When Kezia Kemp was christened on 27 February 1756, in Heathfield, Sussex, England, her father, Harry Kemp, was 41 and her mother, Sarah Collins, was 35.
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Thousands of British troops were sent to Boston to enforce Britain's tax laws. Taxes were repealed on all imports to the American Colonies except tea. Americans, disguised as Native Americans, dumped chests of tea imported by the East India Company into the Boston Harbor in protest. This escalated tensions between the American Colonies and the British government.
"On April 18, 1775, a shot known as the ""shot heard around the world"" was fired between American colonists and British troops in Lexington, Massachusetts. This began the American War for Independence. Fifteen months later, Thomas Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence. The Treaty of Paris was signed in September 1783 which ended the war. The colonies were no longer under British rule. Many who fought for the British fled to Canada, the West Indies, and some to England."
The first fleet of convicts sailed from England to Australia on May 13, 1787. By 1868, over 150,000 felons had been exiled to New South Wales, Van Diemen's Land, and Western Australia.
English, Scottish, Dutch, and North German: status name for a champion, Middle English and Middle Low German kempe. In the Middle Ages a champion was a professional fighter on behalf of others; for example the King's Champion, at the coronation, had the duty of issuing a general challenge to battle to anyone who denied the king's right to the throne. The Middle English word corresponds to Old English cempa and Old Norse kempa ‘warrior’; both these go back to ancient Germanic campo ‘warrior’, which is the source of the Dutch and North German name, corresponding to High German Kampf .
Dutch and North German (North Rhine-Westphalia): from the personal name Kempe, Kampe; see 1 above.
Dutch and Flemish: metonymic occupational name for someone who grew or processed hemp, from Middle Dutch canep ‘hemp’.
Dictionary of American Family Names © Patrick Hanks 2003, 2006.
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