Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 31.djvu/32

26 Kentigern - Kentigern Jackson in June, bringing back a supply of cattle and other stores. He was afterwards moved into the Investigator, which had undergone a thorough repair [cf. ], and in 1805 was sent home with important information about the state of Peru. The Investigator was paid off at Plymouth on 22 Dec. 1805, and on 22 Jan. 1806 Kent was advanced to post rank. In November 1808 he was appointed to the Agincourt, and from her was moved to the Union of 98 guns, in command of which, off Toulon, he died 29 Aug. 1812.

In 1791 Kent married his cousin Eliza, daughter of William Kent of Newcastle-on-Tyne, and left issue one son, born at Sydney in 1799. A portrait of Kent in pastel is in the possession of his grandson Mr. Charles Kent.

[Information from Mr. Charles Kent; Gent. Mag. 1810 pt. i. p. 288, 1812 pt. ii. p. 400; O'Byrne's Naval Biog. Dict. s.n. 'Kent, William George Carlile;' Collin's Account of the English Colony in New South Wales, ii. 306; Flinders's Voyage to Terra Australis; official letters, &c., in the Public Record Office.]   KENTEN (d. 685), West-Saxon King. [See Centwine (DNB00).]   KENTIGERN or (518?–603) was the apostle of the Strathclyde Britons. There is a fragment of a life of Kentigern by an unknown author of the twelfth century, and a biography written near the close of that century by Jocelyn, a monk of Furness, who tells us that he had before him two lives of the saint, one used in the church, and another in the vernacular; that in both of these there was something contrary to sound doctrine and the catholic faith, and that his purpose was to compile a life free from these blemishes, and to 'season what had been composed in a barbarous way with Roman salt.' The main facts given by these writers of the twelfth century are regarded as historical, and are to some extent confirmed by the records of Wales, Adamnan's 'Life of St. Columba,' and the dedication of churches to St. Kentigern in the localities associated with his life.

Kentigern was born probably in 518. His mother, Thenaw, was the daughter of Loth, a British prince, after whom the Lothians are called, and whose seat was at Traprain Law, then named Dunpelder, halfway between Haddington and Dunbar. Prior to that time there had been a church at Dunpelder, and though Loth is described as a semi-pagan, his daughter was a Christian, and perhaps a nun. She was sought in marriage by Owen or Ewen, a Briton of the noblest stock, but she refused his offer, preferring a life of virginity. Her father was so indignant that he handed her over to the charge of a swineherd, who was secretly a Christian. Her suitor met her by strategem in a wood, and having violated her she became pregnant. When her father heard of her condition, he caused her to be hurled from the top of a hill called Kepduff, but she escaped without injury. He then put her in a coracle, or boat of hides, in Aberlady Bay, and left her to the mercy of the winds and waves. The boat was first carried out beyond the Isle of May, then driven up the Frith to Culross, where she landed, and where her child, a son, was born. Mother and son were brought into the presence of a Christian pastor, an earlier St. Serf, or one to whom that name was afterwards erroneously given, who on seeing the child exclaimed in Celtic, 'Mungo,' i.e. my dear one. Mother and child were baptised by him, the latter receiving the christian name of Kentigern, or head chief, in allusion to his descent. He was trained in the monastic school at Culross kept by the saint, and became one of his chief favourites. In early manhood he left his protector to become a missionary to the people of his own race, and took up his residence at Cathures (now Glasgow), beside a cemetery and a church founded by St. Ninian [q. v.], but then in ruins. There he was chosen bishop by the king, clergy, and people who remained Christian, and was consecrated, according to Jocelyn, by a bishop summoned from Ireland for the purpose. After some years he suffered such persecution from heathens in the neighbourhood, the kindred of a King Morken, that he removed to Wales. On the way he stopped for a time in the Cumberland mountains, where he converted many to the faith, and then went to Menevia (now St. Davids). Having obtained a grant of land from the king of North Wales or the king's son, he founded the monastery of Llanelwy (afterwards St. Asaph's) in the vale of Clwyd, and gathered around him 965 monks, some of whom were employed in agriculture, others in education and the conducting of divine service, while the more experienced accompanied Kentigern on his missionary tours. The battle of Arthuret, near Carlisle, fought in 573, established the supremacy of the Christian party among the Britons of the north, and Redderech the Bountiful, who then became king of Strathclyde, sent messengers to recall Kentigern. The latter appointed Asaph his successor in the monastery, and returned to the north with many of his monks. Redderech and his people met him at Hoddam in Dumfriesshire, and welcomed him with great joy. There he fixed his see for some years, founding churches and ordaining clergy; and at this period he visited Galloway, and reclaimed its Pictish inhabitants from the idolatry and