John Kemp or Kempe (1665–1717) was an English antiquarian, known as a collector.[1]
Kemp had private wealth, and lived in the parish of St. Martin-in-the Fields, London. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society on 20 March 1712, and died unmarried on 19 September 1717.[1]
Kemp had a museum of antiquities. It had largely been formed by Jean Gailhard, a Frenchman, who was governor to George Carteret, 1st Baron Carteret. Gailhard sold it to Carteret for an annuity, and Kemp subsequently bought it.[1] The collection drew on that of Jacob Spon, and William Nicolson left an account of it after a visit in 1712.[2] It contained the flint axe found by John Conyers in 1679.[3]
By his will Kemp directed that the museum (with books) should be offered to Lord Oxford or his son for £2,000; The proposal was declined. Robert Ainsworth drew up an elaborate account of Kemp's antiquities entitled Latin: Monvmenta vetustatis Kempiana, ex vetustis scriptoribus illustrata, eosque vicissim illustrantia, 2 pts. London, 1719–20: John Ward supplied him with descriptions of the statues and lares, with a discourse Latin: De Vasis et Lucernis, de Amuletis, de Annulis et Fibulis, and Latin: Commentarius de Asse et partibus ejus which had been printed in 1719.[1]
The collection was then sold by auction at the Phœnix tavern in Pall Mall, London on 23, 24, 25, and 27 March 1721, in 293 lots, for £1,090 8s. 6d. Six classical inscriptions, bought by Dr. Richard Rawlinson, went to Oxford, and appeared in the Marmora Oxoniensia.[1]
Attribution