Background: 

 
 Kennedy is the anglicized form of the Gaelic O'Ceanneidigh, descendant of
Ceanneidigh.  The root of the name is ceann, meaning "head," and eidigh, meaning
"ugly."  There were two origins for the Kennedys, one in Scotland and the other in
Ireland.
 The Kennedy Clan was strong and powerful, dominating southwestern Scotland for
centuries.
 The name comes from the old Irish Gaelic, ‘cinneidigh’, literary meaning ‘ugly headed’.
The family came from Ireland to Celtic Dalriada, now Strathclyde, but are mainly
associated with the district of Carrick in Ayrshire. They claimed descent from the Earls
of Carrick and kinship to the Bruce family, whom they supported against the Comyns
and throughout the War of Independence.
 They were astute enough to support the strong Scottish kings and to oppose the weak
ones. This support enabled them to retain their lands and position and to expand
them, sometimes at the expense of their neighboring clans.
 At the time of the Reformation in the 1500s, a schism developed within the Kennedys
when one faction (Bargany) favored Henry VIII’s Reformation and the other side of the
clan (Cassillis) favored remaining loyal to Rome.
 Long after the Cassillis branch embraced John Knox and Protestantism, the split
remained, resulting in disputes after every clan chief’s death over who should succeed
and lead the clan.
 The issue finally was resolved in favor of the Cassillis branch, and the title of
Marquess of Ailsa is passed down through that side of the family today.

Motto:  Avise la fin, Consider the End.

Arms:  Argent, a chevron Gules between three cross crosslets fitchee Sable, all within a
double tressure flory counter-flory Gules.
Crest:  A dolphin naiant Proper.
Supporters:  Two swans Proper, beaked and membered Gules.
Plant:  Oak.
 Ancient Modern Weathered

 John Kennedy of Dunure acquired lands at Cassillis about 1360, and witnessed a charter by
Robert II in 1384. His son, Sir Gilbert, was one of the hostages for the release of David II by the
English in 1357. Gilbert’s son, James, married Princess Mary, second daughter of Robert III.
Their son, another Gilbert, was created Lord Kennedy in about 1457 and was one of the six
regents during the minority of James III. A brother of the first Lord Kennedy, James Kennedy,
was one of Scotland’s best-loved bishops. He served briefly as High Chancellor of Scotland and
was Bishop of Dunkeld, and later Archbishop of St Andrews. At St Andrews he founded St
Salvator’s College in 1455.

 Hugh Kennedy of Ardstinchar served as commander of the Scots mercenary troops who
fought for Joan of Arc at the siege of Orleans; hence Joan figures on the arms of Kennedy of
Bargany. Sir David, third Lord Kennedy, was created Earl of Cassillis in 1509 and died at
Flodden in 1513. The second Earl was murdered in 1527. Gilbert, third Earl, was one of four
Scottish commissioners who were poisoned at Dieppe on their return from the marriage of
Mary, Queen of Scots to the Dauphin in 1558. He had inherited his title at the age of twelve
when one of his first acts was to sign, under duress, the death warrant of Patrick Hamilton, the
first Scottish Protestant martyr. The fourth Earl earned an infamous reputation by ‘roasting’ Alan
Stewart, Abbot of Crossraguel, in the black vault of Dunmore in order to obtain tracts of abbey
land.

 The sixth Earl of Cassillis, John, was Lord Justice General of Scotland from 1649 to 1651. He
was a zealous Protestant, as was his son, the seventh Earl, and both were firm supporters of
Parliament during the civil war. The Justice General sat in Cromwell’s House of Lords. They
suffered for their beliefs, but their estates remained largely intact. When the eighth Earl died
without heirs there was a three-year court dispute to determine the succession. The House of
Lords finally found in favour of Sir Thomas Kennedy of Culzean in preference to William, Earl of
March and Ruglan. Sir Thomas’s brother, David, an advocate, succeeded him in 1775 as tenth
Earl, and was an active improver. He commissioned the architect Robert Adam to build the
castle at Culzean, considered to be Adam’s masterpiece.
 On the death of the tenth Earl the title passed to a kinsman who had settled in America.
Captain Archibald Kennedy was an officer in the Royal Navy who held estates in Hoboken in
New Jersey and became the greatest property owner in New York. He tried to be neutral during
the American War of Independence, and was accordingly mistrusted by both sides. Half of his
New York properties were confiscated, including number 1, Broadway, which was appropriated
by George Washington. His son, the twelfth Earl, was a close friend of the Duke of Clarence,
who, on his coronation as William IV, created him Marquess of Ailsa. The second Marquess,
Archibald Kennedy, was killed in a hunting accident in 1870. His son succeeded to the title at
the age of twenty-two, and after his death in 1938 the family title was borne by each of his three
sons in turn.

