View source for Benjamin Hall Kennedy

{{Short description|English scholar and schoolmaster}}
{{Redirect|Benjamin Kennedy|other people with the name|Ben Kennedy (disambiguation){{!}}Ben Kennedy}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2021}}
{{Use British English|date=March 2012}}
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[[File:Benjamin Hall Kennedy, by Walter William Ouless.jpg|thumb|Benjamin Hall Kennedy ([[Walter William Ouless]], 1883)]]
'''Benjamin Hall Kennedy''' (6 November 1804 – 6 April 1889) was an English scholar and schoolmaster, known for his work in the teaching of the [[Latin language]]. He was an active supporter of [[Newnham College]] and [[Girton College]] as Cambridge University colleges for women.

==Biography==
He was born at [[Summer Hill, Sandwell|Summer Hill]], near [[Birmingham]], the eldest son of [[Rann Kennedy]] (1772–1851), of a branch of the [[Ayrshire]] family which had settled in [[Staffordshire]].  Rann was a scholar and man of letters, several of whose sons rose to distinction. Benjamin was educated at [[King Edward's School, Birmingham]], [[Shrewsbury School]], and [[St John's College, Cambridge]].<ref>{{acad|id=KNDY822BH|name=Kennedy, Benjamin Hall}}</ref> He took frequent part in [[Cambridge Union]] debates and became president in 1825. In 1824 he was elected a member of the Cambridge Conversazione Society, better known as the [[Cambridge Apostles]], and was a winner of a [[Browne medal]]. He was elected Fellow and lecturer in [[Classics]] at St John's College in 1828 and took [[Holy Orders]] the following year. In 1830, he became an assistant master at [[Harrow School|Harrow]].<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=1|wstitle=Kennedy, Benjamin Hall}}</ref>

In 1836, he, his wife and his first child [[Charlotte Burbury|Charlotte Amy May Kennedy]] returned to Shrewsbury when he became headmaster. While they were there Charlotte was joined by [[Marion Kennedy|Marion]], [[Julia Kennedy|Julia]], Edith and Arthur.<ref name=children>Christopher Stray, [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/48417 'Kennedy, Marion Grace (1836–1914)'], Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004, accessed 17 November 2017</ref> In 1841 he became [[prebendary]] of [[Diocese of Lichfield|Lichfield]], and after leaving Shrewsbury he was rector of [[West Felton]], Shropshire, from 1866 to 1868. He remained as headmaster of [[Shrewsbury School]] until 1866, the 30 years being marked by successes for his pupils, chiefly in Classics. When he retired, a large collection was made, and this was used on new school buildings and on founding a [[Latin]] [[professorship]] at Cambridge. The first holders of the [[Kennedy Professor of Latin]] chair were both former pupils of Kennedy, [[Hugh Andrew Johnstone Munro|H. A. J. Munro]] and [[John Eyton Bickersteth Mayor|J. E. B. Mayor]].

In 1867, Kennedy was elected [[Regius Professor of Greek (Cambridge)|Regius Professor of Greek]] at Cambridge and canon of [[Ely Cathedral]], serving in both posts until his death.
From 1870 to 1880 he was a member of the committee for the revision of the [[New Testament]]. In 1870 he also became a member of the University Council.

He supported the access of women to university education and took a prominent part in the establishment of [[Newnham College, Cambridge|Newnham]] and [[Girton College, Cambridge|Girton]] colleges. When [[Mary Paley]] and [[Amy Bulley]] were among the first women to take tripos examinations they did it in the Kennedys' drawing room. Paley described him as excitable, but he would sometimes doze whilst nominally invigilating. He was nicknamed "the purple boy".<ref name="Sutherland2006">{{cite book|author=Gill Sutherland|title=Faith, Duty, and the Power of Mind: The Cloughs and Their Circle, 1820-1960|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o-jeNIa9LjYC&pg=PA106|date=17 March 2006|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-86155-7|page=106}}</ref> In politics, he had liberal sympathies. He died near [[Torquay]]<ref name="EB1911"/> and is buried in [[Mill Road Cemetery, Cambridge]].

F. D. How included Kennedy in the 1904 book ''Six Great Schoolmasters''.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Review of ''Six Great Schoolmasters'' by F. D. How|journal=The Athenaeum |issue=4031|date=January 28, 1905|page=102|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MW0vAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA102}}</ref>

