John Boyd Kinnear

Who was John Boyd Kinnear?

John Boyd Kinnear was a Scottish lawyer, writer and radical Liberal politician.

Kinnear was the son of Charles Kinnear of Kinloch and his wife Christian Boyd Greenshields. He was educated at Edinburgh University and St Andrews University. He became a Scottish Advocate in 1850 and from 1852 to 1856 was political secretary to the Lord Advocate of Scotland James Moncreiff. In 1855 he was called to the bar at Inner Temple and was a J.P. He was an extensive writer on jurisprudence and other topics including religion and women's rights.

In the 1885 general election, he was elected Member of Parliament for East Fife. However in 1886 he stood as a Liberal Unionist and was defeated by future prime minister Herbert Henry Asquith.

Kinnear died at the age of 92.

Kinnear married Sarah Harriet Frith in 1852. She died in 1866 and he married secondly in 1868, Teresa Bassano of Venice.