 The Kennedys of Kermuck were hereditary constables of Aberdeen from at least 1413. The
family was outlawed in 1652, when the father and son of the family mortally wounded John
Forbes of Watertown in a fracas. The family first went to Stroma in the Pentland Firth and
eventually to Burry in Orkney. Some then served with the Hudson Bay Company. Captain
William Kennedy, who was part Cree Indian, led an expedition to search for Sir John Franklin,
the explorer seeking the Northwest Passage between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
Franklin’s frozen remains were only found in the latter part of the twentieth century.
 The Moray Kennedys came north with the possession of the earldom of Moray by Janet
Kennedy and her son by James IV. She was sister to the third Lord Kennedy. The Clan Ulric in
Lochaber are said by tradition to be descended from Ulric Kennedy, who had fled from Ayrshire
because of his lawlessness. These Kennedys became a sept of the Camerons. Lieutenant
General Sir Clark Kennedy of Knockgray served throughout the Peninsular War. At Waterloo in
1815, he was in command of the centre squadron of the Royal Dragoons and personally
captured the eagle and colours of the 105th Regiment of French Infantry. His arms were
augmented to incorporate these honours with the word, ‘Waterloo’. The fifth Marquess
presented Culzean Castle to the National Trust, but the chiefs still live on family land in
Ayrshire.
 Name Variations:  Holmes, Cassilis, Cassells, Cassellis, Cassillis, Cassils, Cassels, Carrik,
Carrick, Carric, Carryk, Karryc, Karrick, Kinnedi, Canedie, Kennyde, Kennadee, Kenide,
Kennedy, Keneidy, Kennydy, Kennedi, Kenede, Kenadie, Kennaty, Kennatie, Kenyde, Kanydi,
Kenedy, Kennety, Kennedye, Kennide, Kinydy, Kennetie, Kanide, Kynidy, Kyneidy, Maccuaraig,
Macolrig, Macoulric, Macourlic, Macualraig, Macuaraig, Maculrig, Maculricm, Maculrick,
Maculrich, Macwalrick, Makoolrik, Maccualraig.

 Of the four known children of James Kennedy and Isabella Gray, Alexander was the
venturesome one. He was born in 1781. At the age of seventeen he joined the Hudson's Bay
Company and came out to York Factory in 1798 as a writer. He sailed in the Company's ship
King George. He remained at the York Factory for six years. For the season of 1804-1805 he
served as master of Cumberland House and was in charge for the following season. During this
time he had married Aggathas of the Swampy Cree Tribe, or the Ethinyoowuc as they called
themselves. Since there was no clergyman, the marriage was "in the manner of the country."
Two sons, John Frederick and William, Jr., were born at Cumberland House. In rapid
succession he was in charge of Moose Lake of the same area, Brandy or Drunken Lake in the
Poplar River area, Swan River, Brandon House, Swan River, Red Deer River where he built a
post, and, finally, Cumberland House again. In the previous year, 1813, he had, in the manner
of his ancestors, fought a battle, sword in hand, with a partner of the Northwest Company.
 He and his opponent were wounded in the process. From 1814 to 1819 Alexander Kennedy
was Chief Factor of the Cumberland House district. In the autumn 1819, he proceeded to Britain
on the company ship Prince of Wales. He was accompanied by his sons John and Alexander.
He put the boys into school at St. Margaret's Hope in South Ronaldshay, Orkney. He returned
on the Eddystone the following summer and took charge of Norway House.

 In 1821, he was one of the ten Chief Factors of the Hudson's Bay Company who signed the
deed poll of union with the Northwest Company. He was seated opposite his old enemy, "Blind"
McDonald of the Swan River duel. After being appointed a Counsellor of the Governors of the
Territories of the Hudson's Bay Company on May 29, 1822, he proceeded to the Columbia
Department to take charge of Spokane House. The following year he proceeded to Fort
George, at the mouth of the Columbia River, where he assumed command of the district upon
the departure of Chief Factor John Dugald Cameron. In the spring of 1825 Alexander Kennedy
relinquished command to Dr. John McLoughlin but not before he had chosen the site of Fort
Vancouver on the north bank of the Columbia River. Governor Simpson who had come to the
Department in November 1824 had assumed that negotiations between Britain and the United
States would result in the Columbia River forming the division between the British and American
jurisdictions on the Pacific coast. As Fort George was on the southern bank of the river a new
headquarters had to be built. Thus, Alexander Kennedy chose the site of what is today
Vancouver, Washington.

 In 1825 Alexander Kennedy went on leave to Britain for a year. Once again he took his sons
who were of age with him to put them into school in Orkney. This time it was the turn of William
and his brother George.

 In the summer of 1826 Alexander Kennedy returned on the H.B.C. ship Camden to Moose
Factory and was in charge of Albany for the next three seasons. He retired from the service of
the company in 1829 and proceeded to Britain in the Prince of Wales. He returned to the Red
River settlement in 1830 and was listed in the census of May 31, 1831, as living with his family
in the settlement. In the fall 1831, he went to Britain again. In a letter of 1832, he referred to the
Swiss cottage on their property and hoped that Thomas Isbister who had married his daughter
Mary would settle on the land immediately down river. He died while visiting in London on the
6th of June, 1832. He was buried in the vault of St. Mark's Church, Pentonville, London. He was
a wealthy man having shared in the profits of the company as a Chief Factor. He left an annuity
to his wife and each of his children. His Indian wife Aggathas, or Mary Bear, as she was also
known, received title to their property in 1833 from the Hudson Bay Company. Aggathas
continued to live on that property by the Grand Rapids of the Red River until she died there in
1863.

 Of the nine children born to the Kennedys, two became physicians, one was a
schoolteacher, one was the proprietor of a store, one was involved in business, one was an
Arctic explorer and lobbyist for Canadian expansion and two had famous children, in terms of
the province of Manitoba

 The fifth child, was William, born at Cumberland House in 1814. During the absence of his
father in 1819, young William was treated to the unusual event of the arrival of Sir John Franklin
and his party in October. The young explorer amused himself by teaching the children at the
post their first reading, writing and arithmetic during the months that he stayed there.
 Billy Kennedy was not to forget this mentor of his early childhood. In 1825, Billy
accompanied his father on the company ship from York Factory through the Hudson Bay, the
Hudson Strait, and across the North Atlantic to the misty Isles of his father's Orkney homeland.
He would have seen The Old Man of Hoy and the ancient Port of Stromness where a well on
the waterfront is still marked as a source of the last fresh water to be taken aboard ships bound
for the Hudson Bay.

 He was sent to school at St. Margaret's Hope, South Ronaldshay. The stone houses of that
town have not changed much in the intervening years. Braehead, the family property on a hill
overlooking the town and the bay, also shows little change.

 In 1833, the year after his father's death, William Kennedy asked to be allowed to study
medicine. William Smith the executor of the estate and secretary of the Hudson Bay Company,
refused his request and offered him an apprenticeship in the fur trade.

 William returned to serve the company for five years in the Ottawa valley where he perfected
his command of Canadian French. He was posted to Port Chimo in 1838. He travelled through
unknown territory and served at various places in what is now northern Quebec and Labrador.

 He left the company in 1846 and spent the next four years in upper Canada lobbying against
the continued regime of the Hudson's Bay Company in Rupertsland and the additional territories
of the North and the West.

 In 1851 he commanded an expedition in search of Sir John Franklin who had become lost
looking for the Northwest passage. He wintered his little ship, the Prince Albert, on the east
coast of Somerset Island and made an 1100 mile trek into unknown territory with a small party
of men which included his second-in-command, Lieutenant Joseph Rene Bellot. He discovered
a strait which marked the northernmost tip of the North American Continent. He named it the
Bellot Strait. He returned to Britain in the fall of 1852 and commanded a second ship around the
Horn to Valparaiso. His crew was not of the calibre of his first and the voyage terminated there.

 He returned to Canada in 1856 and took up his lobby against the H.B.C. He came to Red
River in a month and five days in the winter of 1857. He held meetings against the company
and returned with a petition signed by almost 600 residents of the settlement who requested
union with Canada.

 He returned to Britain to marry Eleanor Eliza Cripps who is said to have been a kinswoman
of Lady Franklin. They came to Red River in 1860.

 In 1866 he built Maple Grove and lived out the rest of his life in the west. He died in 1890. He
was survived by his wife, his daughter Mary and his son William.

 Mary was an author and a painter.

 William Jr. was a good scholar and worked in the land titles office at Virden and Brandon,
Manitoba.
 The daughter never married. The son married late in life. Thus there were no direct
descendants of William Kennedy and his wife.

In 1833 Aggathas received title to the property in St Andrews where

the historic stone Kennedy House was later built.
 

Manitoba Provincial Heritage Site No. 16

Captain William Kennedy House
417 River Road,
R.M. of St. Andrews

Designation Date: May 1, 1985

Designation Authority: Honourable Eugene Kostyra, Minister of Culture, Heritage and
Recreation
 Present Owner: The Province of Manitoba, Department of Conservation

 The house was built in l866 for Captain William Kennedy, using stones quarried from the Red
River banks at nearby St. Andrews Rapids.

 The Gothic Revival style of the Kennedy House is architecturally distinctive, compared to the
other old stone houses built in the Red River Settlement, which reflect Georgian influences. In
contrast with the rectilinear outline of Georgian designs, domestic buildings in the Gothic
Revival style were often highly irregular in outline with sharply pitched roofs having numerous
gables.

 By contemporary Eastern Canadian or British standards Kennedy House was simple and
unadorned. By Red River Settlement standards, however, it was very fashionable.

 Since the destruction of several early stone houses along the Red River, Kennedy House
now stands as one of only seven remaining and one of only three in excellent condition.

Kennedy House

Captain William Kennedy's Study

Eleanor Kennedy

The Dining Room

Introduction
The three main-floor rooms are furnished as they may have looked during the 1870s and 1880s when Captain William
Kennedy and his family lived here. The rooms represent a combination of period styles. Look closely at the furnishings,
textiles and appointments and clothing in this part of the house and you'll gain an impression of the work and life of this
Scottish-Aboriginal family in late 19th-century Red River.

