Dr White, a learned English writer and bishop of Peterborough, in the 18th century, bred at St Edmund hall, Oxford; where he soon distinguished himself by his vigorous application to his studies, and by his translations of several books into English, and other pieces which he published. In 1695 our author published his Parochial Antiquities. A sermon preached by him on the 30th of January 1703 at Aldgate exposed him to great clamour. It was printed under the title of A compassionate inquiry into the causes of the civil war. In 1756, he published his Case of Improprations, and two other tracts on the same subject. In 1756, he published the third volume of The Complete History of England (the two former volumes compiled by Mr Hughes). In 1799, he published A Vindication of the Church and Clergy of England from some late reproaches rudely and unjustly cast upon them: and A true Answer to Dr Sacheverell's Sermon. When the great point in Dr Sacheverell's trial, the change of the ministry, was gained, and very strange addresses were made upon it, there was to be an artful address from the bishop and clergy of London, and they who would not subscribe it were to be represented as enemies to the queen and the ministry. Dr Kennet fell under this imputation. He was exposed to great odium as a low churchman, on account of his conduct and writings. When he was dean of Peterborough, a very uncommon method was taken to expose him by Dr Walton, rector of the church of Whitechapel: for in the altar-piece of that church, which was intended for a representation of Christ and his 12 apostles eating the passover and last supper, Judas the traitor was drawn sitting in an elbow-chair, dressed in a black garment, with a great deal of the air of Dr Kennet's face. It was generally said that the original sketch was for a bishop under Dr Walton's displeasure; but the painter being apprehensive of an action of Scandalum Magnum, leave was given to drop the bishop, and make the dean. This giving general offence, upon the complaint of others (for Dr Kennet never saw it, or seemed to regard it), the bishop Kenney, of London ordered the picture to be taken down. In Kenney, 1713, he presented the Society for Propagating the Gospel with a great number of books suitable to their design; published his Bibliotheca Americanae Primordia, and founded an antiquarian and historical library at Peterborough. In 1715, he published a sermon entitled, The Witchcraft of the present Rebellion, and afterwards several other pieces. In 1717 he was engaged in a dispute with Dr William Nicholson, bishop of Carlisle, relating to some alterations in the bishop of Bangor's famous sermon; and disliked the proceedings of the convocation against that bishop. Upon the death of Dr Cumberland bishop of Peterborough, he was promoted to that see, to which he was consecrated in 1718. He sat in it more than ten years, and died in 1728. He was an excellent philologist, a good preacher, whether in English or Latin, and well versed in the histories and antiquities of our nation.

Kenney, Basil, a learned English writer, and brother to the preceding, was educated in Corpus Christi college, in the university of Oxford, where he became fellow. In 1706, he went over chaplain to the English factory at Leghorn; where he met with great opposition from the Papists, and was in danger from the inquisition. He died in the year 1714. He published Lives of the Greek poets; the Roman Antiquities; a volume of Sermons preached at Leghorn: A translation into English of Puffendorf's Treatise of the Law of Nature and Nations. He was a man of most exemplary integrity, generosity, piety, and modesty.

