JANE KENNEDY was well connected on both her mother's and her father's side of the family. Her uncle Adam Kennedy was laird of "Romanno", an estate near Peebles in the borders ( 30 Km SE of Edinburgh ), and there were two Edinburgh surgeons and an M.P. in her father's ancestry and her mother Elizabeth Alves was grand-daughter of William Alves, Writer to the Signet, and of Thomas Mercer, Commissary Clerk Depute in Edinburgh. See below for detailed genealogy. The photo above right is of "Romanno House" in 2012 at Romanno Bridge near Peebles in the Scottish Borders and is most likely the house where Jane's uncle Adam Kennedy lived.

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Jane and Jeremiah had the following family, all baptised at St Cuthberts, Edinburgh

1803 Elizabeth
1805 Helen Stewart
1807 Mary
1810 Ann Mossman

Elizabeth Kirby, eldest daughter of ( the late) Jeremiah Kirby, physician in Edinburgh, married Donald Gordon Macarthur, youngest son of Captain Donald Macarthur, in April 1835 at the Parish Church of St Cuthberts. Elizabeth was living at Campie in the parish of Inveresk. Elizabeth and Donald migrated to Australia later that same year.

Some time after 1810 Jeremiah and Jane moved with their family from the South Side to the more upmarket area of Portobello on the sea. In the Scots Magazine of 1815 is recorded the death - " at Maryfield, Portobello, Mrs Jane Kennedy, wife of Dr. Kirby."

(2) Elizabeth Thomson in May 1817 in the parish of Duddingston. The record reads "This day Jeremiah Kirby M.D. Portobello and Miss Elizabeth Thomson there were proclaimed in order for Marriage". This was the year gas lighting was introduced to Edinburgh.

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Only a few years later in 1822 King George IV visited Portobello beach for a “grand military occasion organised by Sir Walter Scott ( from   portobelloheritagetrust.co.uk )  and where in 1745 “Bonnie Prince Charle reviewed his Highland Jacobite army after it had routed the Government troops at the Battle of Prestonpans”.    

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Jeremiah and Elizabeth had 2 daughters -
Jane Christian, baptised at Duddingston in October 1818 and Caroline Margaret  born 1823.
A son, Thomas Jeremiah Smith Kirby died in 1822, age unknown.

In Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine of November 1827, the death was reported of "At Edinburgh, Elizabeth, wife of Dr. Kirby."

Jeremiah Kirby died at Edinburgh on 30 December 1827 - as reported in the February 1828 edition of Blackwoods magazine and is buried in an unmarked grave in Greyfriars cemetery, Edinburgh.
The 1825 Edinburgh directory has him living at 6 Beaumont Place which was a fairly new tenement built in 1813 and quite near where he had lived previously - these same tenements were later condemned in the 1930s but were still occupied when they tragically collapsed in 1959.
 

Jane Christian Kirby voyaged to Australia on the same ship as her (half-) sister Elizabeth Macarthur and family in 1835.

Helen Stewart Kirby and Caroline Margaret Kirby remained in Edinburgh and can be found in the census records e.g.1861 both listed their occupation as retired teacher. They are buried together in the Dean Cemetery, Edinburgh. 

Jane Kennedy's sister Ann Ferguson Kennedy also married a medical student, Andrew McGibbon and they were living at Portobello when he died in 1815.

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Jeremiah Kirby’s graduation is recorded in the 1867 publication "Graduates in Medicine in the University of Edinburgh" as Jeremias Kirby, anglus ( i.e. from England).

"History records that during the latter half of the 18th century, Edinburgh was the great medical resort of all Britons beyond the seas" ( History of Scottish Medicine to 1860 by John Comrie).

Jeremiah's fellow graduates in 1802 comprised of roughly equal numbers from England, Scotland and Ireland with a sprinkling from the West Indies. He was required to take all his examinations and to write his thesis entitled De Caligine Lentis in the Latin tongue; in fact most medical and scientific publications of the time were in Latin, that being the international language as English is today.

In 1805 he published the "Tables of Materia Medica". A copy is held at the University of Edinburgh. The title page reads:
Tables of the MATERIA MEDICA or systematic arrangement of all the articles admitted by the colleges of LONDON, EDINBURGH and DUBLIN exhibiting a concise view of the most material circumstance respecting them together with a number of original and selected FORMULAE to which is adjoined A TABLE of all the secondary salts employed in medicine BY JEREMIAH KIRBY, M.D. member of the ROYAL MEDICAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH  Printed at the University press and sold by John Murray, Fleet St. London 1805  ( in fact he was society president in 1803).                       

