A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Kennedy, Arthur
KENNEDY. (Lieut„ 1838. f-p., 22; h-p., 1.)
Arthur Kennedy was born in March, 1811. This officer entered the Navy, 28 June, 1824, on board the Jaseur 18, Capt. Thos. Martin, and was soon afterwards severely hurt by a fall from aloft while on duty. The Jaseur being ordered to South America, he was afforded an opportunity of there witnessing the revolutionary proceedings in Brazil, Chili, and Peru. In 1828, on his arrival in the Mediterranean in the Blonde 46, Capt. Edm. Lyons, he was present, it appears, at the reduction of the Morea Castle. In the course of 1830 Mr. Kennedy successively joined the Donegal 76, Capt. Sir Jahleel Brenton, and Cordelia 10, Capt. Chas. Hotham, of which latter vessel, on his return to the Mediterranean, after having visited the West Indies and North America, he was created, in 1831, an Acting-Lieutenant by Sir Henry Hotham – the last appointment of the kind ever conferred by that Admiral. During this second sojourn in the Mediterranean, we find Mr. Kennedy affording protection to the trade against the pirates of Smyrna, and employed in the boats in cruizing against those in the neighbourhood of Grabusa. The Cordelia being paid off in 1834, he was at once appointed to the Excellent gunnery-ship at Portsmouth, Capt. Thos. Hastings. He next, in 1835, proceeded to South America in the Blonde 46, Commodore Fras. Mason, who, upon the death of the Commander-in-Chief, Sir Michael Seymour, again gave him an order, as a reward for his services and conduct, to act as Lieutenant, although at the time there were 11 Mates on the station senior to him. About this period Mr. Kennedy was often engaged on shore with a party of men for the protection of British property during the civil commotions in Peru and Chili. He continued to serve in South America on board the Satellite 18, Capt. Robt. Smart, and again in the Blonde, until the return of the latter ship to England in 1837, when he immediately joined the Britannia 120, bearing the flag at Portsmouth of Sir Philip Chas. Durham. His appointments since his promotion to the rank of Lieutenant, which took place 6 Sept. 1838, have been – 26 June, 1839, to the Stag 46, Commodore Thos. Ball Sulivan, on the South American station – 25 Sept. 1839, to the Clio 16, Capt. Stephen Grenville Fremantle, employed in cruizing for slaves off Rio de Janeiro and other places – 28 April, 1841, to the Acorn 16, Capt. John Adams, on the coast of Africa, where, among a host of other captures, he assisted in taking, at the close of a running fight of nine hours, the pirartical slave-brig Gabriel, a vessel 10 feet longer than the Acorn, noted for its injury to commerce and the frequency of its insults to the British flag; as also, after a boat-chase of seven hours, the Minerva, having 550 slaves on board – and, 27 May, 1842 (four months after his health had obliged him to invalid), to the command of a station in the Coast Guard, which he still retains.
Lieut. Kennedy married, 25 Dec. 1840, Miss C. Jenkins, only daughter of A. Jenkins, Esq., of Navany, co. Donegal, by whom he has issue two children. Agents – Messrs. Stilwell.