-- top --

Captain William Kennedy's Study

Captain William Kennedy was a courageous man of wide experience and interests. When he took up permanent residence
here at "Maple Grove" in 1866, he was 52. Like many country-born people of mixed ancestry, he found few economic
opportunities in Red River. He made a living trading goods from England to local First Nations people, Métis and settlers,
but his business suffered in the economic crash of 1882. He had accepted scrip (certificates convertible to land) as payment
from many of his Métis neighbours and lost money when the land speculation bubble burst.
Following his education in Scotland, young Kennedy took a posting as clerk for the Hudson's Bay Company, beginning in
1833 in the Ottawa Valley and then transferring to Ungava (Labrador). Being an advocate of temperance, he eventually left
the Company's employ in protest of its liquor trade. He opened a store in Kingston in 1846 and started a fishery at the mouth
of the Saugeen River two years later. From 1851-3, lured by the romance of the unknown Arctic, he led a search for his one-
time tutor, Arctic explorer Sir John Franklin.

Drawing on a strong Christian inheritance from his Native mother, Kennedy and his wife attempted to set up a mission to the
First Nations people of Lake Manitoba in 1861, similar to an earlier unsuccessful effort with a mission in the Lake of the
Woods area.

Despite the rheumatism which incapacitated him in later life, Kennedy remained a visible personality in Red River society.
He opposed the power of the Hudson's Bay Company in Red River and campaigned tirelessly in Canada West for Canadian
annexation of the northwest. He was the local magistrate and served on Manitoba's Board of Education. He was active in St.
Andrew's Church and a faithful parishioner until his death in 1890. Although his daughter Mary Kennedy thought he was
easily led and generous to a fault, he remained, as Anishinabe Chief Henry Prince noted, "one of our country gentlemen."

-- top --

Eleanor Kennedy

Eleanor Kennedy was a familiar figure in the Parish of St. Andrew's in the 1870s. Known locally as "the Duchess" for her
dignified bearing and aristocratic manner, she was the organist at St. Andrew's Church and could regularly be seen walking
from here to Miss Davis' school to teach music to the young ladies.

This well-educated and talented daughter of Captain William Cripps of London, England, Eleanor Kennedy had met her
Métis husband through Lady Franklin, married him in London, and returned with him to Red River in 1861. During the
grasshopper plague in 1868, she was one of several energetic middle-class women who ensured that food and clothing
reached all destitute families. When smallpox broke out in 1873 it was Eleanor Kennedy who nursed some of the sick of the
parish and who devoted much energy to a vaccination program throughout the district. Parish visiting, tea with friends,
music, painting, writing poetry and teaching needlework to her daughter Mary, took up most of her days and made her home
a model of Victorian family life.

Yet her disappointments were many. The mission at Lake Manitoba failed after only one year. Her husband was not a
wealthy man and became an invalid for almost twenty years. She had one miscarriage, and because of declining family
fortunes, her son Willie never went to England for education and never fulfilled his mother's ambition that he become a
clergyman.
Mrs. Kennedy saw herself as part of the parish "gentry" but by the 1880s she had, by necessity, also become the economic
support of her family. Her millinery and dressmaking skills were valued by her neighbours while her imports of European
fashion brought her clientele from throughout Red River. Nevertheless, in 1892-two years after Captain Kennedy's death-
Eleanor was forced by mounting debts to sell the St. Andrews house and property. She retired to Virden. The new Women's
Canadian Club in Winnipeg honoured her as one of the pioneers of Manitoba. Along with her husband, William, she is
buried in the churchyard at St. Andrew's.

-- top --

The Dining Room

This room was the scene of many family celebrations. "I can't help thinking of you all at Maple Grove," wrote Emma Christie
to her friend Mary Kennedy at Christmas in 1883. "I suppose you are busy preparing mincemeat puddings. Do you
remember what fun we used to have over stoning the raisins, cutting up the peel and stirring the pudding? I always like to
hear what hymns you sing and if you had as much fun at the decorations as we used to." Guests came frequently from
distant HBC trading posts. There were visitors from Winnipeg, some of whom gave recitals, as well as merchants, ministers,
local politicians, and cousins and friends of the children.

Household "help," usually a young girl from the parish, came at 5 a.m. before the family had risen. She lit the fires and
prepared a breakfast omelette before 9 a.m. Dinner was eaten at noon and consisted of fish, veal or venison, suet puddings,
cabbage, carrots, potatoes, and desserts of berries, rhubarb tart, milk "shapes" or blancmange. Sunday dinner was more
elaborate and was prepared by the "help" while the family was at church. Tea was served at the end of the day and the
buns, bannock, butter, and occasional jam were shared with local visitors. In most of the homes of the parish, tea time was a
social event of importance.

A common courtesy was the daily exchange of gifts of food. Mary Kennedy took soups to the sick and returned with eggs or
bread. Pounds of homemade butter-a valuable commodity-would be exchanged for milk, flour or vegetables. Tucked into
Mary's basket on such occasions would be marigolds for Mrs. Scott in exchange for geranium cuttings. The sharing of food
played an important part in the yearly ceremonies and, on a daily basis, cemented the ties of kinship, friendship and
experience which bound the people of Red River.

