Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol III (1901).djvu/74

Ker the ultimate separation of England and Canada was inevitable, and was anxious that the separation, when it came, should be effected peaceably.

After his return to England he was, on 30 March 1857, elected to parliament for Norwich in the liberal interest. He was re-elected on 29 April 1859, and again on 28 June following on his appointment by Lord Palmerston to the post of treasurer of the household. His election was, however, declared void, and on 1 Dec. 1860 he was returned for Wick burghs. He stood for Dover at the general election of 1865, but was defeated, and he ceased to be treasurer of the household in 1866, when the conservatives came into power. On 17 Nov. 1868 he was returned for Berwick. In 1874 he was defeated for Berwick, and in 1875 for Stroud. He now became a conservative, and on 6 Sept. 1876 was raised to the peerage during his father's lifetime as Baron Ashford. From March 1878 to April 1880 he was under-secretary at war under Beaconsfield, and in 1885-6 he held the same office under Lord Salisbury. On Easter Sunday 1879 he was received into the Roman catholic church. He succeeded his father as seventh earl of Albemarle on 21 Feb. 1891, and died on 28 Aug. 1894, being buried on the 31st at the family seat, Quiddenham, Norfolk. He married on 15 Nov. 1855, at Dundrum, Canada, Sophia Mary, second daughter of Sir Allan Napier MacNab [q. v.], premier of Canada. By her he had issue three sons and seven daughters. The eldest son, Arnold Allan Cecil, is eighth and present earl of Albemarle.

Albemarle, who was created K.C.M.G. in 1870, was an enthusiastic volunteer. He was made lieutenant-colonel of the civil service rifle volunteers in 1860, volunteer aide-de-camp to the queen in 1881, and published ‘Suggestions for an Uniform Code of Standing Orders on the Organisation and Interior Economy of Volunteer Corps’ (London, 1860, 12mo). He was also author of ‘The Rinderpest treated by Homœopathy in South Holland,’ 1865, 8vo, and with Mr. G. Lacy Hillier of ‘Cycling,’ in the ‘Badminton Library’ (London, 1887, 8vo), which reached a fifth edition in 1895.

 KER, JOHN (d. 1741), Latin poet, was born at Dunblane, Perthshire. He was for a time schoolmaster at Crieff, and about 1710, after examination by ministers and professors, became a master in the Royal High School, Edinburgh. In 1717 he was appointed professor of Greek in King's College, Aberdeen, being the first special teacher of the subject there (Stat. Account of Scotland, xxi. 82). It is significant that he should have secured this post when his political proclivities are remembered, as well as his admiration for the uncompromising Jacobite, Archibald Pitcairne [q. v.] On 2 Oct. 1734 Ker succeeded Adam Watt in the Latin chair at Edinburgh University. Here he studied law, associating again with friends of high school days, and became exceedingly popular (, Life of Ruddiman, p. 98). He had a distinct influence in reviving exact Latin scholarship in Scotland. As a professor he commanded the respect of his students, although somewhat weakly deferential towards live lords when they happened to be members of his class. But, says Dr. Alexander Carlyle of Inveresk, who notes this foible, he ‘was very much master of his business’ (Autobiography of the Rev. Dr. Alexander Carlyle, p. 31). He died at Edinburgh in November 1741.

About 1725 Ker published his Latin poem, ‘Donaides’ (those of the Don), celebrating illustrious alumni of Aberdeen. In 1727 appeared his paraphrase of the Song of Solomon, ‘Cantici Solomonis Paraphrasis Gemina.’ He is also the author of memorial verses on Archibald Pitcairne, Sir William Scott (1674?-1725) [q. v.], and others. He is represented, along with Arthur Johnston and other Latinists, in Lauder's ‘Poetarum Scotorum Musæ Sacræ,’ 1739. The Latin ballad on the battle of Killiecrankie versified in English by Sir Walter Scott in ‘Chambers's Journal,’ 1st ser. No. 48, is most probably Ker's (, Scottish Songs before Burns, p. 43).

 KERR, NORMAN (1834–1899), physician, the eldest son of Alexander Kerr, a merchant, was born at Glasgow on 17 May 1834, and was educated at the high school of that city. He supported himself as a journalist on the staff of the ‘Glasgow Mail’ until he entered the university of Glasgow, where he graduated M.D. and C.M. in 1861. He then sailed for a time as surgeon in the Allan Canadian mail steamers, and in 1874 he settled at St. John's Wood in London, and