- ‘Emily, a moral Tale,’ 2nd edit. 1809.
- ‘A Tour to the Lakes of Cumberland and Westmoreland in August 1798.’ This was published in Mavor's ‘British Tourists' Companion,’ v. 117–57.
- ‘Logic made Easy, or a short View of the Aristotelic System of Reasoning,’ 1809. A very severe attack on it was made in ‘The Examiner Examined, or Logic Vindicated. By a Graduate’ [i.e. Bishop Copleston], 1809, and it was afterwards rigidly suppressed by Kett.
- ‘The Flowers of Wit, or a Choice Collection of Bon Mots,’ 1814, 2 vols.
Orielensis], pt. ii. 1804. It was defended, probably by Kett himself in the disguise of ‘S. Nobody, of King's College, Oxford,’ in ‘The Biter Bit, or Discoveries Discovered in a Pamphlet of certain Notable Discoveries,’ 1804; and by Frederick Nolan of Exeter College, in ‘A Letter to Phileleutheros Orielensis,’ 1804, upholding the view that Kett's errors were due to carelessness rather than ignorance, and had been unduly magnified (see Gent. Mag. 1805, pp. 41–5).
Kett contributed five papers (4, 22, 27, 39, and 42, all signed ‘Q.’) to the ‘Olla Podrida’ of Thomas Monro. His life of William Benwell [q. v.] was appended to a volume of ‘Poems, Odes, Prologues, and Epilogues spoken at Reading School,’ 1804, pp. 205–23; and his memoir of Henry Headley [q. v.], with some verses on Headley's death, was inserted in the ‘Select Beauties of Ancient English Poetry’ (1810 edit., pp. xx–ii). To Shoberl's translation of Chateaubriand's ‘Beauties of Christianity’ he supplied a preface and notes. His translations of Jortin's poems were reprinted in Jortin's miscellaneous works; numerous pieces by him appeared in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine,’ and several letters to and from him are in Johnstone's ‘Parr,’ i. 328–31, vii. 577–93, viii. 212–15; and in T. F. Dibdin's ‘Reminiscences,’ ii. 791–2. He left many manuscripts, including an edition of Greek proverbs by Lubinus, with English translation and notes, on which he was long engaged.
[Gent. Mag. 1812 pt. ii. p. 81, 1825 pt. ii. pp. 184–5, 1828 pt. ii. p. 558; Notes and Queries, 4th ser. ix. 380, 448, 517 (1872); Annual Biog. 1826, pp. 15–25; Johnstone's Parr, i. 282, vii. 653; G. V. Cox's Recollections of Oxford, p. 16; information from the Rev. William Hudson of Norwich, and from Trinity College, per the Rev. H. E. D. Blakiston.]
KETT, ROBERT (d. 1549), rebel, was a member of an old Norman family, whose name passed through the forms of Le Chat, Cat, Kett, Ket, and Knight. A branch of this family settled at Wymondham, Norfolk, and held lands there in 1483. In 1549 Robert Kett is called a tanner, and his brother William a butcher or mercer; but both were landowners and men of some position in the neighbourhood. Robert held the manor of Wymondham from John Dudley, earl of Warwick, and other lands as well. He belonged to the class of landlords, and only through accident took the side of the people. This accident arose from a local quarrel. The parish church of Wymondham was joined to the priory church, and after the dissolution of the monasteries the men of Wymondham in 1539 bought from the crown the choir of the priory church and other parts of the monastic buildings. In spite of this the tenant of the royal grantee, Serjeant Flowerden, who lived at Hathersett in the neighbourhood, stripped the lead from the roofs and carried away the bells (Blomefield, Hist. of Norfolk, i. 733–734). The Ketts, as the chief people in the town, resented this, and a feud grew up in consequence. There were many hardships arising from the harsh conduct of the new landlords, especially in the enclosure of common lands; and on 20 June 1549 there was a riot at Attleborough, and fences were torn down. On 7 July an annual festival, with a play in honour of St. Thomas of Canterbury, was held at Wymondham. The gathering of excited rustics ended in the destruction of more fences, among them some erected by Flowerden at Hathersett. Flowerden gave the rioters money to pull down Kett's fences as well; and Kett, in his anger at this treatment, helped them to level his own fences, and then led them back to make a clean sweep of Flowerden's. In this Kett was helped by his brother William, and the riot became important when it was headed by two men of position. The excitement of leadership awakened in Kett's mind a sympathy with popular aims. He led the rioters to Cringleford, and thence to Bowthorpe, where the sheriff, Sir Edmund Windham, boldly ordered them to disperse. He was assailed, and fled to Norwich, where the rioters followed and pulled down the fences of the Town Close. The mayor of Norwich sent off a messenger to London, and tried meanwhile to save the city. Kett occupied Mousehold Heath as a camp, and his followers soon reached the number of sixteen thousand men, who scoured the country for provisions and blockaded the city. Yet Kett maintained order. He established law courts, which sat under an oak-tree; there were chaplains, who said daily prayers and preached to the people; among others Matthew Parker, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury, ventured into the camp and addressed the rioters. A petition of grievances was drawn up and signed by twenty-two delegates of the hun-
