Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 31.djvu/15

 the chief character with great reputation. Kenney's last production was a serious drama entitled ‘Infatuation,’ a tale of the French empire, written in 1845 for Charlotte Cushman, then acting at the Princess's Theatre.

Kenney was a frequent guest at Samuel Rogers's breakfasts and dinners, and met there most of the notabilities of the day. He long suffered from a nervous affection, which gave him such an eccentric appearance that he was more than once taken for an escaped lunatic. He died of heart disease at 22 South Terrace, Alexander Square, Brompton, 25 July 1849. He had received large sums for his writings, but was not in affluent circumstances; a performance for his benefit took place at Drury Lane on the day of his death, and produced 500l. for his family. He married Louisa, daughter of Louis Sebastian Mercier, the French critic, and widow of Thomas Holcroft [q. v.] the dramatist. By her he had two sons, James and Charles Lamb Kenney [q. v.], and two daughters, Virginia and Maria. Mrs. Kenney on 13 Oct. 1849 received a civil list pension of 40l. a year, which was continued to her daughters on her death, 17 July 1853.

Besides the plays mentioned, Kenney wrote for Covent Garden, ‘Too many Cooks,’ a musical farce, 12 Feb. 1805; ‘The Blind Boy,’ a melodrama, 1 Dec. 1807; ‘Debtor and Creditor,’ a comedy, 20 April 1814; ‘A Word for the Ladies,’ 17 Dec. 1818; and ‘The Green Room,’ a comedy, 18 Oct. 1826. For the Lyceum he wrote, ‘Oh! this Love, or the Masqueraders,’ June 1810, and ‘The Magic Bell.’ For Drury Lane he wrote, ‘The Touchstone, or the World as it goes,’ a comedy, 3 May 1817; ‘A House out at Windows,’ a musical farce, 10 May 1817; ‘Benyowsky, or the Exile of Kamschatka,’ an operatic play, 16 March 1826; ‘Forget and Forgive, or a Rencontre in Paris,’ 21 Nov. 1827, reproduced as ‘Frolics in France’ 15 March 1828; ‘Peter the Great, or the Battle of Pultowa,’ 21 Feb. 1829; ‘Hernani, or the Pledge of Honour,’ a play, 8 April 1831; ‘A Good-looking Fellow,’ in conjunction with A. Bunn; and ‘The King's Seal,’ with Mrs. Gore. For the Haymarket he wrote, ‘The Alcaid, or Secrets of Office,’ a comic opera, 10 Aug. 1824; ‘Spring and Autumn, or Married for Money,’ a comic drama, 6 Sept. 1827; and ‘Love Extempore.’ For Madame Vestris at the Olympic he wrote ‘Fighting by Proxy,’ a farce, 9 Dec. 1833, followed by ‘Dancing for Life’ and ‘Not a Word.’ Other plays were ‘Dominique the Possessed;’ ‘False Alarms,’ an opera; ‘Spirit of the Bell,’ a comic opera; ‘Hush!’ musical drama; ‘The Black Domino,’ an opera; ‘Barbara, Macintosh, & Co.,’ a farce, written for Power; and ‘The Irish Ambassador.’ He also wrote ‘Valdi, or the Libertine's Son,’ a poem, 1820.

 KENNEY, PETER JAMES (1779–1841), Irish jesuit, was born in Dublin on 7 July 1779. While serving as an apprentice to a coachbuilder he attracted the attention of Dr. Thomas Betagh [q. v.], whose evening school he attended, and by whom he was sent to Carlow College. He afterwards went to Stonyhurst College, and entered the Society of Jesus on 20 Sept. 1804. He completed his studies with much distinction at the jesuit college in Palermo, where he was ordained priest. The English, who occupied Sicily at the time, formed a plan, which came to nothing, for liberating Pope Pius VII, then held captive by the French, and Kenney was selected to act as interpreter between the pope and his rescuers. He also ministered as catholic chaplain to the British troops in Sicily, but was ordered to discontinue his services by the governor of Malta, and the prohibition was denounced by Grattan in parliament. He returned to Ireland in 1811, and served one of the parochial chapels in Dublin, where he acquired great renown as a preacher. His friend Dr. Murray, who was then coadjutor to the Archbishop of Dublin, on becoming president of Maynooth College in 1812, nominated Kenney as vice-president, which post he held for about a year. Kenney was mainly instrumental in reviving the jesuit mission in Ireland, and was its superior for many years, becoming subsequently its vice-provincial after the Irish mission was made a vice-province of the society. In May 1814, a few months previous to the restoration of the jesuit order by papal bull, he opened Clongowes Wood College, co. Kildare, which has since been the leading catholic lay school in Ireland, and in later years he aided in the establishment of St. Stanislaus College, Tullabeg, King's County, and of the jesuit residence of St. Francis Xavier in Dublin; he was also of much assistance to Mary Aikenhead [q. v.], the foundress of the Irish sisters of charity in the institution of her religious congregation. In 1819 and in 1830 he was sent by the father-general of the order as visitor to the jesuit mission in the United