[Family knowledge and information kindly supplied by the authorities at the India Office and the registrar of the university of Cambridge.]
KEEPE, HENRY (1652–1688), antiquary, born in Feuter (now Fetter) Lane, in the parish of St. Dunstan-in-the-West, London, in 1652, was the son of Charles Keepe, who served as a cornet in Sir W. Courtney's regiment of cavalry during the whole of the civil wars, and was afterwards employed in the exchequer office. Henry entered New Inn, Oxford, as a gentleman-commoner in Midsummer term 1668. Leaving the university without a degree, he returned to London and studied law in the Inner Temple. For eighteen years he belonged to the choir of the abbey church of St. Peter, Westminster. He died at his lodgings in Carter Lane, near St. Paul's, at the end of May 1688, and was buried in the church of St. Gregory adjoining the cathedral. ‘This person,’ says Wood, ‘had changed his name with his religion for that of Rome, in the reign of King James II, his lodgings also several times, and died, as I have heard, but in a mean condition.’ Keepe's last publication appeared under the pseudonym of Charles Taylour.
His works are:
- ‘Monumenta Westmonasteriensia; or an Historical Account of … the Abbey-Church of Westminster,’ London, 1682, 8vo. Dedicated to the Earl of Arundel. Keepe projected a splendid edition of this work, with copperplate engravings, on the plan of Dugdale's ‘St. Paul's,’ and he issued a printed prospectus to solicit subscriptions, but failing to obtain sufficient encouragement, he abandoned the design.
- ‘The Genealogies of the high-born Prince and Princess George and Anne of Denmark,’ London, 1684, 12mo. Dedicated to the Princess Anne.
- ‘A true and perfect Narrative of the strange and unexpected Finding of the Crucifix and Gold Chain of that pious Prince S. Edward, the King and Confessor, which was found after 620 years' interment. By Charles Taylour, Gent.,’ London, 1688, 4to.
- A manuscript account of the city of York, begun about 1684, containing a minute description, in correct terms of blazon, of the coats of arms in the churches. Francis Drake, in his ‘Eboracum’ (1736), acknowledges heraldical assistance from Keepe's collections.
[Brayley's Hist. of the Abbey Church of Westminster, p. 71; Dodd's Church Hist. iii. 463; Gillow's Bibl. Dict.; Gough's Brit. Topogr. i. 762, ii. 423; Jones's Popery Tracts, No. 349; Lowndes's Bibl. Man. (Bohn), pp. 1256, 2600; Moule's Bibl. Heraldica, p. 222; Willis's Current Notes, 1853, p. 81; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), iv. 238.]
KEEPER, JOHN (fl. 1574), poet. [See Keper.]
KEIGHTLEY, THOMAS (1650?–1719), Irish official, was son of William Keightley (b. 1621) of Hertingfordbury, Hertfordshire, by his wife Anne, daughter of John Williams of London, whom he married in 1648 (Chester, Marriage Licenses, ed. Foster, p. 783). His paternal grandfather, Thomas Keightley, born at Kinver, Staffordshire, 28 March 1580, purchased the estate of Hertingfordbury before 1643, when Evelyn the diarist visited him there (Diary, i. 39), and he was sheriff of Hertfordshire in 1651. He may be the Thomas Keightley, merchant, of London, who sat as M.P. for Beeralston in the parliament of 1620–1. He died in London on 22 Feb. 1662–3, and was buried in Hertingfordbury Church. He married Rose (1596–1683), daughter of Thomas Evelyn of Ditton, Surrey. This lady was a first cousin of John Evelyn the diarist, and is described by him as possessing unusual sprightliness and comeliness when 86 years old (ib. ii. 380–1).
Thomas Keightley, the grandson, was appointed gentleman-usher to James, duke of York, on 2 June 1672 (Hist. MSS. Comm. 8th Rep. App. i. 280b), and on 9 July 1675 married Frances, youngest daughter of Edward Hyde, the first earl of Clarendon, and sister of the Duke of York's first wife. Keightley appears to have temporarily adopted Roman catholicism, the religion of his master. Soon after his marriage he sold his property at Hertingfordbury, and migrated to Ireland. On the appointment of his brother-in-law, Henry Hyde, second earl of Clarendon [q. v.], to the lord-lieutenancy in the autumn of 1685, Keightley was admitted into the most intimate relations with the Irish government. He was appointed vice-treasurer of Ireland early in 1686 (Clarendon, Diary and Correspondence, i. 229, 259, 275, 277), and in July following was sent to London by Clarendon, nominally to attend to his private affairs, but really to keep Clarendon's brother, Rochester, posted up in Irish matters, and to maintain Clarendon's influence at court. ‘His integrity and great concern for you and me,’ Clarendon wrote to his brother, ‘is not to be questioned in the least. … He is a man of very good sense, and of an excellent understanding.’ Keightley seems to have stayed in London throughout James II's reign, but Clarendon's efforts to induce the king to give his brother-in-law a high place in the Irish government failed. When James II fled from Whitehall at the approach of William of Orange (December 1688), Keightley was sent by Clarendon to the fugitive king at Rochester to entreat him to stay in England. James II
