John Mitchell Kemble

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John Mitchell Kemble (1807-57), elder brother of the renowned actress Fanny Kemble, was an undergraduate at Trinity College, Cambridge, and a prominent member of the free-thinking society known as ‘The Apostles’. A trip to Germany in 1829-30 converted him from philosophy to philology, and, after a brief adventure as a revolutionary in Spain (1830-1), he settled down in Cambridge where he embarked upon his edition of Beowulf (published in 1833) and lectured to dwindling audiences on the history of the English language (1834). Always a controversial figure, Kemble left Cambridge in 1835, and made his way as editor of a literary and political journal in London. He continued his work as an Anglo-Saxonist, publishing a six-volume edition of Anglo-Saxon charters (Codex Diplomaticus Ævi Saxonici (1839-48)), an edition of the legend of St Andrew in the Vercelli Book (1843), an edition of Solomon and Saturn (1848), and a two-volume historical work on The Saxons in England (1849); but he was unable all the while to gain the kind of advancement he sought. Kemble moved to Hanover in 1849, and undertook pioneering work on early Germanic archaeology, published posthumously as Horae Ferales (1863). He returned to London in 1855, and died on a visit to Dublin in March 1857; he is buried in Mount Jerome Cemetery, Dublin. Kemble’s books and working papers, kept together by his family for many years, are now widely dispersed (see Kemble's Papers).

Bibliography

William Bodham Donne and his Friends, ed. Catharine B. Johnson (London, 1905), with excerpts from Kemble's letters to WBD (see 'Kemble's Papers') Bruce Dickins, ‘John Mitchell Kemble and Old English Scholarship’ (1939), reptd in British Academy Papers on Anglo-Saxon England, ed. E. G. Stanley (Oxford, 1990), pp. 57–90 R. A. Wiley, ed., John Mitchell Kemble and Jakob Grimm: a Correspondence 1832–1852 (Leiden, 1971) P. Allen, The Cambridge Apostles: the Early Years (Cambridge, 1978) R. A. Wiley, ‘Anglo-Saxon Kemble: the Life and Works of John Mitchell Kemble 1807–1857, Philologist, Historian, Archaeologist’, Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History 1 (1979), 165–273 Gretchen P. Ackerman, 'J. M. Kemble and Sir Frederic Madden: "Conceit and Too Much Germanism"?', Anglo-Saxon Scholarship: the First Three Centuries, ed. C. T. Berkhout and M. McC. Gatch (Boston, MA, 1982), pp. 167-81 Hans Aarsleff, The Study of Language in England 1780-1860 (Minneapolis, 1983) S. Keynes, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge, OEN Subsidia 18 (Binghamton, NY, 1992), 54–61 W. C. Lubenow, The Cambridge Apostles, 1820-1914: Liberalism, Imagination, and Friendship in British Intellectual and Professional Life (Cambridge, 1998) S. Keynes, ‘Kemble’, The Blackwell Encyclopaedia of Anglo-Saxon England, ed. M. Lapidge, et al. (Oxford, 1999), p. 269 (see above) John D. Haigh, ‘John Mitchell Kemble’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004) Howard Williams, 'Heathen Graves and Victorian Anglo-Saxonism: Assessing the Archaeology of John Mitchell Kemble', Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History 13 (2007), 1–18 S. Keynes, 'J. M. Kemble and his Codex Diplomaticus Ævi Saxonici', in J. M. Kemble, Codex Diplomaticus Aevi Saxonici, 6 vols. (London, 1839-48), reprinted, 6 vols. (Cambridge, 2011), vol. I, pp. v-xxiv S. Keynes, John Mitchell Kemble (1807-57): Apostle, Revolutionary, and Anglo-Saxonist, 3rd Fell-Benedikz Lecture, University of Nottingham, 2005, and 5th Kemble Lecture, Trinity College Dublin, 2009 (forthcoming)

http://www.kemble.asnc.cam.ac.uk/node/17 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Birth: Apr. 2, 1807 Death: Mar. 26, 1857 Dublin County Dublin, Ireland

