Robert Kennedy (1778-1843)

Robert Kennedy was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania on July 4, 1778, the ninth of the twelve children of James and Jane Maxwell Kennedy. He was educated in local and classical schools and entered Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania with the class of 1797. He was elected to the Union Philosophical Society and graduated with very high standing and then returned to study theology with Reverend Nathanael Sample, pastor of the Lancaster Presbyterian congregation. He was licensed to preach on August 20, 1799 under the auspices of the Upper Octorara Presbytery and spent the next several months as a supply preacher to the vacant churches in the area, including the Presbytery of Carlisle.

Kennedy officially moved to the Carlisle Presbytery on October 7, 1800, and, in September, 1802, became the full-time pastor at Green Castle and Welsh Run in the newly created Franklin County. He served that area until 1816 when acrimony over some criticism and rumblings about politics caused the perhaps hasty resignation of the sensitive young cleric. He went on to Cumberland, Maryland and took charge of the academy there along with its small church. He remained in Cumberland from 1816 until 1825 when, for financial reasons, he returned to his farm in Franklin County. Kennedy also acted as supply preacher at his old church of Welsh Run and McConnelstown. Evidently fences were mended at Welsh Run with the slight, blue eyed but very short-sighted preacher since the church there, still standing, became known later as the Robert Kennedy Memorial Church.

In February, 1801, Kennedy married Jane Herron and the couple had two sons. After Jane Kennedy died in May 1803, he married, in June 1806, Mary Davidson of Franklin County and the couple had ten children. Robert Kennedy died in Franklin County on October 31, 1843. He was sixty-five years old.