Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 31.djvu/27

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

only other child by the prince was Anne Feodorowna Augusta Charlotte Wilhelmina (1807–1872), who resided with her mother till her marriage on 18 Feb. 1828 to Ernest Christian Charles, prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg.

Princess Victoria Mary married in 1818 a second husband, Edward Augustus, duke of Kent [q. v.], fourth son of George III. The marriage ceremony took place at Coburg on 29 May, and was repeated at Kew on 13 July. By the Duke of Kent she had an only daughter, Alexandrina Victoria, queen of England. On the duke's death on 23 Jan. 1820 the duchess was in straitened circumstances, having only a jointure of 6,000l. and an allowance of 3,000l. made her by her brother Leopold. In 1825, however, parliament voted her an annuity of 6,000l. towards the support and education of her daughter Victoria, and a further annuity of 10,000l. was granted her in 1831. In the previous year she had been appointed regent of the realm in the event of her daughter succeeding to the throne while yet a minor. She resided at Kensington Palace, devoting herself to the education of her daughter, and during the reign of George IV saw little society; but as the Princess Victoria grew up she took her from time to time to visit most of the places of interest in England, and gathered round her at Kensington a small highly intellectual coterie. She regretted the princess's accession to the throne in 1837 as depriving her of her one interest and occupation. Thenceforward she accompanied the court on its periodical migrations.

She died of cancer at Frogmore on 16 March 1861, and was buried in St. George's Chapel, Windsor on 25 March, whence her remains were transferred to the Frogmore mausoleum.

[Almanach de Gotha for 1790, 1805–6, 1817, 1829; Commons' Journals, lxxx. 471, lxxxvi. pt. ii. p. 727; Duke of Buckingham's Memoirs of the Courts and Cabinets of William IV and Victoria, ii. 23; Greville Memoirs, 1837–52, i. 15; Gent. Mag. 1861, pt. i. p. 456; Sir Theodore Martin's Life of the Prince Consort.]

KENT, Earls of. [See Burgh,, Hubert de, d. 1243; Edmund 'of Woodstock,' 1301–1330; Grey, Edmund, first Earl (of the Grey line), 1420?–1489; Grey, George, second Earl, d. 1503 (under Grey, Edmund, first Earl); Grey, Henry, ninth Earl, 1594–1651; Holland, Edmund, fourth Earl (of the Holland line), d. 1408 (under Holland, Thomas, second Earl); Holland, Sir Thomas, first Earl, d. 1360; Holland, Thomas, second Earl, 1330–1397; Holland, Thomas, third Earl, and Duke of Surrey, 1374–1400; Neville, William, d. 1463; Odo, d. 1067, bisbop of Bayeux.]

KENT, Maid of. [See Barton, Elizabeth, 1500?–1534.]

KENT, JAMES (1700–1776), organist and composer, born at Winchester on 13 March 1700, was admitted in November 1711 as chorister of Winchester Cathedral. From 1714 to 1718 he was a chorister of the Chapel Royal, under Dr. William Croft [q. v.] In 1718, through the influence of the subdean (the Rev. John Dolben), he was appointed organist to the parish church of Finedon, Northamptonshire. ‘An organ stool, still preserved at Finedon, on which Kent carved “J. K., 1717,” probably records an anticipatory visit’ (Bemrose). In 1731 he was elected organist to Trinity College, Cambridge, and held the post till 1737, when he succeeded John Bishop [q. v.] as organist of Winchester Cathedral and College. The latter appointment he resigned in 1774 to Peter Fussell, and died in Winchester on 6 May 1776. He was married to Elizabeth, daughter of John Freeman.

In 1773 Kent published, in London, a collection of twelve anthems. He also wrote services in C and D, and assisted Dr. Boyce in the compilation of the latter's ‘Cathedral Music.’ His anthems were republished in London by T. Gresham in 1844. Eight of them, together with Kent's two services, were edited by Joseph Corfe.

Kent's music never rose above mediocrity, and he unscrupulously plagiarised the works of the Italian composers, especially Bassani, and also of Dr. Croft, whose style he closely followed. He took the chorus ‘Thy Righteousness,’ in the anthem ‘Lord, what love,’ from Bassani's ‘Magnificat’ in G minor, with little alteration; and the ‘Hallelujah’ in the anthem ‘Hearken unto this’ is transcribed note for note from Bassani's ‘Alma Mater.’

[Grove's Dict. of Music, ii. 50, and i. 150; Bemrose's Choir Chant Book, App. p. xxii; Hogarth's Musical Hist. p. 299; Winchester Chapter Books; Kent's music in Brit. Mus.]

KENT, JOHN, or Sion Kent (fl. 1400), also called John of Kentchurch, Welsh bard, is said to have been born at Cwm Tridwr in the parish of Egllwisilan, or, according to others, at Kilgerran, Pembrokeshire. He was educated by an uncle named Davydd Ddu o Lwyn Davydd Ddu, who