Scholar and Anglo-Saxonist. The eldest son of Charles Kemble the actor and brother of the famous actress and writer, Fanny Kemble. He was educated at the grammar school of Bury St Edmunds, where he obtained, in 1826, an exhibition to Trinity College, Cambridge. As an undergraduate at Trinity College, Cambridge, he flourished as a member of the freethinking "Cambridge Conversazione Society," otherwise known as “The Apostles.” At the university his historical essays gained him a high reputation. The focus of his studies centred on the Anglo-Saxon period. He later became the first editor (in England) of the poem Beowulf; he collected the texts of the entire corpus of Anglo-Saxon charters, published as the Codex Diplomaticus Aevi Saxonici, 6 vols. (1839-48); he also produced a seminal two-volume study of Anglo-Saxon society and political institutions, published as The Saxons in England (1849). He was editor of the British and Foreign Review from 1835 to 1844; and from 1840 to his death was examiner of plays. In 1857 he published State Papers and Correspondence illustrative of the Social and Political State of Europe from the Revolution to the Accession of the House of Hanover. The website of the Joint Committee on Anglo-Saxon Charters, British Academy/Royal Historical Society is named “Kemble” in his honor. (bio by: Frank Duffin)

Burial: Mount Jerome Cemetery and Crematorium Dublin County Dublin, Ireland

Edit Virtual Cemetery info [?]

Maintained by: Find A Grave Originally Created by: Frank Duffin Record added: Oct 30, 2005 Find A Grave Memorial# 12212402

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=12212402

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KEMBLE, JOHN MITCHELL (1807-1857), English scholar and historian, eldest son of Charles Kemble the actor, was born in 1807. He received his education partly from Dr Richardson, author of the Dictionary of the English Language, and partly at the grammar school of Bury St Edmunds, where he obtained in 1826 an exhibition to Trinity College, Cambridge. At the university his historical essays gained him high reputation. The bent of his studies was turned more especially towards the Anglo-Saxon period through the influence of the brothers Grimm, under whom he studied at Gottingen (1831). His thorough knowledge of the Teutonic languages and his critical faculty were shown in his Beowulf (1833-1837), Uber die Starnrntafel der Westsachsen (1836), Codex Diplornaticus Aeoi Saxonici (1839-1848), and in many contributions to reviews; while his History of the Saxons in England (1849; new ed. 1876), though it must now be read with caution, was the first attempt at a thorough examination of the original sources of the early period of English history. He was editor of the British and Foreign Review from 1835 to 1844; and from 1840 to his death was examiner of plays. In 1857 he published State Papers and Correspondence illustrative of the Social and Political State of Europe from the Revolution to the Accession of the House of H anover. He died at Dublin on the 26th of March 1857. His H orae F erales, or Studies in the Archaeology of Northern N ations, was completed by Dr R. G. Latham, and published in 1864. He married the daughter of Professor Amadeus Wendt of Gottingen in 1836; and had two daughters and a son; the elder daughter was the wife of Sir Charles Santley, the singer.

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John Mitchell Kemble, English scholar and historian, was the eldest son of Charles Kemble the actor and Maria Theresa Kemble. He is notable for his major contribution to the history of the Anglo-Saxons and philology of the Old English language.

Kemble received his education from Charles Richardson and at Bury St Edmunds grammar school, where he obtained in 1826 an exhibition to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he became a member of the Cambridge Apostles. As a law student, his historical essays were well received but he "would not follow the course of study prescribed by the university and was, moreover, fond of society and of athletic amusements", which caused the deferral of his graduation in 1829.

The bent of his studies was turned more especially towards the Anglo-Saxon period through the influence of one the brothers Grimm, Jacob Grimm, under whom he studied at Göttingen (1831). His thorough knowledge of the Teutonic languages and his critical faculty were shown in his Anglo-Saxon Poems of Beowulf (1833-1837), Über die Stammtafeln der Westsachsen (Munich 1836), Codex diplomaticus aevi Saxonici (London 1839-1848), and in many contributions to reviews; while his History of the Saxons in England (1849; new ed. 1876), though it must now be read with caution, was the first attempt at a thorough examination of the original sources of the early period of English history.

He was editor of the British and Foreign Review from 1835 to 1844; and from 1840 to his death was examiner of plays. In 1857 he published State Papers and Correspondence Illustrative of the Social and Political State of Europe from the Revolution to the Accession of the House of Hanover.

His Horae Ferales, or Studies in the Archaeology of Northern Nations, was completed by Dr Robert Gordon Latham, and published in 1864.

He married Nathalie Auguste, the daughter of Professor Amadeus Wendt of Göttingen, in about 1836. Though they had two daughters and a son, the marriage was not a happy one and they were living apart by about 1850. The elder daughter, Gertrude (b. 1837) married Sir Charles Santley, the singer and died in 1882.

Kemble died at Dublin on 26 March 1857 and is buried there in Mount Jerome Cemetery.