Francis Kearney, the sixth son of Michael and Elizabeth (Lawrence) Kearny and brother of Lawrence Kearny, was born on July 23, 1785 in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, United States. His father was a New York merchant and his mother was a sister of Captain James Lawrence of the United States Navy.
Young Kearny studied drawing with Alexander and Archibald Robertson in their Columbian Academy of Painting, New York City, and at eighteen was placed with Peter R. Maverick of New York, to receive training in the art of engraving. Maverick was paid $250 to take him as apprentice, but it is generally observed that Kearny succeeded in spite of his master, studying "principally by the aid of books".
As soon as Kearny had become of age, he opened an engraving studio of his own, in New York, his card describing him as "historical engraver. " He engraved a bookplate for Dr. Henry M'Murtrie, the translator of Cuvier's Animal Kingdom, and another for Hector Coffin, and made a few plates for John Pinkerton's General Collection of the Best and Most Interesting Voyages and Travels (1810 - 1812). He went to Philadelphia in 1810, and the remainder of his professional career was passed in that city.
For half a dozen years he pursued his profession alone, and during this period he had a number of apprentices among whom were David C. Johnston, George B. Ellis, and William E. Tucker. Kearny engraved some of the plates for the Analectic Magazine, and for that publication (December 1813), he engraved as a remarque, under Edwin's portrait of Captain James Lawrence, a view of the battle between the Chesapeake and the Shannon, in which the gallant naval commander lost his life. In 1817, Kearny associated himself with Benjamin Tanner and Cornelius Tiebout, under the style of Tanner, Kearny & Tiebout, engaged principally in banknote engraving. The following year the firm was Tanner, Vallance, Kearny & Company, while, in 1819, the business was conducted as before. Kearny is said to have lost heavily by this venture.
In 1829, when John Pendleton went to Philadelphia to establish a commercial lithograph house in that city in conjunction with Cephas Grier Childs, Kearny became a member of the firm, which was known as Pendleton, Kearny & Childs. The partnership was short-lived, however, Kearny and Pendleton retiring from it within a year. At this juncture, Kearny turned his attention to engraving plates for annuals and religious books, in which field he was successful; and in 1830, began his engraving, a large plate of "The Last Supper, " after Leonardo da Vinci, from Raphael Morghen's plate of the same subject. Called to Perth Amboy in June 1833 to assist in settling his father's estate, he took the unfinished plate with him, and completed it there. The plate was sold to a publisher, who, when Dunlap's History of the Arts of Design was published in 1834, had "already sold 1500 impressions at $5 each".
During his residence in Philadelphia Kearny engraved many title-pages to books and magazines. His work may be found in the volumes of the Analectic, the Casket, and Godey's Lady's Book. He also made some plates for Collins' Quarto Bible (1814), and engraved in aquatint a large plate of West's "Our Saviour Healing the Sick. "
