Colonel Gilbert Kennedy

http://www.kennedydna.com/Colonel_Gilbert_Kennedy_of_Ardmillan.htm

Family

Married Isabel Campbell, daughter of Alexander Campbell and Mary MacArthur.

Their children:

1. Thomas Kennedy, b. 1618, Dunure, Ayrshire, Scotland
2. Gilbert Kennedy, b. 1620

Comments

Updated August 2019

Colonel Gilbert Kennedy & Thomas Kennedy, of Dunure have been attributed children who were actually the children of Oliver Kennedy, 1st of Breakath:

Margaret Kennedy, John Kennedy of Craig, elder, Apothecary in Edinburgh, David Kennedy, Esq., of Ballycultra, Jane Ramsey, Katherine Hamilton, Mary Hamilton and Hugh Kennedy, of Ballycultra, Dr. of Physick were not their children.

Disputed Descendants

From https://groups.google.com/forum/m/#!topic/soc.genealogy.medieval/OO... posted by Kelsey Jackson Williams 20 August 2017

I commented briefly on the questionable nature of the Dowling pedigree back when it was first brought up in 2013. Looking at it more closely, though (http://gw.geneanet.org/tdowling?lang=fr&pz=timothy+michael&...) it's clear that it's an absolute farrago of fantasy and wishful thinking. To take an example, one of the alleged children of the Gilbert Kennedy and Isabel Campbell you mention is supposed to be a certain Hugh Kennedy who married Mary Upton. This was Dr. Hugh Kennedy of Ballycultra, co. Down (see _Scottish Antiquary_ 11 [1897]: 44) but he neither had a son William nor a father Gilbert - his actual father being Oliver Kennedy, 1st of Breakath, a younger son of the Balmaclanachan family.

Note: This affects Hugh Kennedy, of Ballycultra, Dr. of Physick and also his brothers (named in each other’s wills) David Kennedy, Esq., of Ballycultra & John Kennedy of Craig, elder, Apothecary in Edinburgh

From http://www.arborealis.ca/blog/19thC-genealogy-kennedy/

The next image extracts that portion of the family tree, above, beginning with the first Earl of Cassillis through the seventh, and shows where McConnell, in the Fasti, and Dr. Kennedy-Bailie provide additional information. Note that McConnell (Fasti) states that the Revds. Thomas and Gilbert Kennedy were sons of Colonel Gilbert Kennedy, while Dr. Kennedy-Bailie concluded that they were the sons of Thomas who inherited Ardmillan in 1609.

http://www.arborealis.ca/_Media/kennedy_cassillis_burke_fas.jpeg

Disputed Origins

Not a known son of Gilbert Kennedy of Bargany. Disconnected July 2015

From "Colonel Gilbert Kennedy of Ardmillan" By Iain Kennedy Copyright © 2007

In this article I will examine the case for the existence of a historical link from the family of the Earls of Cassillis in Ayrshire to a family of ministers in Ulster, and hence to Bucks Co. Pennsylvania. The key individual in this study has been described in sources such as the 'Irish Fasti' [S1] as Colonel Gilbert Kennedy of Ardmillan, brother to John Kennedy, 6th Earl of Cassillis. I will examine each element of this title, whether or not this gentleman fought at Marston Moor as claimed, and also discuss his parentage since this is in doubt too. ...

1. Gilbertus Kennedy Comitis Cassilissae frater unicus'This settles this issue immediately since in 1617 John Kennedy was 6th Earl of Cassillis, and the above tells us that he had an only brother Gilbert (at that time). The section his entry appears in is for matriculations; I am now advised by the Glasgow University archivist (4th October 2007) that he is most likely to have been between 12 and 14 years of age when matriculating.

In summary, so far we have:

No mention of Gilbert at Marston Moor One account of him at Alford in a leading role, not confirmed by other writers and questionable as to identification Accounts of Kennedy of Knokdaw commanding at Aberdeen, Alford and Kilsyth
Did Gilbert Kennedy own or live at Ardmillan Castle?

I have so far found no primary source reference to a Gilbert Kennedy of Ardmillan. During the mid 1650s when the Ardmillan estates were changing hands, mostly to the Crawfords, there were
Hew Kennedy of Ardmillan (spouse Margaret Crawford); Thomas Kennedy younger of Ardmillan ('his eldest son and lawful heir'); Hew Kennedy 'son of Ardmillan' or 'third son of Hugh Kennedy of Ardmillan'; These three men are recorded several times in charters etc in [P8] and [P9]. Although the name of the middle son is missing, I am advised by the Crawfords that his name was David. Nor do the Crawford private papers studied so far mention a Gilbert Kennedy.

Still we have another tricky problem to deal with - what would the Earl's brother be doing at Ardmillan? Put another way, what was the connection between the houses of Ardmillan and Cassillis? Working these relationships out with original documents is a long hard task which is in progress. In the meantime we can refer to what respected Kennedy historians have made of the question in the past.

Paterson [S15] says in his first edition 'we have not been fortunate enough to trace the origin of the Kennedies of Ardmillan upon documentary evidence but there is reason to believe they are of the house of Bargany'. However in an Appendix now appearing as pp248a-j he describes a land title dated 1476 from Bargany to his 'weil belovyt brother' John Kennedy in Ardmillane.

