John Kennaway

Sir John Kennaway, 1st baronet (6 March 1758 – 1 January 1836), of Escot House in the parish of Talaton in Devon, was a British soldier and diplomat.

Life

After Kennaway left Exeter Grammar School in 1772, he became a cadet of the East India Company's forces, through the influence of Robert Palk, a relation on his mother's side.

Kennaway served in the Carnatic, marching south with a brigade from the Presidency of Bengal in 1781, and taking part in the Second Anglo-Mysore War.

In recognition of his part in the negotiation of the 1790 alliance between the Nizam and the East India Company against Tipu Sultan, Kennaway in 1791 he was created a baronet "of Hyderabad". He concluded a treaty with Tipu Sultan in 1792.

In 1794 Kennaway returned to England, and purchased Escot House, Ottery St Mary.

Family Kennaway married Charlotte Amyatt, daughter of James Amyatt; they had seven sons and five daughters.

The eldest daughters were Charlotte Eliza (1799–1875), who married George Templer, and Maria (1801–1876), who married Francis William Newman. Frances married Edward Cronin in 1838; and Susan married Gerard Thomas Noel, as his second wife. The other daughter was Augusta.

The second son, Charles Edward Kennaway (1800–1875) was a graduate of St John's College, Cambridge and a cleric. He married firstly Emma, daughter of Gerard Thomas Noel, and secondly Olivia, daughter of Lewis Way. He and his elder brother John visited Robert Southey in their student days.