Men of Kent and Kentishmen/John Kemp

by John Hutchinson

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John Kemp,

CARDINAL,

"Grandchild to Sir John Kemp, nephew to Sir Roger Kemp, both Knights, was born," says Fuller "at Wye." He was educated at Merton College, Oxford, and was successively Bishop of Rochester, Chichester and London, and Archbishop of York and Canterbury. He became a Cardinal with the title of St. Balbine, and then of St. Lupine at Rome, so that his preferments, remarks Fuller, may be comprehended in the following verse made by Thomas Kemp, his kinsman. Bishop of London:—

Bis Primas, ter Presul orat, bis cardine functus.

In addition to this he was twice Lord Chancellor of England. He died 22nd March, 1453.

[See "Fuller's Worthies," Williams' "Lives of English Cardinals," and Hook's "Archbishops of Canterbury."]