==Writings==
Kennedy wrote a number of classical and theological works, but he is most famous today for his [[Primer (textbook)|primer]] of Latin grammar. This began as the ''Elementary Latin Primer'' (1843), which became the ''Public School Latin Primer'' (1866), the ''Public School Latin Grammar'' (1871), and finally the ''Revised Latin Primer'' (1888).<ref name="ODNBrev" /> The latter was further revised by J. F. Mountford in 1930.<ref>''Kennedy's Revised Latin Primer'' (Longman), new edition 1962. {{ISBN|0-582-36240-7}}.</ref> Another revision was edited by Gerrish Gray (first edition, 2008; second edition 2019), one version for a US audience and another for a UK audience.<ref>"Kennedy's New Latin Primer" (Tiger Xenophon), second edition 2019 {{ISBN|978-1-904799-71-9}}.</ref> The medieval way of writing Latin noun tables, starting with the nominative and then proceeding to the genitive was used in England prior to Kennedy's Primer and is still widely used in America (e.g. in the [[Wheelock's Latin]] course). Kennedy changed the order of writing the noun endings so that the nominative was always followed by the vocative and accusative, in order to bring out more effectively the similarities between these cases in many nouns. Kennedy's ''Primer'' was so widely used and was so influential that this led to a permanent change in the way that Latin is taught in the UK. Modern books such as the ''[[Cambridge Latin Course]]'' still follow this approach.

In 1913, there was a problem with the copyright on the ''Revised Latin Primer''<ref name="children"/> which had been published in 1888. His daughter [[Marion Kennedy]], a Latin scholar, revealed that the book was written by herself, her sister Julia and two of her father's former students, [[G. H. Hallam]] and [[Thomas Ethelbert Page|T. E. Page]].<ref name="children"/> It is unlikely that Kennedy had any hand in the revision of 1888, and the ''Shorter Latin Primer'' of the same year.<ref name="ODNBrev">{{cite ODNB|last1=Page|first1=T. E.|last2=Leach|first2=J. H. C.|editor1-first=J. H. C|editor1-last=Leach|chapter=Kennedy, Benjamin Hall|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/15363|title=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |year=2004}}</ref> The [[BBC Radio 4]] programme in December 2018 ''Amo, Amas, Amusical'', presented by [[Mary Beard (classicist)|Mary Beard]], explained the background to the primer and the sisters' significant part in writing it, as well as the resistance to women's higher education at Cambridge and elsewhere during their lifetime.<ref>{{cite web |title=Amo Amas Amusical |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0001tb2 |publisher=BBC |access-date=2 August 2023}}</ref>

Other works include:
*''Christian Peaceableness: a Sermon'' (1839)
*''An Elementary Grammar of the Latin Language'' (1847)
*''Palaestra Latina; or, A Second Latin Reading-Book'' (1850)
*''The Psalter in English Verse'' (1860)
*''Elementary Greek Grammar'' (1862)
*''The Public School Latin Grammar'' (1871; 4th ed., 1876)
*''Studia Sophoclea, ... Being a Critical Examination of Lewis Campbell's edition of Sophocles'' (1874)
*[[Sophocles]], ''[[Oedipus Rex|Oedipus Tyrannus]]'' (2nd ed., 1885)
*[[Aristophanes]], ''[[The Birds (play)|Birds]]'' (1874)
*[[Aeschylus]], ''[[Agamemnon (play)|Agamemnon]]'', with introduction, metrical translation and notes (2nd ed., 1882)
*A commentary on [[Virgil]] (3rd ed., 1881)
*[[Plato]], ''Theaetetus'', English translation (1881)

He contributed largely to the collection known as ''Sabrinae Corolla'' (John Bell, London, 1850), and published a collection of verse in [[Greek language|Greek]], Latin and English under the title of ''Between Whiles'' (2nd ed., 1882), with many autobiographical details.<ref name="EB1911"/>

==Family==
His brother [[Charles Rann Kennedy]] was a barrister and wrote original works as well as translating and editing classical works. His younger brother The Rev. William James Kennedy (1814-1891) was a prominent educator, and the father of Lord Justice Sir [[William Rann Kennedy]] (1846–1915), a distinguished Cambridge scholar.

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{Find a Grave|82237294}}
* {{Librivox author |id=17368}}

==References==
*{{Cite Americana|wstitle=Kennedy, Benjamin Hall}} This work in turn cites:
**Sandys, ''A History of Classical Scholarship'' (Vol. III, Cambridge, 1908)
*{{Cite AmCyc|wstitle=Kennedy, Benjamin Hall|volume=9}}
* {{cite DNB |wstitle= Kennedy, Benjamin Hall |volume= 30 |last= Page |first= Thomas Ethelbert |author-link=Thomas Ethelbert Page |pages= 414-416 |short= 1}}
*Stray, Christopher. "Marion Grace Kennedy". Article in the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', 2004.[https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/48417] 
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kennedy, Benjamin Hall}}
[[Category:1804 births]]
[[Category:1889 deaths]]
[[Category:English classical scholars]]
[[Category:Presidents of the Cambridge Union]]
[[Category:Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Fellows of St John's College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Headmasters of Shrewsbury School]]
[[Category:People educated at Shrewsbury School]]
[[Category:19th-century English Anglican priests]]
[[Category:English Christian hymnwriters]]
[[Category:Regius Professors of Greek (Cambridge)]]
[[Category:Scholars of ancient Greek literature]]
[[Category:Scholars of Latin literature]]