KEATLEY. (Lieutenant, 1828.)
John Savell Keatley entered the Navy 4 Feb. 1812; passed his examination in 1818; and was made Lieutenant, 9 Feb. 1828, into the Bustard 10, Capt. Geo. Sidney Smith, on the West India station, whence he invalided in the course of the same year. He was afterwards appointed – 27 April, 1830, to the Coaat Guard – 14 Oct. 1833, to the command of the Royal Charlotte Revenue-vessel – 5 Feb. 1836, again to the Coast Guard – 20 June, 1836, to the command of the Royal George, another Revenue-cruizer – and, 13 June, 1839, a third time to the Coast Guard. He has been on half-pay since the early part of 1841.
Lieut. Keatley is married, and has issue.
KEATS. (Captain, 1826. f-p., 14; h-p., 28.)
William Keats is nephew of the late Admiral Sir Rich. Goodwin Keats, G.C.B.[1]
This officer entered the Navy, 30 Sept. 1805, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Superb 74, Capt. R. G. Keats, bearing the flag at first of Sir John Thos. Duckworth, under whom he bore a part in the action off St. Domingo 6 Feb. 1806. After attending the expedition to Copenhagen in 1807, and witnessing the embarkation from Nyeborg of the Spanish troops under the Marquis de la Romana, he served until July, 1813, as Midshipman, on the Home, Cadiz, and Mediterranean stations, in the Puissant 74, Capt. Irwin, Milford 74, and Hibernia 120, bearing each the flag of Rear-Admiral Keats, and Caledonia 120, flag-ship of Sir Edw. Pellew. In Aug. of the latter year he became Acting-Lieutenant of the Partridge sloop, Capt. John Miller Adye, to which vessel (being confirmed to her by commission dated 6 of that month) he continued attached until Oct. 1814. He next, from 23 March to 9 Dec. 1815, officiated as Flag-Lieutenant to Sir R. G. Keats, in the Salisbury 50, at Newfoundland; and, on 17 April, 1816, after having been intermediately employed in the Albion 74, flag-ship of Sir Chas. Rowley at Sheerness, he was promoted to the rank of Commander. He obtained command, 7 Oct. 1822, of the Cherokee 10, on the Leith and Cork stations; but has not been since employed. His elevation to his present rank took place 27 March, 1826.
Capt. Keats married, first, 10 April, 1833, Catherine Jane, eldest daughter of Jas. Pitman, Esq., of Dunchideock House, Devon, who was drowned a few weeks after her marriage by the upsetting of a boat; and, secondly, 6 July, 1835, Augusta Maria, daughter of Giles King Lyford, Esq., of Winchester.
KEELE. (Captain, 1843. f-p., 16; h-p., 24.)
Charles Keele, born 19 Feb. 1795, at Southampton, is fourth son of John Keele, Esq., many years a surgeon at that place; and brother of Mr. Edw. Keele, R.N., who was mortally wounded on board the Java, when captured by the American ship Constitution at the age of 13.
This officer entered the Navy, 1 April, 1807, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Supérieure 10, commanded by his relative Capt. Edw. Rushworth, whom he accompanied with convoy to the West Indies. In the following Oct., after his name had been borne for four months on the books of the Prince George, Tisiphone, and Princess of Orange, he rejoined Capt. Rushworth, as Midshipman, in the Satellite 16, and again sailed with the West India trade. Between the latter part of 1808 and the date of his promotion to the rank of Lieutenant, 24 Sept. 1814, we find him employed on various stations in the Tisiphone, Capt. Foote, Caledonia 120, and Boyne 98, bearing each the flag of Sir Harry Neale, Barbadoes 28, Capt. E. Rushworth, Thetis 36, Capt. Wm. Henry Byam, Java of 46 guns and 377 men, Capt. Henry Lambert, and RivoLi and Edinburgh 74’s, Capts. Graham Eden Hamond, Edw. Stirling Dickson, and John Lampen Manley. When in the Caledonia, Mr. Keele served in her boats at the defence of Cadiz. He was on board the Barbadoes in Sept. 1811, when, being at the time in company with the Hotspur frigate and Goshawk sloop, she made a successful attack on seven French gun-brigs in the neighbourhood of Calvados; and on 29 Dec. 1812 it was his lot to be in the Java on the occasion of her capture, after a close and dreadful action of three hours and 40 minutes, and a loss of 22 men killed and 102 (including the Captain mortally, and himself severely) wounded, by the American ship Constitution of 55 guns and 480 men, many of whom also suffered.