Vans Kennedy (1784–1846) was a Scottish major-general of the British Army, an East India Company official, and a Sanskrit and Persian scholar.
His father was Robert Kennedy of Pinmore, and his mother, Robina, was the daughter of John Vans of Barnbarroch, Wigtownshire, who, on marrying his cousin, assumed the name of Agnew.
Robert Kennedy was ruined by the failure of the Ayr bank, and had to sell Pinmore and move to Edinburgh, where he died in 1790.
[1] Shortly after his arrival Kennedy was employed with his corps, the 1st battalion of the 2nd Grenadiers, in an attack against the Malabar district, where he received a wound in his neck from which he suffered all his life.
Kennedy also wrote five letters on the Purānas, and engaged in controversy with Horace Hayman Wilson and Graves Champney Haughton.