 

The categories of medical treatments covered are:
Emetica, Expectoratica, Diaphoretica, Diuretica, Cathartica, Emmenogoga, Erhina, Sialagoga, Emollientia, Refrigerentia, Astringentia, Tonica, Stimulantia, Antispasmodica, Narcotica, Anthelmintica, Chemica, Miscellanea.     

This is followed by 143 pages of secondary salts detailing their properties i.e. solubility in water, base or acid; and their affinity.

He made a significant contribution to the dissemination of scientific knowledge through his authorship of a range of articles on medical and veterinary subjects in the Encyclopedia Edinensis and Encyclopedia Britannica.

 

The veterinary contribution is particularly acknowledged in a recent article by V. Molony and C.M. Warwick in Journal of the Veterinary History Society of April 2013 entitled: 

Jeremiah Kirby, Author of ‘Farriery‘ in the 1806-1823 editions of The Encyclopedia Britannica 

                                                   

This article states in part:
This entry on ‘Farriery’ in the Encyclopaedia Britannica is a 155 page review of veterinary medicine, written in 1806. It includes: Introduction; Part 1 History; PartII Structure of the Horse; Part III Operations performed on Domestic Animals; PartIV Means of preserving the health of Domestic Animals; Part V Veterinary Materia Medica; Part VI Diseases incident to Domestic Animals; an Index and 6 Plates with 20 Figures.
It was first published in Volume 8 part 2 of the 4th Edition (1806) and was also included in the 5th and 6th Editions of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. This review was a source reference for Sir Frederick Smith in his History of Veterinary Literature1 and he attributed it to John Lawrence, but he had reservations and did not include it in his list of John Lawrence’s works. The quality of the review, the clear, concise presentation, breadth and scholarly acknowledgement of the works of more than 34 authors, including Delabere Blaine (named in the text 80 times), John Lawrence (53 times), Edward Coleman (43 times), John Feron (36 times) and James Clark (30 times), indicated that it was written by someone who was familiar with the work of contemporary veterinary writers. It also appeared from the text that the author was familiar with Scotland because of references to places in the Lothians and Borders.
The review is likely to have been used, by many members of the veterinary profession including William Dick (1793-1866), but does not appear to have been acknowledged by veterinary writers of the time. This may have been due to reluctance or the inability of its author to publicise his work, in contrast to many other veterinary writers at that time.
After a long search for the author, he was found, by chance, in the preface of the 5th Edition, an obvious place with the benefit of hindsight. Some lines from this preface are reproduced from page xi Vol. 1 of the 6th Edition2:
‘The following articles and treatises were contributed, for the first time, to the fourth edition: … Electricity, Farriery, Geography, Geology (part of), Magnetism, Mammalia, Man, Materia Medica, Physiology, Prescriptions (extemporaneous), Russia, Science (amusements of), Scotland, (geographical and statistical parts), Spain, War (introduction), and Zoophytes, by Dr. Jeremiah Kirby MD of Edinburgh’

He also edited several revisions of 'The anatomy of human nerves and bones' originally written by the eminent Edinburgh professor Alexander Munro (primus) M.D.
In 1822 Jeremiah published a booklet entitled "Essays and poems, literary, scientific and miscellaneous" addressed "to the young reader" and covering topics such as natural history of the atmosphere, geography, electricity, gardening, domestic economy and several poems including two written by his sister - see below.

One of those copies is held in the library of the University of Edinburgh. Parts of this have been scanned, with permission, by Colin Warwick and a copy supplied electronically to Alan Telford in Tasmania.

 

At the back are listed 170 subscribers some taking multiple copies making a total run of approximately 260 copies.

Some of the names of the subscribers are of interest e.g. Walter Kirby Esq. R.N. ( Jeremiah's half brother ) 10 copies, Rev Robt Shepherd of Firsby, Lincs. and Mrs Elizabeth Shepherd ( Jeremiah's sister ) 10 copies each, Lord and Mrs Ellibank ( see Portobello school) 4 copies, Rev Thomas Chalmers D.D., Glasgow ( prominent preacher, church leader and founder of the Presbyterian Free Church), Hugh Mossman Esq of Auchtyfardle, Lanarkshire. This latter is a relative of Jane Kenneday - see discussion of the Kenneday ancestry at the bottom of this page.

 

Jeremiah cites "my elder sister" as the author of 4 of the poems. This would presumably be Mary Kirby. One poem in particular "Description of an Essex Farmhouse at the close of the 18th century" is likely in essence a description of the home of her father Walter Kirby M.D. and Sarah Kirby in Maldon - to read the complete poem, click the button: