Background
Kemp, James was born on May 20, 1764 in Keith Hall, Scotland. Son of Donald and Isabel Kemp.
Kemp, James was born on May 20, 1764 in Keith Hall, Scotland. Son of Donald and Isabel Kemp.
Graduate Marischal College, Aberdeen, Scotland, 1786. Honorary Doctor of Divinity, Columbia.
He emigrated to Maryland in 1787, and lived with a family in Dorchester County. The next August, Kemp became rector of Great Choptank Parish, in Cambridge, Maryland, the county seat of Dorchester County. The following year, Kemp was elected suffragan bishop and consecrated on September 1, 1814, serving under elderly Bishop Thomas J. Claggett and overseeing the parishes on the Eastern Shore.
His consecrators included:
The Right Reverend John Henry Hobart, third bishop of New York
The Right Reverend Richard Channing Moore, second bishop of Virginia
He succeeded bishop Claggett on the latter"s death in 1816.
Kemp died of injuries received in a stage coach accident returning from the consecration of Assistant Bishop Henry Onderdonk in Philadelphia. He was buried in the cemetery of Old Saint Paul"s Church in Baltimore.
Married Elizabeth Noel, 1790, 3 children.