[2] The Votadini were a tribe in Lothian and their chief, Cunedda, was sent by the British leader, Vortigern, to establish settlements in order to resist Picto-Scottish sea raids in the south west of Scotland.

[2] During the early part of the reign of William the Lion, Gilbert Mac Kenedi witnessed a charter to Melrose Abbey granting lands in Carrick.

[3] In 1372, Robert II of Scotland rewarded John Kennedy of Dunure as chief of his name and baillie of Carrick.

[2] James served briefly as High Chancellor of Scotland and was also Bishop of Dunkeld, and also later Archbishop of St Andrews.

[2] Gillbert Kennedy, the third Earl, was one of four Scottish commissioners who were poisoned on their return from the marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots to the Dauphin of France in 1558.

[2] The third Earl had inherited his title at the age of twelve and one of his first acts was to sign the death warrant of Patrick Hamilton, the first Scottish Protestant martyr.

[2] The Kennedys of Kermuck were outlawed when in 1652 the father and son of the family mortally wounded John Forbes of Watertown.

[6] Lieutenant General Sir Clark Kennedy served through the entire Peninsular War and in 1815 he commanded the centre squadron of the Royal Dragoons at the Battle of Waterloo.

In his collected writings, he recalls the story of his forebear, Captain Archibald Kennedy returning from New York at the end of the 18C to Culzean Castle to assume the earldom of Cassillis [7] Here is the base of the family tree: