions of the English schoolmen, postillers, expounders, &c. with numerous fragments of our ancient language, usage, customs, rights, tenures, and such other things as tend to illustrate the history of Great Britain and Ireland, and the successive state of civil government, religion, and learning in these kingdoms.

After the accession of king George I. to the throne, when dean Kennett found that a rebellion was breaking out in Scotland, and that many in England were disposed to countenance it, he preached with the utmost boldness in defence of the present settlement of the government under the house of Hanover: and when threatened in private letters, that the time was coming when he should be punished for his treason against the lawful king, and it was even hinted by some friends of less spirit. than himself, that wisdom and prudence called for greater caution while the enemy had a sword in his hand; he was used to say, that he was prepared to live and die in the cause against Popery and the pretender, and that he would go out to fight, when he could stay no longer to preach against them. He was also zealous for the repeal of the acts against occasional conformity, and the growth of schism; and warmly opposed the proceedings in the convocation against Dr. Hoadly, then bishop of Bangor, on whose side he was deeply engaged in what is called the Bangorian controversy. The spirit which in these instances he displayed in the service of civil and religious freedom, exasperated his enemies, who were so artful as to excite prejudices against him in