-- top --

Manitoba Historical Society

Memorable Manitobans: William Kennedy
(1814-1890)
Arctic explorer, missionary, Hudson’s Bay Company employee.

He was born at Cumberland House on the Saskatchewan River in

April 1814, the son of Alexander Kennedy, a Hudson’s Bay
William Kennedy
Company Chief Factor, and an aboriginal woman, Aggathas Click to enlarge
Margaret (Mary) Bear. When he was thirteen he was sent to Orkney
for his education. In 1836 he entered the employ of the Hudson’s
Bay Company and was stationed on the Ungava Coast. He left the Company’s service in
1848 and went to Canada West where he engaged in his own business, and began to lobby
for the expansion of Canada into the north-west.

As a lad at Cumberland House he had met Sir John Franklin, and in 1850 he offered his
services to Lady Franklin to help in the search for the Franklin expedition. He commanded
two of the Franklin search expeditions and discovered the Arctic passage known as Bellot
Strait. He was the first to use dogs and sleds from an exploring ship. In 1853, he presented a
paper on these adventures to the Royal Geographical Society in London, England, and wrote
a book entitled A Short Narrative of the Second Voyage of The Prince Albert in search of Sir
John Franklin.

In 1856, with George Brown’s support, he resumed his efforts to link the Red River
Settlement and Canada West by a northern route. About 1860 he settled at Fairford, on Lake
Manitoba, as an Anglican missionary and teacher to the Indians. In 1861 he settled at St.
Andrew’s on the Red, where he was for a time employed by the Hudson’s Bay Company as a
storekeeper at Lower Fort Garry.

He was not very active at the time of the Red River Rebellion in 1869-1870, although at a
parish meeting in St. Andrew’s in October 1869 he opposed welcoming Governor William
McDougall into the settlement, saying he was suspicious of the man’s character and
background. Kennedy on this occasion called for Confederation “on equal terms with other
provinces.” He was a founding member of the Historical Society of Manitoba, to which he
gave the first scientific address on 13 February 1879. In the 1880s he was one of the first
advocates of a Hudson Bay Railway. He was one of the founders of the Winnipeg Board of
Trade, in 1873.

About 1859, he married Eleanor E. Cripps and they had two children.

Crippled by rheumatism for most of his remaining years he lived a very retired life at St.
Andrew’s. He died at his home on 25 January 1890. In 1910, Sir Ernest Shackleton unveiled
a bronze tablet to his memory in St. Andrew’s on the Red. There are papers at the Archives
of Manitoba.

See also:

Historic Sites of Manitoba: Captain William Kennedy House (RM of St. Andrews)
Captain William Kennedy, An Extraordinary Canadian by Edward C. Shaw
MHS Transactions, Series 3, Number 27, 1970-71 Season

William Kennedy, Dictionary of Canadian Biography XI, 470-71.

Sources:

Pioneers and Early Citizens of Manitoba, Winnipeg: Manitoba Library Association, 1971.

Dictionary of Manitoba Biography by J. M. Bumsted, Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press,

1999.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

 CAPTAIN
WILLIAM KENNEDY
by George Siamandas

A HUDSON BAY MAN

Captain William Kennedy is the man behind Kennedy house on River Road.
William Kennedy was born in 1814 at Cumberland house the son of Chief Factor
Alexander Kennedy and a Cree woman named Aggathas. Young Kennedy was
schooled in Scotland at his dad's Orkney island home town. One of his subjects
included French.

In 1833 he joined the Hudson Bay Company spending five years in the Ottawa
Valley and in Labrador. But by 1846 he left the HBC because as a teetotaller he
did not approve of the HBC's selling liquor to the Indians. After this Kennedy
became a critic of the HBC and its monopoly in the north west.

FRANKLIN EXPEDITION

In 1851 Captain William Kennedy was placed in charge of the second Franklin
Expedition (whom Kennedy had met in 1819 at Cumberland House). He Had a
frenchman as his second in command and was well prepared for the voyage. They
got further than the earlier expedition but did not succeed in finding Franklin.
Kennedy led another expedition but the crew mutinied in Chile.

A WESTERN EXPANSIONIST

A third expedition did not materialize and Kennedy returned to Canada in 1856
and became a proponent of western expansion. He wrote articles and circulated a
petition at Red River encouraging union with Canada receiving very little support
outside the Scottish settler at Kildonan. Kennedy also carried the first mail using a
Canadian route.

