William Kerr

1. William Kerr, M.D., of Northampton, born 12th Jan 1738.

2. Charles Kerr, of Kelso, born 4th Feb 1748,
   mar Jane Tweedie,
   died 1796, age 48 yrs,
   had issue:
   1. Jane Kerr (and here, and search here and here), born 5th Feb 1780,
      only dau and heiress of her father's estate,
      mar 1stly, 3rd Oct 1799, to Shuckburgh Ashby Apreece [NOT Shuckburg Ashley], no issue,
      he died 6th Oct 1807,
      she was left with money, no compelling need to marry, no children, and still young,
      she was a wealthy socialite and widow in London and Edinburgh, well known in social and literary circles in England and Scotland,
      mar 2ndly, 11th Apr 1812, to Sir Humphry Davy, 1st Baronet [and search, the famous chemist, physicist and inventor, born 17th Dec 1778, No.4, The Terrace, Penzance, Cornwall, son of Robert Davy and Grace Millett; his name is often incorrectly spelled Humphrey],
      he had just been knighted 8th Apr 1812,
      no issue,
      he gave highly popular lectures, Mary Shelley took him as the model for Dr Frankenstein (1818),
      he was cr Baronet 1818, President of the Royal Society 1820-7,
      he died Geneva, Switzerland, 29th May 1829, age 50 yrs. Title extinct,
      she died London, 8th May 1855, age 75 yrs.
      (todo) see her entry in [DNB].

mar 2ndly to Marianne Scott and had issue,
died 1785-6, age 76-7 yrs.

• Charles Kerr, of Kelso (and hence Dr. William Kerr) is somehow a relation of Sir Walter Scott. Can't see any obvious connection.
• The Journal Of Sir Walter Scott, 7th Feb 1826 (also here): "Had letters yesterday from Lady Davy" [Jane Kerr] "and Lady Louisa Stuart, two very different persons. Lady Davy, daughter and co-heiress of a wealthy Antigua merchant, has been known to me all my life. Her father was a relation of ours of a Scotch calculation. He was of a good family, Kerr of Bloodielaws, but decayed. Miss Jane Kerr married first Mr. Apreece, son of a Welsh Baronet. The match was not happy. I had lost all acquaintance with her for a long time, when about 20 years ago" [her husband died 1807] "we renewed it in London. She was then a widow, gay, clever, and most actively ambitious to play a distinguished part in London society. Her fortune, though handsome and easy, was not large enough to make way by dint of showy entertainments, and so forth. So she took the blue line, and by great tact and management actually established herself as a leader of literary fashion. Soon after, she visited Edinburgh for a season or two, and studied the Northern Lights. One of the best of them, poor Jack Playfair, was disposed "to shoot madly from his sphere," and, I believe, asked her, but he was a little too old." [He was born 1748] "She found a fitter husband in every respect in Sir Humphry Davy, to whom she gave a handsome fortune, and whose splendid talents and situation as President of the Royal Society gave her naturally a distinguished place in the literary society of the Metropolis."

• Verse about the impact Jane Kerr made on the scientist John Playfair, and on other intellectuals:

  "Have you seen the famed Bas bleu, the gentle dame Apreece,
  Who at a glance shot through and through the Scots Review,
  And changed its swans to geese?
  Playfair forgot his mathematics, astronomy, and hydrostatics,
  And in her presence often swore, he knew not two and two made four."

• Sir Humphry Davy
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  • images at [NPG]

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