McDowall [S9] is clearer in his thoughts, namely that Ardmillan was a junior branch of the house of Bargany. According to his genealogical chart, the first Kennedy of Ardmillan was John, son of the first Kennedy of Bargany, and he achieved his title as early as 1476. The source reference for this title is not given but is presumably the one of that date that the earlier Paterson referred to.

If the two historians are confirmed as correct, a descendant of this line would be a somewhat distant cousin of whoever was Earl of Cassillis at the time - and only a half-cousin at that since Bargany and Cassillis descend from different matriarchs. Since we have already established above that the Ardmillan Kennedies still held their lands in the 1650s, some time after the Rev. Thomas and Gilbert Kennedy graduated from Glasgow University, and since no Gilbert Kennedy has ever been recorded at the house of Ardmillan, it seems highly unlikely that the brother of the Earl could have been 'of Ardmillan'. Moreover, this should have been apparent to anyone writing a biography of the Reverends, if they did a small amount of research into the Scottish Kennedys. Therefore I find the designation 'Gilbert Kennedy of Ardmillan, brother to the Earl of Cassillis' as not just suspect in itself, but indicative of poor research and knowledge of the Kennedys. What were the authors of the Irish Fasti thinking of? Was Gilbert Kennedy the father of Rev. Gilbert Kennedy of Girvan, later Dundonald, Co. Antrim? I have found no information on this at all so far but will be turning to this next as most of the other points are settled.

From http://www.arborealis.ca/blog/19thC-genealogy-kennedy/

What happens when such a family claims an ancestral connection to a Baron or an Earl? and the family history was not recorded, for example, in a "received" genealogy such as Burke's? [2] or documents to support the claim either cannot be found or were never recorded? Well, then and in that case (to coin a phrase often encountered in Irish deeds), 'tis time to sink the genealogical wimble and burrow for research evidence once again.

The genealogical outline of the Kennedys of Carland, [3] as penned by J. Carmichael-Ferrall who, in turn, drew upon a manuscript by the Rev. Dr. James Kennedy-Bailie, D.D., F.T.C.D. (1793-1864), [4] is one such example. The great great grandson of Thomas Kennedy's brother, the Rev. Gilbert Kennedy (1627-1688), Dr. Kennedy-Bailie composed his genealogical notes about 150 years after the death of his forebear. He even went so far as to engage an agent to ferret out court records in Scotland—plus ça change.

As useful as this article proves to the construction of a goodly sized Kennedy family tree, it makes two ancestral claims which have yet to be substantiated, that is, corroborated to other sources, viz.—:

firstly, that the father-in-law of the Rev. Thomas Kennedy, Major William O'Brien of the Bawn,[5] was "nearly related to the Lords Inchiquin and Ibrican."—The phrase, nearly related, means closely related but not in the direct line of primogeniture (male inheritance). The phrase is also used to denote a degree of relationship somewhat removed from the hereditary line—cousins of the first, second, and even further degree. While several printed genealogies exist for the Earls of Inchiquin, unfortunately I have yet to find which one shows a William O'Brien whose daughter married the Rev. Thomas Kennedy. Major O'Brien may well have been a cousin-german to the main line of that noble house (or not), and his name and father simply not recorded. secondly, that the Rev. Thomas Kennedy and his brother, Gilbert (also a Presbyterian minister), descended from the Earls of Cassilis of Ardmillan in Ayrshire, Scotland. Specifically, Dr. Kennedy-Bailie asserted the following, based on court documents which his agent in Scotland discovered: Gilbert second Earl of Cassilis, had, as appears from the Charter of the mains of Cassilis and other lands, several sons, of whom Gilbert, the eldest, inherited the honors, etc., and Thomas, the second, had a charter of the lands of Ardmillan, or Ardmilland, in Ayrshire. He was succeeded by his eldest son Thomas, who died in November, 1586, and was succeeded by Thomas, his eldest son, as appears from his retour* of heirship, dated 9th May, 1609. This last Thomas Kennedy had three sons——Thomas, Hugh, and Gilbert, as appears from the College of Glasgow, where the first and last studied, and the records of the Court of Chancery, where the retour of the second son as heir was discovered by Dr. Kennedy’s agent which retour took place in 1640. The records of their matriculation bear date, respectively, 1637 and 1642.[3]

• According to Merriam-Webster, the word, retour, is chiefly Scottish, meaning “the return made to the court of chancery on a brieve of inquest with the jury’s verdict thereon.” Source: merriam-webster.com (accessed 2016-07-06).

Whether these retours have survived is not known. A scan of the catalogue entries under PRONI ref. D2315, the Gaussen, Kennedy, Bailie, and Magill papers, shows a sub-fond at ref. D2315/9 entitled, Printed material and miscellaneous family papers, which would need to be checked for the existence of these documents. If the documents survive, they may have been deposited in another archive.

However, another problem exists, in that the outline above varies not only with the genealogy printed in Burke's, but also that given in McConnell's Fasti. [1] To illustrate, the first image below depicts extracts of the genealogy given for the Earls of Cassillis in Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary (1878) supplemented by Burke's Landed Gentry (2001) [2]:

http://www.clanmacfarlanegenealogy.info/genealogy/TNGWebsite/getper... shows him as son of Gilbert Kennedy, 4th Earl of Cassillis & Margaret Lyon