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VIII. — A Brief Memoir of the late John Kennedy, Esq. 

 By William Fairbairn, Esq. 



Bead April 3rd, i860. 



The subject of the present memoir was born at Knock- 

 mailing, in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright^ N.B., on the 

 4th of July 1769. He was the third of five sons^ and his 

 father (who died at middle age) was a laird, living upon 

 the paternal property which had descended through a long 

 line of Kennedys for upwards of three hundred years. Of 

 the education of his sons little can be said, as in such 

 remote mountain districts no regular school was within 

 reach, and they only received occasional instruction from 

 some young graduate of the kirk, who took up his resi- 

 dence amongst the farmers in the winter months. In this 

 way they were taught to read and write, though unfortu- 

 nately what was learnt in the winter was in many cases 

 lost in the summer, when all able to work were employed 

 in the field, or in watching the sheep and cattle on the bare 

 mountain pastures. Mr. Kennedy was, however, fortunate 

 in receiving the instructions of Mr. Alexander Robb, who 

 first directed his attention to the elementary principles of 

 mechanics and mechanical movements. 



On the death of his father, the whole management of 

 the farm and of the family devolved upon the mother, who 

 appears to have been a woman of strong good sense, who 



