More about James Kennedy, mechanical engineer extraordinary

The website of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers has an obituary of James Kennedy, who was one of their founding members and their President in 1860, and it can be found here:- Biography of James Kennedy

See also, here:- Wiki entry for James Kennedy

I have traced the ancestry of this illustrious Kennedy and he was not related to our ancestors, unless very remotely. He was born in Liberton on 13 January 1797 to James Kennady, a wright, and Anne Hamilton, his parents having married in Edinburgh on 16 October 1795. This James was born in Gilmerton on 10 December 1765 to another James and his wife Ainsley Hume, who were married in Liberton on 28 September 1765 (oops!). This last James was born on 24 January 1726 in Nether Liberton to John Kennedy and Margaret Meggat.

It can thus be seen that these Kennedys were well established in the Edinburgh area when our direct ancestors were still in the Great Glen.

This history throws some light on the social turbulence that resulted from the Industrial Revolution. The pioneers of mechanical engineering obviously had no access to university courses in subjects that they themselves were just inventing, but were often without the benefits of any other form of higher education. That a man who left a village school at thirteen could end up as a master of complicated technology and president of an important institution would be unthinkable today. It says a lot not just for James Kennedy but also for George Stephenson, who had the intuition to select him as the head of his most important workshop.

In general it is clear that the rapid industrial development and associated growth of cities in the early Eighteenth Century gave rise not only to the enormous poverty and overcrowding that we all know about but also to huge opportunities for social mobility. Technological innovation requires radical free-thinking, which may have been easier for those not hidebound by a higher educational system which had only recently abandoned Latin as the means of instruction in many subjects (e.g. Adam Smith was, I believe, the first professor to deliver lectures in English at Glasgow University).

Also the enormous financial risks involved in any type of new enterprise were perhaps easier to contemplate for those who came from a background where they had very little worldly wealth originally. The Industrial Revolution started in the British Isles and the subsequent decline of industry there in the Twentieth Century was at least in part due to the fact that many of the major engineering businesses had passed by inheritance into the ownership of persons who were no longer innovative and only sought to preserve their personal wealth. This was especially true of Scottish shipbuilding, which eventually collapsed due to a complete failure to modernise in the good times, coupled with a state of war between blinkered family owners and powerful intransigent unions.

One has to hope that with the emergence of new technologies talented people are coming forward, regardless of social status. There are signs that this is beginning to happen.

Illness and Tragedy

I thought it would be interesting to look for any descendants of James Kennedy, in case I could trace any second or third cousins. The story I discovered was quite tragic.

James married Mary Dawson, an Englishwoman and neighbour in Raglan Street, on 18 June 1878. He described himself as “consulting engineer.” By 1881 he has gone blind and is living with Mary in one room behind a sweet shop at 36 Dumbarton Road with their children Ruth Farrel aged two and Dewar Onrust aged nine months. In the Census James describes himself as “civil engineer and architect.”

By 1891 family fortunes had improved. They are living in a seven room flat at 26 Charing Cross Mansions and James is now a confectioner. There is a new child Irene, aged four and they have one servant.

By 1901 the family is at 25 Elmbank Street, but Irene is no more. Ruth is working as a clerk to her father and Dewar has become an apprentice painter.

James died shortly after, but I did not find his details. Dewar died on 5 November 1905 of Phthsis (tuberculosis), unmarried and without having completed his apprenticeship.

Ruth never married and worked to support her mother. She was latterly in the Glasgow Corporation Electricity Department and died in her corporation house at 162 Kirkton Avenue, Knightswood on 13 July 1939.

Out of curiosity I researched William McIlwraith, who went into partnership with Thomas and James.

He was born on 9 August 1847 at 31 Cadogan Street to William McIlwraith a foreman and Margaret King, who had come from Ayrshire. His parents were thus neighbours and contemporaries of Angus Kennedy and family. It is very likely that he was offered an apprenticeship by Angus, who was always looking for staff.

The 1881 Census shows William, unmarried and an architect, living with his parents at 80 Maxwell Road East.

William is thought to have gone to Greenock, possibly with Thomas and family, but he does not appear in the 1891, nor the 1901 Census. This could be explained if he had been locked up in an asylum before 1891.

William died on 6 February 1909 at Woodilee Mental Asylum, his usual residence having been the Gartloch Asylum. He is described as “architect, unmarried” and the Asylum did not know his parents.

Postscript to the above, added 26 November 2011

I have found that the confectionery business operated as Crown Confectionery Company from 1890 to 1894 at 26 Charing Cross Mansions, which is in fact a shop. Following her father's death Ruth F Kennedy continued the business, latterly with a partner and in 1913 the following notice appeared in the Edinburgh Gazette:-

"NOTICE is hereby given that the Business of the

CROWN CONFECTIONERY COMPANY,

carried on by the undersigned Ruth F. Kennedy and

J. Howard MacKellar at 25 Elmbank Street, Glasgow,

has been transferred, as at 26th May 1913, to the

undersigned Alexander C. Meyer, who will continue

the Business on his own account under the Firm name

of the CROWN CONFECTIONERY COMPANY.

The said Ruth F. Kennedy and J. Howard MacKellar

will collect all sums due to, and pay all sums due by,

the said Business up to the said date of transfer, from

which date their connection with and interest in said

Business will cease.

Glasgow, 30th May 1913.

RUTH F. KENNEDY.

J. HOWARD MACKELLAR.

A. C. MEYER.

A. CAMERON FORREST, C.A., 65 Bath

Street, Witness.

M. LINNEGAN, Clerkess, Witness, 25

Elmbank Street."