Basil Kennett (21 October 1674 – 3 January 1715) was a
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...
cleric who served as the first chaplain to the British Factory at Leghorn. An academic, writer and translator, Kennett was elected president of
Corpus Christi College, Oxford
Corpus Christi College (formally, Corpus Christi College in the University of Oxford; informally abbreviated as Corpus or CCC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1517 by Richard Fo ...
, serving for a short time before his early death. His 1696 ''Romæ Antiquæ Notitia, or the Antiquities of Rome'' was considered the subject's standard handbook for a century.
Biography
Basil Kennett was born at
Postling, Kent, on 21 October 1674, and was younger brother of
White Kennett,
bishop of Peterborough. He was educated under the care of his brother at a school at
Bicester
Bicester ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the Cherwell district of Oxfordshire, England, north-west of Oxford. The town is a notable tourist attraction due to the Bicester Village shopping centre. The historical town centre � ...
and in the family of
Sir William Glynne at
Ambrosden, Oxfordshire. In 1689 he entered
St Edmund Hall, Oxford
St Edmund Hall (also known as The Hall and Teddy Hall) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. The college claims to be "the oldest surviving academic society to house and educate undergraduates in any university" and was the las ...
, under the tuition of his brother, who was then vice-principal. According to ''Biographia Britannica'', "he sat down to his studies with remarkable diligence ... so that he soon became distinguished both by his genius, and the extraordinary advances he made in classical and polite literature." In 1690 he was elected scholar of Corpus Christi College as a native of Kent, and graduated
B.A. in 1693,
M.A. in 1696. In the same year he published his ''Romæ Antiquæ Notitia or the Antiquities of Rome'', to which he prefixed two essays on the Roman Learning and Education. These essays were the first attempts of the kind made in any language at that time; and the book was so well received by the public, that he was thereby encouraged to prosecute his design of promoting and facilitating the study of classical learning. In that view he proceeded to draw up ''The Lives and Characters of the ancient Greek Poets'', which came out in 1697. The same year, on 14 February, he was admitted Fellow of Corpus Christi College, and became a tutor there. It was probably about this time, pursuant to the college-statutes, that he entered into Holy Orders: after which, directing the course of his studies in a more particular manner to Divinity, he published in 1705, ''An Exposition of the Apostles Creed, according to Bishop Pearson, in a new Method, by way of Paraphrase and Annotations''. This was followed in 1706 by ''An Essay towards a Paraphrase on the Psalms in Verse, with a Paraphrase on the third Chapter of the Revelations''.
According to the Dictionary of National Biography, his learning and amiable qualities won him the regard of all parties.
In the late 16th century
Livorno
Livorno () is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western coast of the Tuscany region of Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of 152,916 residents as of 2025. It is traditionally known in English as Leghorn ...
- Leghorn - in
Tuscany
Tuscany ( ; ) is a Regions of Italy, region in central Italy with an area of about and a population of 3,660,834 inhabitants as of 2025. The capital city is Florence.
Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, artistic legacy, and its in ...
became an English Navy base for patrolling shipping routes in the Mediterranean Sea, thereby attracting a large English community to the city. According to Villani, "The history of the British Factory of Leghorn is also the history of the conflicts that its members had with the Tuscan authorities to assert their right to live openly their religious beliefs. One of the questions that for a long time poisoned the relationships between the English and Tuscans in those years was the attempt made by the British Factory to obtain permission to celebrate Protestant religious services for its members. The religious authorities were against any concession — not because they were afraid of a possible Protestant proselytism, but because they feared the emergence of a spontaneous doctrine of tolerance among the Catholics."
Against this context, and at the instigation of his brother White Kennett and the
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Basil Kennett was in 1706 appointed chaplain to the British factory at Leghorn, being the first to fill that office, and received the degree of
B.D. by decree of convocation. The suggestion is made that he took up the post with some reluctance.
He was at first much harassed by the
Inquisition
The Inquisition was a Catholic Inquisitorial system#History, judicial procedure where the Ecclesiastical court, ecclesiastical judges could initiate, investigate and try cases in their jurisdiction. Popularly it became the name for various med ...