SETTLING DOWN IN RED RIVER

In 1860 Kennedy settled down permanently at Red River taking over his mother's
log cabin near ST Andrews church. He built a large stone home from limestone
quarried just down river and called it Maple Grove. He opened up a store that
supplied high end goodies. that did not succeed. He became active in community
affairs on the board of Education and he gave the first lecture to the Manitoba
Historical and Scientific Society in 1879. Kennedy was a proponent of the Hudson
Bay railway and saw a future for Hudson Bay as a sea port.
KENNEDY HOUSE: MAPLE GROVE

Life was comfortable at Maple grove. Kennedy had married Eleanor Crips and had
two children: William and Mary. Mary had the benefit of one of the few pianos in
Red River. Mrs Kennedy was a busy lady operating the family store, teaching
piano and playing organ at ST Andrew's church. Kennedy was always proud of his
Indian heritage. Kennedy did not receive the success or recognition that his work
deserved.

http://timemachine.siamandas.com/PAGES/early_manitoba/CAPTAIN_KENNEDY.htm
KENNEDY, WILLIAM, HBC fur-trader, sailor, explorer, and magistrate; b. in April 1814 at
Cumberland House (Sask.), fifth child of Chief Factor Alexander Kennedy and his Cree
wife, Aggathas; m. 29 Nov. 1859 in London, England, Eleanor Eliza Cripps, and they had
one son and one daughter; d. 25 Jan. 1890 at St Andrews, Man.
William Kennedy was sent to school in his father’s hometown, St Margaret’s Hope,
Orkney Islands, in 1825; over the next eight years he was taught French as well as other
subjects. In 1833 he joined the Hudson’s Bay Company and spent five years in the
Ottawa valley, mainly at Fort Coulonge, Lower Canada. Transferred to the Ungava and
Labrador area, he then served at forts Chimo, Trial, and Nascopie on Lake Petitsikapau
(Labrador). Kennedy’s religious convictions led him to disagree with the HBC policy of
selling liquor to the Indians and he resigned in 1846. He moved to Canada West, where
he began a lobby against the HBC monopoly, arguing that the Province of Canada
should be allowed to expand into Rupert’s Land. In 1848 he started a fishery at the mouth
of the Saugeen River, and was thus one of the founders of Southampton, Canada West.
From 1848 to 1850 he was captain of a boat on Lake Huron.

On the suggestion of ex-Chief Trader John MCLEAN, Kennedy was accepted, in 1851,
by Lady Franklin [Griffin*] as commander of her second private expedition in search of
her husband Sir John Franklin*, whom Kennedy had met in 1819 at Cumberland House.
Shortly before the expedition sailed, Kennedy was joined by Joseph-René Bellot*, a sub-
lieutenant in the French navy; he had insisted on having Bellot as his second in
command in spite of opposition from the British Admiralty. This Arctic expedition was the
best prepared of any up to that time. Kennedy was well acquainted with the perils of the
north after his service in Ungava and Labrador; he chose a nucleus of men experienced
in the Canadian wilds, and he insisted his crew protect themselves with native clothing.
His ship, the 89-ton Prince Albert, had a very shallow draught, making it a poor sea
vessel, but it proved highly manoeuvrable in the Arctic ice.
In May 1851 the Prince Albert and its crew of 17 left Aberdeen, Scotland. In July, near
Upernavik, Greenland, the expedition encountered the Advance and the Rescue which
had been sent out under the command of Edwin Jesse De Haven* the previous year by
New York merchant Henry Grinnell to search for Franklin. The three ships became locked
in ice and Kennedy and Dr Elisha Kent Kane*, the medical officer of the American
expedition, became friendly and later corresponded. Kennedy succeeded where the
Americans had failed in penetrating Lancaster Sound into Prince Regent Inlet. Here
Kennedy made use of blasting powder, which he had learned to use at the arsenal at
Woolwich (now part of Greater London), in April 1851, to break through the ice.
In September, while attempting to reconnoitre Port Leopold on the northeast shore of
Somerset Island, Kennedy and four men were separated from the Prince Albert by a shift
in the ice which carried the ship south. Bellot put it into winter headquarters at Batty Bay.
Unfamiliar with Arctic travel, he succeeded in reaching Kennedy only on a third attempt
after Kennedy had been marooned for more than five weeks.
With the Prince Albert locked in the ice at Batty Bay, Kennedy, Bellot, and 12 crewmen
set out at the end of February 1852 to explore the Boothia Peninsula area. After a stop at
Fury Beach, the group continued south on 29 March and reached Brentford Bay on
5 April. Eight of the crewmen then returned to the Prince Albert, while Kennedy, Bellot,
and the remaining four men headed southwest; on 7 April they discovered a new channel
which Kennedy later named Bellot Strait. At this crucial time an error seems to have been
made, perhaps because of snow-blindness, and the party did not explore Boothia
Peninsula to the southwest as ordered, but moved west to Prince of Wales Island,
crossing the frozen Peel Sound and Franklin Strait without realizing it. They returned
safely to the Prince Albert on 30 May, having completed a journey of some 1,100 miles,
and on 28 Aug. 1852 sailed from Beechey Island, arriving in Aberdeen about 40 days
later. Although unsuccessful in his search for Franklin, Kennedy contributed to the
knowledge of the Canadian Arctic and brought his crew back to Britain without the loss of
a single man.
A second expedition under Kennedy supported by Lady Franklin was organized in
1853 to search the western and Russian Arctic via the Bering Strait. This mission was
aborted when the crew mutinied in Valparaiso, Chile, and Kennedy had them jailed.
Replacements were unavailable because of the impending Crimean War and Kennedy
returned to Britain. When a third expedition did not materialize, he came back to Canada
in 1856, living for a time in Toronto.

