Tristram Kennedy

Family Born at Inishowen, County Donegal, Kennedy was the twelfth child of Church of Ireland clergyman John Pitt Kennedy and Mary Cary, daughter of Thomas Cary. In 1862, he married Sarah Helen Margaret Graham, daughter of George Templar Graham and Frances Margaret Golightly, and together they had seven children: Horace Graham Kennedy (born 1863) George Portalés (died as an infant) Tristram Edward Whiteside Kennedy (born 1866) Pitt Shadwell Portalés Kennedy (1868–1911) Francis Malcolm Evory Kennedy (born 1869), an officer in the Worcestershire Regiment Theodora (died as an infant) Caroline Mary Dorothea Kennedy (born 1880)

Legal career He was educated at Derry Free Grammar School, becoming an attorney and then, in 1828, High Sheriff of Londonderry City. In that role, he chaired a lengthy and controversial debate between Protestant and Catholic clergyman, winning admiration from both sides. However, in 1829, he was struck off the roll of attorneys, and entered Lincoln's Inn and King's Inns in Dublin, before being called to the bar of Ireland in 1834, aiming to improve legal education standards. This work, and his initiation of the Carrickmacross lace industry, is largely credited to his later election to Parliament. before joining the Independent Irish Party just after the election. Whilst in Parliament, he contributed primarily to debates on landlord and tenant matters, or national and industrial education.

Later life Kennedy was also a member of the Dublin Social and Statistical Inquiry Society, visiting Belgium to inspect responses to poverty in that country and then, in 1855 with W. K. Sullivan, publishing a booklet on industrial training. He later, in 1877 and 1878, published two tracts on the reform of law and legal education.

Kennedy died in 1885 at his home, Charleville, The Shrubbery, Weston-super-Mare, Somerset and was buried at Cossington village church.