Kennicott, Dr Benjamin, well known in the learned world for his elaborate edition of the Hebrew Bible and other valuable publications, was born at Totness in Devonshire in the year 1718. His father was the parish clerk of Totness, and once master of a charity school in that town. At an early age young Kennicott succeeded to the same employ in the school, being recommended to it by his remarkable sobriety and premature knowledge. It was in that situation he wrote the verses on the recovery of the honourable Mrs Courtney from a dangerous illness, which recommended him to her notice, and that of many neighbouring gentlemen. They, with laudable generosity, opened a subscription to send him to Oxford. In judging of this performance, they may be supposed to have considered not so much its intrinsic merit, as the circumstances under which it was produced. For though it might claim just praise as the fruit of youthful industry struggling with obscurity and indigence, as a poem it never rises above mediocrity, and generally sinks below it. But in whatever light these verses were considered, the publication of them was soon followed by such contributions as procured for the author the advantages of an academical education. In the year 1744 he entered at Wadham college; and it was not long before he distinguished himself in that particular branch of study in which he afterwards became so eminent. His two dissertations on the Tree of Life, and The Oblations of Cain and Abel, came to a second edition so early as the year 1747, and procured him the singular honour of bachelor's degree conferred on him gratis by the university a year before the statutable time. The dissertations were gratefully dedicated to those benefactors whose liberality had opened his way to the university, or whose kindness had made it a scene not only of manly labour, but of honourable friendship. With such merit, and such support, he was a successful candidate for a fellowship of Exeter college, and soon after his admission into that society, he distinguished himself by the publication of several occasional sermons. In the year 1753 he laid the foundation of that stupendous monument of learned industry, at which the wise and the good will gaze with admiration, when prejudice, and envy, and ingratitude shall be dumb. This he did by publishing his first dissertation, On the State of the printed Hebrew text, in which he proposed to overthrow the then prevailing notion of its absolute integrity. The first blow indeed, had been struck long before, by Capellus, in his Critica Sacra, published after his death by his son, in 1650—a blow which Buxtorf, with all his abilities and dialectical skill, was unable to ward off. But Capellus having no opportunity of consulting MSS., though his arguments were supported by the authority of the Samaritan Pentateuch, of parallel passages, and of the ancient versions, could never absolutely prove his point. Indeed the general opinion was that the Hebrew MSS. contained none, or at least very few and trifling variations from the printed text: and with respect to the Samaritan Pentateuch very different opinions were entertained. Those who held the Hebrew verity, of course condemned the Samaritan as corrupt in every place where it deviated from the Hebrew; and those who believed the Hebrew to be incorrect, did not think the Samaritan of sufficient authority to correct it. Besides the Samaritan itself appeared to very great advantage; for no Samaritan MSS. were then known, and the Pentateuch itself was condemned for those errors which ought rather to have been ascribed to the incorrectness of the editions. In this dissertation, therefore, Dr Kennicott proved that there were many Hebrew MSS. extant, which, though they had hitherto been generally supposed to agree with each other, and with the Hebrew text, yet contained many and important various readings; and that from those various readings considerable authority was derived in support of the ancient versions. He announced the existence of six Samaritan MSS. in Oxford only, by which many errors in the printed Samaritan might be removed; and he attempted to prove, that even from the Samaritan, as it was already printed, many passages in the Hebrew might undoubtedly be corrected. This work, as it was reasonable to expect, was examined with great severity both at home and abroad. In some foreign universities the belief of the Hebrew verity, on its being attacked by Capellus, had been insisted on as an article of faith.—Ista Copelli sententia adeo non approbata fuit fidei sociis, ut patiens Helvetii theologi, et speciatio Genevensis, anno 1678, peculiari canone exercent, ne quis in altione suo minister ecclesiae recipiat, nisi fatetur publice, textum Hebraeum, ut hodie est in exemplaribus Masoreticis, quoad consonantes et vocales, divinum et authenticum esse, (Wolfii Biblioth. Heb. tom. ii. p. 27.) And at home this doctrine of the corrupt state of the Hebrew text was opposed by Comings and Bate, two Hutchinsonians, with as much violence as if the whole truth of revelation were at stake.

The next three or four years of Dr Kennicott's life were principally spent in searching out and examining Hebrew Hebrew manuscripts, though he found leisure not only to preach, but to publish several occasional sermons. About this time Dr Kennicott became one of the king's preachers at Whitehall; and in the year 1759 we find him vicar of Culham in Oxfordshire. In January 1760 he published his second dissertation on the state of the Hebrew Text: in which, after vindicating the authority and antiquity of the Samaritan Pentateuch, he disarmed the advocates for the Hebrew verity of one of their most specious arguments. They had observed that the Chaldee Paraphrase having been made from Hebrew MSS. near the time of Christ, its general coincidence with the present Hebrew Text must evince the agreement of this last with the MSS. from which the paraphrase was taken. Dr Kennicott demonstrated the fallacy of this reasoning, by showing that the Chaldee Paraphrase had been frequently corrupted, in order to reconcile it with the printed text; and thus the weapons of his antagonists were successfully turned upon themselves. He appealed also to the writings of the Jews themselves on the subject of the Hebrew Text, and gave a compendious history of it from the close of the Hebrew canon down to the invention of printing, together with a description of 103 Hebrew manuscripts which he had discovered in England, and an account of many others preserved in various parts of Europe.

A collation of the Hebrew manuscripts was now loudly called for by the most learned and enlightened of the friends of biblical criticism; and in this same year (1762) Dr Kennicott emitted his proposals for collating all the Hebrew manuscripts prior to the invention of printing, that could be found in Great Britain and Ireland, and for procuring at the same time as many collations of foreign manuscripts of note, as the time and money he should receive would permit. His first subscribers were the learned and pious Archbishop Secker, and the delegates of the Oxford press, who, with that liberality which has generally marked their character, gave him an annual subscription of £40. In the first year the money received was about 500 guineas, in the next it arose to 900, at which sum it continued stationary till the tenth year, when it amounted to 1000. During the progress of this work, the industry of our author was rewarded by a canonry of Christ Church. He was also presented, though we know not exactly when, to the valuable living of Mynshenye, in Cornwall, on the nomination of the chapter of Exeter. In 1776 the first volume was published, and in 1780 the whole was completed. If now we consider that above 600 MSS. were collated, and that the whole work occupied 20 years of Dr Kennicott's life, it must be owned that sacred criticism is more indebted to him than to any scholar of any age. Within two years of his death, he resigned his living in Cornwall, from conscientious motives, on account of his not having a prospect of ever again being able to visit his parish. Although many good and conscientious men may justly think, in this case, that his professional labours carried on elsewhere might properly have entitled him to retain this preferment, and may apply this reasoning in other cases; yet a conduct so signal disinterested deserves certainly to be admired and celebrated. Dr Kennicott died at Oxford, after a lingering illness, September 18, 1783; and left a widow, who was sister to the late Edward Chamberlayne, Esq. of the treasury. At the time of his death he was employed in printing Remarks on Select Passages in the Old Testament; which were afterwards published, the volume having been completed from his papers.

KENO. See KINO.