Kennedy joined the agitation for annexation of Rupert’s Land to Canada, resuming his
lobby against the HBC. He wrote several articles on the “western question” for
newspapers, and was associated with George Brown* who printed excerpts from at least
one of his letters in the Globe. Kennedy became a director of the North-West
Transportation, Navigation and Railway Company and made a journey from Toronto to
the Red River Settlement (Man.) in February 1857 to prove the possibilities of the route,
even in the worst weather. In Red River he circulated a petition requesting union with
Canada which 575 settlers signed. The following year, Kennedy carried the first mail from
Toronto to Red River for the North-West Transportation, Navigation and Railway
Company, which held the contract from the Canadian government.
Kennedy settled permanently at Red River in 1860 where he built his home, the
Maples, at St Andrews (the house is now the Red River House Museum). There he
operated a store with his brother George. He became a member of the Board of
Education of Manitoba in 1878 and a magistrate the following year. On 13 Feb. 1879 he
read the first scientific address to the Historical and Scientific Society of Manitoba. During
the 1880s Kennedy argued for a railway to Churchill (Man.) on Hudson Bay to break the
monopoly of the Canadian Pacific Railway. A fighter to the end, he died on 25 Jan. 1890.
In his eulogy of Kennedy, Canon Samuel Pritchard Matheson* said “he was a man who
never got his due. While other men far less deserving received honour and emolument,
he was passed over.”
EDWARD CHARLES SHAW
William Kennedy was the author of A short narrative of the second voyage of the Prince Albert, in
search of Sir John Franklin (London, 1853).
PAM, HBCA, A.12; B.38/a/7; C.1/806; MG 2, C1; MG 7, C12; MG 10, F2, Minutes, 1879. Scott
Polar Research Institute (Cambridge, Eng.), MS 248/105, 14 Jan. 1851; MS 248/107, 2 May 1851.
J.-R. Bellot, Memoirs of Lieutenant Joseph René Bellot . . . with his journal of a voyage in the
polar seas, in search of Sir John Franklin, [ed. Julien Lemer] (2v., London, 1855), I: 93, 136, 198;
II: 14, 180. Globe, 16 Sept. 1848, 22 Jan. 1857. Manitoba Morning Free Press, 27 Jan. 1890,
30 April 1910. Times (London), 3 Nov. 1853. Manitoba directory . . . (Winnipeg), 1878–79.
W. S. Fox, The Bruce beckons; the story of Lake Huron’s great peninsula (Toronto, 1952).
W. J. Healy, Women of Red River: being a book written from the recollections of women
surviving from the Red River era (Winnipeg, 1923). L. H. Neatby, The search for Franklin
(Edmonton, 1970). Noel Wright, Quest for Franklin (London and Toronto, 1959). E. C. Shaw,
“Captain William Kennedy, an extraordinary Canadian,” HSSM Papers, 3rd ser., no.27 (1970–
71): 7–18.

http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/kennedy_william_11E.html

William Kennedy (April 1814 - January 25, 1890) was born at Cumberland House,
Saskatchewan, a son of the Hudson's Bay Company Chief Factor, Alexander Kennedy and
his English/Cree wife, Aggathas Margaret (Mary) Bear, daughter of Philip Turnor a
cartographer for the HBC. He traveled extensively through the western region, with his
family, residing at many Hudson's Bay Company Posts and Forts including Fort Spokane,
and Fort Astoria while his father was the Chief Factor of the Columbia District. At thirteen, he
was sent to his father’s birthplace of St. Mary's Hope in the Orkney Islands for his education.
In 1836 he returned to Canada after his father's death. Wanting to return to England to
become a surgeon like his older brothers, he could not get the sponsorship. Instead, he was
employed as a fur-trader with the Hudson's Bay Company. [1]

History
Kennedy was commander of Lady Franklin's sponsored expedition in 1851 to find her
husband, Sir John Franklin, using the ketch Prince Albert. His second in command was
Joseph René Bellot, a French navy sub-lieutenant. The expedition was well organized as
Kennedy was well versed in northern travel and used as many experienced men as he could
find and outfitted them in native clothing. While the expedition did not find Franklin, it did
acquire substantial knowledge of the Canadian Arctic. Because of his preparedness,
leadership: adapting the dress and survival techniques of the Inuit peoples, bringing a
custom made kayak for independent travel away from the ship, stopping in Greenland to
purchase a dog sled team, asking the locals of the best routes and information of the area.
They returned to Britain in October 1852 without losing any men and recorded the flora,
fauna and cartography of the area. The first for any arctic exploration to that date.
[2]

