Mary Emily Kennedy, (married name: Wyld) (1829 - 1917)
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The picture on the left shows Mary Emily Kennedy in 1857 at the age of about 28. I can see some resemblance to my sister, Katherine. Note that I follow my convention of showing all women with their maiden names - the initials on the photos (MEW) are from her her married name Mary Emily Wyld. I believe that she was normally known as Emily.
The following information comes from my grandfather's (Claud Leonard Broun) writings:
"In London he [my grandfather George Wyld] made the acquaintance of a family of Scottish extraction, but domiciled for a century in England - the Kennedys...It was this family with which my grandfather became friendly, and he eventually married Mary Emily Kennedy, born in 1829...In religion, my forbears had all, so far back as I know of them, been adherents of Presbyterianism, except the Kennedys who were Unitarians...The Kennedys ... were won over [to Anglicanism] by a Mr Holland, the in-cumbent of what was then called Quebec Chapel - now long known as the Church of the Annunciation - who afterwards became a Canon of Canterbury. He was one of my godfathers."
And from an earlier set of writings:
"In London he [my grandfather George Wyld] met at church a family as large as his own named Kennedy. ... Mary Emily was my grandmother; she lived to be nearly 88, and beside being a nature-lover solved the chess problems in the Times till almost the end of her life. The Kennedies were Unitarians, but were converted to the Church of England by the incumbent of 'Quebec Chapel' (now the Church of the Annunciation) who afterwards became Canon Holland of Canterbury; he was one of my godfathers."
My father tells me that there is a tradition in the family that this branch of Kennedys are descended from the Earls of Cassilis, because one of his Kennedy ancestors used their heading on his notepaper.
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I am told by my cousin Richard Broun that Mary Emily Kennedy wrote a children's book which he has in his possession. The picture on the left shows her with her great grandson Kenneth Broun, who was one of the two sons of my grandfather Claud Leonard Broun by his first wife, Hedwig Thewes. (I am descended from his second wife, Isabel Stewart).
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