Chester County PA Archives Biography of Dr. Samuel KENNEDY, 1881

Contributed to PAGenWeb Archives by Diana Quinones [audianaq@msn.com]

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History of Chester Co, Futhey and Cope, 1881, Chapt 3:

KENNEDY, DR. SAMUEL, son of David, was a gentleman of culture and determined 
character, descended from the Kennedys of Ayrshire, Scotland. In the possession 
of a competence, he was patriotic from conviction, and was among the first to 
proffer services in the cause of liberty. Six months prior to the Declaration of 
Independence he addressed the Continental Congress as follows:

"To the Honourable the Continental Congress.

"The Petition of Samuel Kennedy most respectfully showeth: That your petitioner 
has been in the practice of physic and surgery upwards of twenty years with 
reputation, and would cheerfully serve his Country in the most acceptable manner 
his capacity and ability will admit of. Therefore prays that your Honors would 
be pleased to appoint him Surgeon to one of the Battallions now about to be 
raised.

"SAML. KENNEDY.

"PHILADA, Jan. 3, 1776."

On Jan. 19, 1776, in Committee of Safety, George Clymer, President, it was 
"Resolved, That Doctor Samuel Kennedy be appointed Surgeon to the Fourth 
Battalion Pennsylvania Troops in the service of the United Colonies." In May, 
1777, he was appointed "Senior Surgeon in the Military Hospitals." In November, 
1777, he was appointed "Senior Surgeon and Physician in the General Hospital of 
the Middle Department." These commissions are in possession of his grandson, 
Joseph C.G. Kennedy. The general hospital, under his charge at his death, had 
been erected on the property of Dr. Kennedy, at the Yellow Springs, a large 
structure, now occupied by the State for its wards, the orphan children of 
soldiers of the Rebeilion, as is also the old mansion. The American army was for 
a time quartered on the Yellow Springs property, while the British occupied his 
homestead farm in the Great Valley, both equally destructive. Dr. Kennedy 
accompanied Wayne’s army to Long Island, where he was retained with the main 
army as senior surgeon, at Ticonderoga, and in the battles fought on the borders 
of Canada. Returning with the army, he was at the battle of Brandywine, the 
Valley Forge, the affair at Paoli, and at the battle of Germantown, and 
superintended the hospital at Bethlehem. For his services he neither asked nor 
received a dollar from the public treasury. His letters to his wife from Long 
Island, Ticonderoga, and other points, in possession of his grandson, are full 
of interest, and bespeak the character of a Christian patriot, fond husband, and 
affectionate parent. Dr. John Brown Cutting, of the Revolutionary army, in a 
letter to John Kennedy, of Tennessee, a son of the doctor, then a lawyer of 
prominence, writes of his personal knowledge of the doctor’s services in the 
army, and in conclusion says, "I am bound conscientiously to declare that a more 
useful, skillful, and humane public service has seldom been executed. While in 
the zealous performance of his medical duties he imbibed a contagious hospital 
malady, which in two days carried him off, June 28,(30*) 1778, to the 
unspeakable grief of family and friends. The melancholy duty devolved upon me of 
committing to paper and witnessing his last will, and of closing the eyes of one 
of the noblest surgeons and most meritorious patriots that benefited and adorned 
the late Revolutionary army." The wife of Dr. Kennedy was Sarah, daughter of Job 
Ruston, of Penn’s Manor, and sister to Dr. Thomas Ruston, of Philadelphia.

Dr. Kennedy’s children who survived him were Dr. Thomas Ruston Kennedy, John 
Kennedy, Mary (Kinnard), mother of George L. Kinnard, M.C. from Indiana, and 
Sarah (Robinson), who died without issue.

In his will Dr. Kennedy bequeathed a sum of money to be expended in building a 
stone wall around the graveyard of Charlestown meeting-house, where a neat 
monument indicates the place of his burial, with the following inscription:

"In memory of Doctor Samuel Kennedy, Physician of the General Hospital, who 
departed this life June 17, A.D. 1778, in the 48th year of his age.

"In him the Patriot, Scholar, Christian, Friend,
Harmonious met ’till Death his life did end:
The Church’s Pupil, and the State his care,
A Physician skilful, and a Whig sincere,
Beneath this Tomb now sleeps his precious dust,
Till the last Trump reanimates the just."

NOTE: see 
http://files.usgwarchives.net/pa/chester/cemeteries/charlestown.txt 
showing burials at the Old Charlestown Burial Ground and the note about the wall 
around the cemetery bequeathed by Dr. Kennedy.

His will shows he died W. Whiteland:

KENNEDY, SAMUEL.  Practitioner of Physic.  West Whiteland.
June 15, 1778.  July 24, 1778.
Provides for wife Sarah.  To oldest son Thomas Ruston Kennedy 2 parts 
of all my estate paying £500 to his younger brother at 21.  To youngest 
son John one part of estate.  To eldest daughter Mary Kennedy one part 
ditto.  To youngest daughter Sarah Kennedy one part ditto when 21 or 
married.  To the congregation to Charlestown (where I intend to be 
interred) £15 provided they surround graveyard with a stone wall.  
Executors:  Wife Sarah and brother Montgomery Kennedy.
Wit:  Alexander McCaraher, Thomas Marshall, Alvery Hudgson.