- the
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
's institutions dedicated against
heresy
Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, particularly the accepted beliefs or religious law of a religious organization. A heretic is a proponent of heresy.
Heresy in Heresy in Christian ...
- and had to seek the intervention of the English government, which promised military reprisals for any 'molestation given to her chaplain'.
Ill-health, caused by the climate and his dislike of exercise, obliged him to resign, and he preached for the last time on 8 January 1712–13. He returned home by way of Florence, Rome, and Naples, and through France, collecting books, sculpture, and curiosities. He resumed residence at Corpus Christi in 1714, became
D.D., and during the same year was elected president of his college, although he was ‘even then very sickly.’ He died of fever on 3 January 1714–15, and was buried in the college chapel.
Works

Kennett was author of:
# ''Romæ Antiquæ Notitia, or the Antiquities of Rome. … To which are prefixed two Essays concerning the Roman Learning and the Roman Education,'' 8vo, London, 1696. This work, which passed through many editions, is dedicated to the
Duke of Gloucester
Duke of Gloucester ( ) is a British royal title (after Gloucester), often conferred on one of the sons of the reigning monarch. The first four creations were in the Peerage of England and the last in the Peerage of the United Kingdom; the curre ...
. A Dutch translation by W. Sewel appeared in pt. ii. of Seine's ''Beschryving van Oud en Niew Rome'', fol. 1704.
# ''The Lives and Characters of the Ancient Grecian Poets'', 2 pts. 8vo, London, 1697, also dedicated to the duke.
# ''A Brief Exposition of the Apostles' Creed, according to
Bishop Pearson, in a new method'', 8vo, 1705; other editions 1721 and 1726.
# ''An Essay towards a Paraphrase on the Psalms in Verse, with a Paraphrase on the Third Chapter of the Revelations'', 8vo, 1706.
# ''Sermons preached … to a Society of British Merchants in Foreign Parts'', 8vo, London, 1715; 2nd edit., as ‘Twenty Sermons,’ 1727.
Among the
Lansdowne manuscripts are the following works by Kennett:
# ''Poem to Queen Anne'' (MS. 722, f. 1).
# ''Collections on various subjects'' (MSS. 924–34).
# ''Oratio'' (MS. 927, f. 19).
# ''Lives of the Latin Poets'' (MS. 930).
# ''Letters to S. Blackwell'' (MS. 1019).
# ''Notes on the Church Catechism'' (MS. 1043).
# ''Notes on the New Testament'' (MS. 1044).
He translated from the French:
#
Bishop Godeau's ''Pastoral Instructions for an Annual Retirement of Ten Days''
non. 8vo, 1703; another edition in ''A Plea for Seasons of Spiritual Retirement'', 1860.
#
Pascal's ''Thoughts upon Religion''
non. 8vo, 1704; other editions 1727 and 1741.
#
La Placette's ''The Christian Casuist'', 8vo, 1705.
# ''Politics in Select Discourses of Monsieur Balzac which he called his Aristippus'', 8vo, 1709, with a preface by White Kennett.
# ''The Whole Critical Works of
Monsieur Rapin'', 8vo, 1716.
He also helped to translate
Pufendorf's ''Of the Law of Nature and Nations'', fol. 1710 (1729 and 1749), and translated
Horace
Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 BC – 27 November 8 BC), Suetonius, Life of Horace commonly known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). Th ...
's ''Art of Poetry'' (
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...
Add MS 28276, f. 173).
Hearne states, on the authority of
James Tyrrell, that the third volume of White Kennett's ''History of England'', fol. 1706, was in reality the work of Basil Kennett. Kennett likewise edited
Bishop Vida's ''Poetica'', 8vo, 1701.
References
Notes
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kennett, Basil
1674 births
1715 deaths
18th-century English Anglican priests
English religious writers
English classical scholars
Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Oxford
Alumni of St Edmund Hall, Oxford
Fellows of Corpus Christi College, Oxford
Presidents of Corpus Christi College, Oxford