John Mitchell Kemble

John Mitchell Kemble (1807–1857) was an English historian and philologist from the theatrical family: his father was the actor Charles Kemble and his sister the actress Fanny Kemble. At Cambridge he belonged to the Apostles with Tennyson and Arthur Hallam, and he joined a failed expedition in support of Spanish liberals. Studying in Germany with Jacob Grimm, he became a pioneer of Anglo-Saxon scholarship, publishing an early edition of Beowulf in 1833, a large collection of Anglo-Saxon charters, and The Saxons in England (1849). He also served for many years as the official examiner of plays.