John Kennedy, 6th Earl of Cassillis

Biography

Of Glasgow University, then a long career as the chief of the Kennedys of Ayrshire and one of the first nobles to sign the National Covenant in 1638. Known to contemporaries as 'the Solemn Earl' for his gravity and Reformed piety. He served as Justice General of Scotland and was one of the elder commissioners at Westminster, sitting on the Scottish General Assembly's commission almost continuously through the 1640s. He remained loyal to the strict Covenanter party throughout the 1640s and 50s, joined the Engagement reluctantly, and after Worcester withdrew to his Culzean estates. He refused public office at the Restoration in 1660 and refused the Test Act later, but survived in private life — the Kennedys remained obstinately Presbyterian through the Killing Times. He died in 1668; buried at Maybole.