KAVANAGH, Edward, statesman, born in Newcastle, Maine, 27 April, 1795; died there, 21 January, 1844. His father, James Kavanagh, came from Wexford, Ireland, to Boston in 1780, and settled in Damaris-cotta Mills, where he engaged extensively in the lumber business and built several vessels. The son was educated in Georgetown, D. C., and graduated at the Montreal seminary in 1820. He then studied law, was admitted to the bar, and began to practise in Damariscotta, Maine He was a member of the Maine legislature in 1826-'8, and again in 1842-'3. In 1830 he was secretary of the state senate, and he was afterward for a short time its president. He was elected to congress as a Jackson Democrat, serving from 1831 till 1835, and then became charge d'affaires in Portugal, where he remained till 1842. He was afterward a member of the commission to settle the northeastern boundary of Maine. On the election of Governor John Fairfield to the United States senate he served as acting governor of Maine in 1842-'3.