Skip to main content

John Kenyon

1784 - 1856

This person is the subject of ongoing research. We have started by researching their relationship to the enslavement of people.

Biographical notes

Patron of the arts and poet.

Slavery connections

John Kenyon was born on 2 December 1784 in Trelawney, Jamaica. He was the son of John Kenyon (died c.1792), inferred to be the same man as John Kennion, (UCL Department of History, ‘John Kennion, late of Jamaica’, in UCL Department of History (ed.), Legacies of British Slave-ownership [online], London 2020, <https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146650887> accessed 3 August 2021), a wealthy sugar planter. His grandmother Elizabeth Simpson (UCL Department of History, ‘Elizabeth Simpson of Portland Place, née Lawrence’, in UCL Department of History (ed.), Legacies of British Slave-ownership [online], London 2020, <https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146648795> accessed 6 August 2021), was the widow of John Simpson (UCL Department of History, ‘John Simpson of Bounty Hall’, in UCL Department of History (ed.), Legacies of British Slave-ownership [online], London 2020, <https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/relationship/view/2058775267/2146648797> accessed 6 August 2021), a sugar planter of Bounty Hall, Jamaica. He married Caroline Curteis in 1821, and he also inherited part of the estate of his brother-in-law John Curteis (died 1849). In 1851 he and his wife are recorded as living at 39 Devonshire Place, the former house of John Curteis. He left £180,000 at his death.

Abolition connections

No known connections with abolition.

National Gallery painting connections

Donor: presented in 1858: NG601 (now at Tate, N00601).

Bibliography

History of Parliament Trust (ed.), The History of Parliament: British Political, Social & Local History, London 1964-, https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/
Checked and not found — Item on publisher's website

M. B. Raymond, 'Kenyon, John', in C. Matthew et al. (eds), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford 1992-, https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/15430
Checked and found — Item on publisher's website

J. Turner et al. (eds), Grove Art Online, Oxford 1998-, https://www.oxfordartonline.com/groveart/
Checked and not found — Item on publisher's website

UCL Department of History, 'John Kenyon', in UCL Department of History (ed.), Legacies of British Slave-ownership, London 2020, https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/15203
Checked and found — Item on publisher's website