Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 30.djvu/276

 had previously been an exhibitor at the Royal Academy, commencing in 1823. Kearney worked in the early pure manner of water-colour painting, and his works have been highly valued. There are two fair examples, views in Wales, in the print room at the British Museum. Among his works were ‘Love's Young Dream,’ ‘Ruins of the Sally-port, Framlingham’ (now in the National Gallery of Ireland), ‘The Courtship of Quintin Matsys,’ &c. Kearney died in Holborn, London, on 25 June 1858, aged 57.

[Bryan's Dict. of Painters, ed. Graves; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Graves's Dict. of Artists, 1760–1880; Gent. Mag. 3rd ser. v. (1858) 203.]  KEARNS, WILLIAM HENRY (1794–1846), musical composer, was born at Dublin in 1794. He came to London about 1817, and for thirty years was a member of the orchestras of Her Majesty's and Covent Garden theatres. He played the violin at the Ancient Concerts in 1832, and the viola (being during many seasons first viola) in the same band from 1833 to 1846. He was an esteemed teacher of singing, a member of the Philharmonic Society, and the organist of the Verulam Episcopal Chapel, Lambeth. He died at Princes Place, Kennington, on 28 Dec. 1846.

As a composer Kearns showed more promise than performance. He wrote suitable music to ‘Bachelors' Wives, or the British at Brussels,’ an operetta performed on 16 July 1817, and frequently repeated at the English Opera House under Arnold (European Mag.) It was published in London, 1817. The originality of Kearns's ‘Cantata, with accompaniment for Pianoforte,’ London, 1823, attracted some attention, and a critic of that day (Quarterly Musical Magazine) expressed himself astonished to meet with ‘an accompaniment as various as the passion intended to be represented, and [having] as much to do with it as the voice part itself.’ His ‘Three Songs of Early Piety’ were published about 1840. The first series of the ‘Comprehensive Tune Book’ (compiled by Gauntlett and Kearns), 1846, contains only one original hymn by the latter. Other compilations and arrangements are Haeser's ‘Triumph of Faith,’ with the accompaniment for pianoforte revised by Kearns, 1837; Haydn's ‘Seasons’ (with a new arrangement of the words by Taylor), newly revised, with accompaniment for pianoforte by Kearns; ‘Songs of Christmas,’ 1847, being ‘elegant melodies of Handel, Haydn, Mozart, etc., selected and arranged.’ He was successful in his revision of and additions to the orchestral accompaniments to Handel's oratorios for the Westminster Abbey festival of 1834, and for provincial festivals. Kearns is said to have aided in the scores for the stage representations of Weber's, Spohr's, Meyerbeer's, and Marschner's operas.

[Dictionary of Musicians, 1827, ii. 5; Grove's Dictionary of Music, iv. 688; Musical World, xxii. 41; Ancient Concert Programmes; Quarterly Musical Magazine and Review, v. 233; European Magazine, lxxii. 67; Athenæm, 1847, pp. 52, 105.]  KEARY, ANNIE (1825–1879), novelist, was born at Bilton Rectory, near Wetherby, Yorkshire, on 3 March 1825. Her father, William Keary, rector of the parish, was an Irishman from co. Galway, who had originally been in the army; her mother was the daughter of Hall Plumer, esq., of Bilton Hall. She showed as a child an active imagination and a great faculty for story-telling. Her first experience as an authoress was acquired in early life. She took charge of the motherless children of an elder brother, and for them wrote ‘Little Wanderlin’ and many other fairy tales, some of which were eventually published. The loss of her charge through her brother's second marriage and the breaking off of an engagement were great trials to her, and probably affected her health. In 1858 she spent a winter in Egypt, and after her return went through many phases of religious experience. She had already published several children's books, of which ‘Sidney Grey’ is the best known, and now entered upon a career of novel-writing. Her most important works, some of which appear to have been composed a considerable time before publication, were ‘Janet's Home,’ 1863, ‘Clemency Franklyn,’ 1866, ‘Oldbury,’ 1869, ‘Castle Daly,’ 1875, ‘A York and a Lancaster Rose,’ 1876, and ‘A Doubting Heart,’ 1879. She also wrote two very useful books of a semi-educational character, ‘Early Egyptian History,’ published anonymously in 1861, and ‘The Nations Around,’ an account of the peoples bordering upon Israel, 1870. In conjunction with her sister Eliza she produced the ‘Heroes of Asgard,’ tales from Scandinavian mythology, 1857. Much of this work was done at Peganas, near Cannes, whither she frequently resorted to recruit her health. After a long decline she died at Eastbourne on 3 March 1879, leaving her last, and one of her best, novels, ‘A Doubting Heart,’ incomplete. It was finished by Mrs. K. Macquoid, and appeared in ‘Macmillan's Magazine,’ where ‘Castle Daly’ had also been published.

Miss Keary was a woman of great refinement, sensitive and accessible to all the finer emotions, but active and industrious,