Lady Franklin placed Kennedy in charge of her auxiliary steamship Isabel to search the Arctic
via the Bering Straits early in 1853. However, most of the crew including his sailing master
Robert Grate mutinied at Valparaiso in August, claiming the vessel was too small for her
mission. After two years trading around the South American coast while trying to find another
crew willing to sail to the Arctic, he gave up and returned the Isabel to England in 1855.
After returning to England Captain Kennedy wrote a book about his expedition earning
further acclaim and public recognition. The British Historical Society invited him to present his
drawings and findings to its members.
Upon his return to Canada in 1856, he became active in establishing a mail service between
Toronto and the Red River Settlement.
Before and after the Lady Franklin expedition Kennedy wrote several open letters to the
Globe newspaper, which were printed, and received a great deal of attention. These letters
questioned the leaders of Upper and Lower Canada for enabling the Hudson's Bay Company
(HBC) to govern Rupert's Land when they didn't have the legal authority.
Captain Kennedy collaborated with his nephew, Alexander Kennedy Isbister, a surgeon and
barrister in the British parliament, also a former HBC employee, Metis, and staunch critic of
the company. Utilizing his access he was able to directly reference the original company
documents in the Parliament's archives. Determining the agreement between the Magistrate
and HBC granting authority to govern, had expired decades earlier. The HBC's authority to
govern continued solely because it had been uncontested. Kennedy challenged the
governing authority of the HBC in the public arena of Canada's media. Isbsiter challenged it
in the British Parliament. Isbister hand-delivered petitions from the residents of Rupert's Land
and represented their requests to self-govern, twice, on the floor of the British Parliament.
Both Kennedy and Isbister risked their reputations, personal safety, social position, and
utilized their personal funds, to bring this information to the attention of the people. After a
decade of petitioning, campaigning, and soliciting the British upper class for support, the
Parliament relented. Choosing to restructure instead of granting self-government, they united
the regions of Upper, Lower Canada with Rupert's Land into the country of Canada. To this
day, the second petition presented by Isbister resides in the National Gallery.
By 1860, Captain Kennedy settled at his family home in the Red River Settlement with his
wife, Eleanor Cripps (friend of Lady Franklin). During this period he operated a store with his
brother George, eventually, becoming active in the community as a magistrate, and member
of the Board of Education of Manitoba. Invited to present his arctic findings at the first
scientific address of the newly formed Historical and Scientific Society of Manitoba, 1879.
By the 1880s, his niece's husband, John Norquay the Premier of Manitoba, recruited Captain
Kennedy to be an active voice for the development of a railway from Winnipeg to Churchill.
An important line in the quest to break the CPR railway's supply-chain monopoly over the
region. He died before the line could be completed.
[3]

During the Riel Rebellion, bed ridden and crippled with arthritis Captain Kennedy,
volunteered to act as negotiator meeting privately with the rebel leader. During their meeting
he convinced Riel to cease the blood shed and surrender to the authorities ending the
Rebellion.
During the 1910s, the Women's Canadian Club hosted a ceremony recognizing Captain
Kennedy with a placard mounted at St. Andrews church. The inscription reads "To William
Kennedy, Arctic Explorer, by Sir Ernest Shackleton, the famous Antarctic explorer."
During the 1860s, Kennedy rebuilt his family home at Red River in the river stone style
naming it, The Maples. Currently, it still exists as the Red River House Museum at St.
Andrews, it highlights the unique architecture from this era, and showcases his belongings
from his period.
[4]

See also

 Notable Aboriginal people of Canada

References

 Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online

 Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online - Eleanor Eliza Cripps
(Kennedy)
 the Manitoba Historical Society - William Kennedy
 Captain William Kennedy

1. Shaw, Edward C (15 January 2009). "MHS Transactions: Captain William Kennedy,
An Extraordinary Canadian". Manitoba Historical Society. Retrieved 2009-10-05.
2. Captain William Kennedy, An Extraordinary Canadian'
3. The Manitoba Historical Society Property Act
4. Cooper, Barry, (1943) Alexander Kennedy Isbister, A Respectable Critic of the
Honorable Company, Carleton University Press, 1988, Ottawa, Canada. Shaw, Edward,
Charles, (1982) “Kennedy, William”, Dictionary of Canadian Biography , vol. 11 University
of Toronto/Université Laval 2003-,
(http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/kennedy_william_11E.html/11.25/2013). Shaw, Edward,
Charles, (1982) “Kennedy, William”, Dictionary of Canadian Biography , vol. 11 University
of Toronto/Université Laval 2003-,
(http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/kennedy_william_11E.html/11.25/2013). Hudson’s Bay
Company Archives, Manitoba Archives, HBCA Shaw, M.D., Edward C. Shaw, (1970-71)
“Capitain William Kennedy, An Extraordinary Canadian, MHS Transactions, Series3,
Number 27, The Manitoba Historical Society,
(http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/transactions/3/kennedy_w.shtml/01.01/2015)
 Roderic Owen, The Fate of Franklin: The Life and Mysterious Death of the Most
Heroic of Arctic Explorers, Hutchinson Group (Australia) Pty. Ltd., Richmond South,
Victoria, 1978.
 Ken McGoogan. Lady Franklin's Revenge: A True Story of Ambition, Obsession and
the Remaking of Arctic History. Toronto, HarperCollins. 2005

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