[2] Soon after his promotion, as above, Lieut. Keele went back to the RivoLi, and was on board of her, as a Supernumerary, when she intercepted the Melpomène French frigate, in 1815. In the short and spirited action which preceded that event he received a severe blow in consequence of one of the gun-breechings giving way. Being paid off on his return from the Mediterranean in Feb. 1816, the Lieutenant did not again go afloat until 24 Nov. 1823, when he was appointed First of the Arachne 18, commanded by his friend Capt. Henry Ducie Chads, fitting for the East Indies. On his arrival on that station he was immediately ordered to Ava, for the purpose of co-operating in the hostilities then in force against the Burmese. On 21 and 24 Sept. 1824 we accordingly find him (the Arachne having reached Rangoon on 15 of that month) assuming command of a division of gun-vessels and row-boats, and assisting at the destruction of eight stockades, on the Panlang river. He subsequently commanded the naval part of an expedition, consisting of six gun-vessels, one mortar-boat, seven row-gun-boats, and an armed transport, sent to cooperate with a small body of troops under Lieut Colonel Henry Godwin in the reduction of the city of Martaban. After the destruction had been ac-
- ↑ Sir R. G. Keats was born 16 Jan. 1757, and entered the Navy 25 Nov. 1780, on borad the Bellona 74, Capt, John Montagu. He served, at the commencement of the American war, at the burning of Norfolk, in an attack upon Hampton, Virginia, and at the capture of New York, Fort Washington, and Rhode Island. As a Lieutenant, a rank he acquired in 1777, he was on board the Ramillies in the action between Keppel and D’Orvilliers 27 July, 1778, also at the defeat of Don Juan de Langara 16 Jan. 1780, and at the ensuing relief of Gibraltar. In Jan. 1782, as a reward for the skilful manner in which he had conducted the naval part of an expedition against the enemy’s small craft at New Brunswick, he was made Commander into the Rhinoceros sloop of war. In Sept. 1783, being at the time in the Bonetta, another sloop, Capt. Keats bore a conspicuous part at the capture of the French 40-gun frigate L’Aigle. Attaining Post-rank in 1789, he successively commanded, between that period and 1807, the Southampton 32, Niger 32, London 98, Galatea 36, Boadicea 38, and, for upwards of six years, the Superb 74. In the Galatea he attended the expedition to Quiberon, and participated in the capture and destruction of several of the enemy’s frigates and other vessels. He was a long time employed, in the Boadicea, in watching the port of Brest, and on 2 July, 1799, commanded part of the force under Rear-Admiral Chas..Morice Pole in an attack on a Spanish squadron in Aix Roads; and in the Superb he acquired fame in Sir James Saumarez’ action with the Franco-Spanish squadron in the Gut of Gibraltar 1 2 July, 1801; accompanied Lord Nelson to the West Indies, in 1805, in pursuit of the combined fleets; fought as Flag-Captain to Sir John Thos. Duckworth in the action otf St. Domingo 6 Feb. 1806, and was in consequence presented with a sword valued at 100 guineas; and commanded a flying squadron of line-of-battle ships in the Bay of Biscay in the early part of 1807. In Aug. 1807, having hoisted a broad pendant on board the Ganges 74, he sailed with the expedition under Admiral Gambier against Copenhagen. In Oct. of the same year he became a Rear-Admiral; and in Aug. of the following year he was the instrument, with his flag on board his old ship, the Superb, of emancipating from French thraldom the Spanish troops stationed In the Danish provinces under the Marquis de la Romana – a service for his able management of which he was created a K.B. He afterwards held the chief command in the Baltic; served in 1809 under Sir Rich. Strachan during the operations against Walcheren; assumed charge, in 1810, of the squadron employed at the defence of Cadiz; became second in command, in 1811 , of the fleet in the Mediterranean; and enjoyed, from 1813 until 1816, the government and command at Newfoundland. Sir Rich. Keats, who had been appointed to a Colonelcy in the Royal Marines in Nov. 1805, and promoted to the rank of Vice-Admiral in 1810, was nominated Major-General of Marines in 1818, and made a full Admiral in 1825. From 1821 until the period of his death, which took place 5 April, 1834, he held the Governorship of Greenwich Hospital. He died an Admiral of the White.
- ↑ Vide Gaz. 1813, p. 772.
