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bodied in his "Commentaries on American Law" (4 vols., New York, 1826-'30), which embraces the jurisprudence of the Federal Union, the common and statutory laws of the individual states, and the leading principles of international law. It has since served as the standard general treatise on law in the United States. Retiring from the ac- tive duties of his professorship in 1825, he gave his attention to revising and elaborating his work, and to chamber practice and the decision of legal controversies that were submitted to his judgment. In 1828 he delivered an anniversary address before the New York historical society, of which he had been chosen president, and in 1831 one before the Phi Beta Kappa society at Yale college. A sec- ond edition of the "Commentaries." with many changes and additions, appeared in 1832. The sixth edition, which was the last one revised by the author, appeared shortly before his death. Part of the " Commentaries " was republished in Edinburgh under the title of " A Treatise on Com- mercial and Maritime Law " (1837). J. Eastman Johnson published an "Analytical Abridgment of Kent's Commentaries" (New York, 1840). The seventh (1852), eighth (1854), ninth (Boston, 1858), and tenth (I860) editions of the " Commentaries " were edited by William Kent and his friend Dor- man B. Eaton, the eleventh edition (Boston. 1866) by George P. Comstock, the twelfth (1873) by Oliver W. Holmes, Jr., the thirteenth by Charles M. Barnes (1884). This work, which was desig- nated by Judge Story as the first judicial classic of the United States, is as lucid, terse, and pure in style as the " Commentaries " of Blackstone, and resembles them in logical exactness of expres- sion and cogency of reasoning ; yet in breadth of scholarship and copiousness of learning the Ameri- can jurist was superior to his English predecessor, drawing illustrations, parallels, and arguments from the Roman law and the jurisprudence of continental nations, and discussing subjects which Blackstone was unable from lack of knowledge to include in his work, such as commercial and maritime law, the law of nations, and equity jurisprudence. In 1836 Judge Kent prepared and published at the instance of the common council of the city a compendious treatise " On the Char- ter of the City of New York and on the Powers of the Mayor, Aldermen, and other Municipal Offi- cers " (reissued in 1856). The same year he de- livered an address before the New York bar asso- ciation. In 1840 he prepared for the benefit of the Mercantile library association of New York a " Course of Reading," which, with additions and changes made by Charles King, was republished by Henry A. Oakley in 1853. After his death eu- logistic orations were pronounced at a meeting of the bar of New York by Ogden Hoffman, Benja- min F. Butler, and others. See a " Discourse on the Life, Character, and Public Services of James Kent," by Judge John Duer (New York, 1848).— His brother, Moss, b. in Rensselaer county, N. Y., studied law, and began practice in Le Raysville, Jefferson co., N. Y. He was a member of the state legislature in 1807 and 1810, and was elected to congress as a Federalist, and re-elected for the following term, serving from 24 May. 1813, to 3 March, 1817. He was subsequently register of the New York court of chancery. — William, jurist, the son of James, b. in 1802 ; d. in Fishkill, N. Y., 4 Jan., 1861, studied law, and practised with suc- cess in New York city. Gov. Seward appointed him a judge of the circuit court of New York, but after serving some years he resigned in 1846 in order to accept the professorship of law in Harvard. Resigning in 1847, he returned to New York, where he was frequently employed as a referee.

KENT, Joseph, governor of Maryland, b. in Calvert co., Md., 14 Jan., 1779; d. near Bladens- burg, Md., 24 Nov., 1837. He was educated as a physician, but combined farming with his practice, first in Calvert county, and after 1806 in Prince George county, Md. He was elected to congress as a Federalist, serving from 1811 till 1815, and again from 1819 till 1826, when he became governor of Maryland. He held this office till 1829, and was U S. senator from 1833 till 1837.

KENTON, Simon, pioneer, b. in Fauquier county, Va., 3 April, 1755 ; d. in Logan county, Ohio, 29 April, 1836. He was of obscure parent- age, his father was Irish and his mother Scotch, and owing to their poverty his education was neg- lected. At the age of sixteen he had an affray with William Veach, arising from a love- affair, and believing that he had killed his adversary he fled be- yond the Alleghanies, where he changed his name for a while to Simon Butler. Here he formed friend- ships with traders and hunters, among whom were Simon Girty and George Yeagef, who gave him descriptions of the " cane - land,"

called by the Indians

"Kaintuckee." He spent the winter of 1773-4 on Big Sandv river with a hunting-party, but retreated to Fort Pitt when the troubles with the Indians arose. He volunteered and was engaged as a spy in the expedition of Lord Dunmore, British governor of Virginia, against the Indians, displaying remarkable courage, sagacity, and endurance throughout the campaign. He performed many daring feats as the friend and companion of Daniel Boone, whose life he saved in a conflict with the Indians. He ranged the country as a spy till 1778, when he joined Gen. George Rogers Clark at the Falls of the Ohio, and was with him at the surprise of Kaskaskia. He was soon captured by the Indians and saved from death at their hands by Simon Girty, notwithstanding whose influence he was again condemned to the stake. Logan, the Mingo chief, prevailed upon Druyer, a Canadian trader, to obtain Kenton from the Indians, and he was taken as a prisoner of war to the British commander at Detroit, where he worked for the garrison on half pay till he was aided by a trader's wife to escape in July, 1779. During the invasion of Kentucky by the British and Indians in that year, he led a company from Harrod's Station, and aided in driving out the invaders. In 1782 he again commanded a company under Gen. Clark. On learning that the man he supposed he had killed was yet alive he went to Virginia in 1782, but soon returned with his father's family to Kentucky, and in 1784 settled at his old camp near Maysville. He commanded a battalion of Kentucky volunteers as major under Gen. Anthony Wayne in 1793-'4, became brigadier-general of Ohio militia in 1805, and fought at the battle of the Thames in 1813. He was reduced to great poverty, for the immense tracts of land which he possessed were lost through the invasion of settlers and his ignorance of law. In 1824 he appeared in Frankfort in tattered garments to