KENNEDY, Thomas (1673-1754), of Dunure, Ayr.

Kennedy, who came of a junior branch of the earls of Cassilis [S], was made lord advocate by the Tory Government in 1714, after acting unofficially in this capacity.1G. W. T. Omond, Lord Advocates of Scotland, i. 300. Commenting on the appointment, a Jacobite M.P. observed: ‘Though not perhaps so tight a Tory as could have been wished, [he] was much preferable to any of his predecessors, and there was little reason to doubt his concurring with the Queen’s measures’.2Lockhart Pprs. i. 458-9. He lost his post on George I’s accession, notwithstanding applications to Argyll and Ilay, as well as to their opponents, the Squadrone, and to Walpole. He also sought arrears of salary for himself and one of his brothers, promotion for two more brothers, and a pardon for another, who had been employed at the Jacobite court. In the last he was supported by Duncan Forbes and James St. Clair. He ended as the client of the Duke of Argyll, to whom he owed his return for Ayr Burghs, and probably the appointment which terminated his brief parliamentary career. In 1736 one of his brothers was made deputy governor of Inverness by the influence of Argyll’s brother, Lord Ilay.3H. Tayler, Seven Sons of the Provost, 49-50 51-52, 53, 130-1, 177-8. He died 19 May 1754.